More than 2.6 million Michiganders are expected to travel at least 50 miles during the Fourth of July travel period, a record projection for Independence Travel in Michigan. More than two million of those travelers are expected to drive, keeping the holiday movement centered on the roads from Saturday, June 27, through Sunday, July 5.

The scale is enough to make this one of the busiest holiday stretches in the state, and AAA says the total is up 1 percent from last year. Nationally, 72.2 million people are expected to travel at least 50 miles during the same period, showing that the rush is not limited to Michigan.

Debbie Haas said many families treat Independence Day travel as a tradition, and her point helps explain why the numbers stay high even when the trip itself may be expensive or inconvenient. She said vacations remain one category where consumers are still willing to spend, even if that means cutting back somewhere else, and that extended holiday travel tends to keep roads busy while demand stays steady across flights and cruises as well.

That steady demand is arriving at a moment when gas prices are hard to pin down. Michigan drivers were paying an average of $4.15 per gallon on Wednesday, July 17, 98 cents more than a year earlier, but it is still too early to know where prices will land during the holiday period because of recent volatility and the War in Iran. For families deciding whether to go, that uncertainty may matter as much as the calendar.

AAA is urging travelers to leave before noon on most days if they can, and before 11 a.m. on Friday, July 3, when congestion is likely to be heaviest. For many Michiganders, the holiday break is no longer just a getaway. It is a timing problem, a budget question and, this year, a test of how much traffic the state can absorb before the first barbecue even starts.