Tag: Travel

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Airport Expects More Than 100,000 During Independence Day Season

Credit: Memphis International Airport

Imagine if nearly every single resident of Bartlett and Collierville decided to go the airport in the same two weeks.

That’s what officials expect for Memphis International Airport (MEM) during this Independence Day travel season. The Transportation Safety Adminstration (TSA) expects more than 101,000 people will fly through MEM between June 27 and July 8 this year. (The combined populations of Bartlett and Collierville are slightly above that figure, at around 109,000, according to Municipal Technical Advisory Service.)

More than 10,500 travelers passed through TSA security lines on Thursday, June 27, TSA said. It was expected to be the peak travel day in the holiday season. Wednesday and Sunday are expected to see the next-highest volume of travelers. 

With all of this, MEM officials recommend that: 

• Travelers arrive at the airport a minimum of two hours before their scheduled flight time.

• Prior to coming to the airport, passengers save time by checking in online via their airline’s website.

• Passengers should check directly with their airlines to monitor schedules.

• Airlines — not the airport — are responsible for all aspects of ticketing, scheduling, gate operations, and baggage handling. Check with your airline if you have questions about these subjects.

• MEM parking lots are likely to reach capacity during peak travel days. When this occurs, additional signage will be added, and additional parking staff will help direct drivers to available parking spots.

• For convenience, drivers parking in the blue or yellow lots may want to drop off luggage and other passengers at the terminal before parking.

• Shuttles are operating between the blue and yellow parking lots and the terminal.  

Categories
Opinion The Last Word

Traveling Miss America

A bunch of Americans, not in America (Photo: Courtesy Izzy Wollfarth)

There’s nothing more humbling than being an American in a country that is not America. This summer I traveled to London where I stayed for a month and then for 10 days after, I traveled to Switzerland, Milan, Paris, Amsterdam, Rome, Florence, and Venice. My travels lasted for about five weeks but gave me enough knowledge to last a lifetime. I first realized my Americanness when I was in London standing on the Tube — the subway equivalent for you American folk. Me and my friends were all laughing about something hilarious. Amidst the heavy laughter, I stopped and looked around. We were the loudest voices on the Tube. The babies around us had not even touched the sound decibels we had reached. Another incident like this was on July 4th. Of course, on this day, I was in London. Even though we talked loudly and there were about 30 of us in a pack, I thought my friends and I were good at flying under the radar. I put myself in the shoes of a local and thought, “Ah, yes, it’s just another normal day for us Londoners.” This ended rather quickly when someone on the street wished us a “Happy Independence Day.” Rats. I would never fit in here.

When venturing to Paris, I had a big ego. I have been taking French since middle school, almost 10 years now. I had always told my relatives that I was fluent in French and most certainly could hold any conversation. On our train ride from Amsterdam to Paris, I voiced in my head how to order different meals at restaurants. I even practiced scenarios where I negotiated prices at markets and shops. No matter how out of place I might look — I never went anywhere without my fanny pack — or feel, I would blend in easily. Only being in Paris for a day or two, there were slim opportunities to use my French. It’s like everybody knew we were Americans. It was like when you finally turn 21 and the bartender doesn’t even ask to see your ID. They always know. On our final day in Paris, me and my travel buddy set off to the train station. Our next destination was Zurich, Switzerland. In a final feeble attempt, I stopped at a nearby café. With rising fear and anxiety, I approached a sweaty and overwhelmed French man behind the bar. “Je voudrais un pain au chocolat et — ” cut off, in a thick French accent. “Please, order in English, it’s easier.” Ah! The utter shame. What a stupid American I am!

For the rest of the trip, I was even more aware of my American identity. On our train ride from Basel to Zurich, we sat across a Swiss man and a Parisienne man — this is not an assumption, but a fact gathered from extensive eavesdropping. After a full day of traveling and lugging two 40-pound suitcases upstairs, I was a little delusional and big-mouthed. My introductory question to the Parisienne man was, “Do people from Paris hate Americans?” The man laughed. The answer was obvious under his wide smile and averted eyes. In the corner of my eye, I saw a woman snickering at our conversation. Oh, I had forgotten that I was the loudest person on the train. After some moments, the Parisienne man looked at me and said, “I can’t speak for all French people, but I think you are okay.” Even though this was a basic and almost expected answer, it lifted my heart.

This whole trip, I had been gleefully assuming that I was a nuisance to the countries I was entering. I had been hyper aware of myself as an American and I didn’t like it. But it’s not about me, is it? I had entered these countries and aside from the customs officers, no one had invited me to enter these places. Entering these countries was a self-commitment to be present in different cultures and respectful of the spaces around me. The people on the Tube didn’t tell us to quiet down; they just put in their headphones and probably prayed for us to shut up. These men on the train had no concern about where we were from; instead, they met us with smiles and laughter. Considering the French man behind the counter, maybe my French pronunciation was just hard to understand, and he wasn’t in the mood to be patient. We are all different. Sometimes in more ways than not. What makes us different makes our conversations more interesting and the journey to understanding more fruitful. You’re not a dumb American. You’re someone on their journey to understanding. You’re working to understand the cultures and customs that are different from yours yet beautiful in their own ways. Maybe, a quiet Tube ride is what most people need in the mornings. Noted.

Izzy Wollfarth is a Rhodes College student and intern at Contemporary Media, Inc.

Categories
At Large Opinion

The View from Spain

(Photo: Bruce VanWyngarden) The village of Siguenza

From the airplane window at 15,000 feet on this sunny August morning, Spain is all shades of brown, skirls of scrubby vegetation and trees on the hilltops, open beige-and-yellow fields on the plains. (Where the rains in Spain fall, mainly, I’ve heard.) We are descending into Madrid on the first day of a 12-day vacation that will take us to places in this country where neither my wife Tatine nor I have ever been.

Madrid is not on the agenda for this trip, except for the airport and Hertz office, where we’re assigned a Lynk & Co SUV, which we’re told is a Chinese/Volvo hybrid. Whatever. It works and rides nicely. And soon we’re off to the country home of Tatine’s sister, a couple hundred miles away, just north of Valencia, near the Mediterranean. Siri gets us to A-3, the main highway south, and we’re off.


Aquarium in Valencia (Photo: Bruce VanWyngarden)

It feels like we’re driving through West Texas, except with no billboards to distract from the rolling vistas of dry mountains and green valleys and olive and sunflower fields. The high ground is often covered with windmills. We counted hundreds during our stay. And the south-facing slopes often feature arrays of solar panels. A high-speed train passes us as though we are standing still instead of going 120 kilometers per hour. No monster trucks, no asshole drivers, just small-to-average-sized vehicles zipping along on a perfectly maintained four-lane highway. Did I mention there were no billboards?

Tatine’s sister’s house is set on a couple of acres filled with fruit and olive trees. They have a big garden and chickens for eggs, and the house is cooled and heated with solar power. They are not field hippies, just ordinary people living comfortably in ways that preserve energy costs and help the environment. It’s a way of life here, not a political statement.

Valencia, 20 miles south, has a population of 800,000 or so. The murder rate averages six to eight people a year. In similarly sized Memphis, we had more than 340 murders last year, more than in the entire country of Spain. These are difficult things to justify or explain. But nobody walks into a super-mercado carrying a gun, so there’s that.

The village of Chullila (Photo: Bruce VanWyngarden)

I don’t have space in this column to recount all of our further adventures driving around Spain. It was something of a family reunion, with grandchildren showing up from Brooklyn and Tatine’s mother coming over from a nearby village. We managed, in various combinations, to visit some spectacular mountainous country with ancient villages where many of the buildings were erected in the 11th century and where there were cathedrals with Moorish influences from 1,000 years ago. It was a life-affirming, eye-opening visit. Returning to the U.S. after a couple weeks in a country where there is literally no litter, where there are no vile accusations and blatant lies muddying the daily political discourse on television, where people of all races appear to live in harmony, was something of a shock.

No unbiased observer dropping into Memphis (or Nashville or Atlanta or any major American city, to be honest) and spending a few days would have a problem identifying which country was more civilized, more advanced, more livable, less polluted, less worrisome to visit.

We have made a mess of things in the United States, created a political logjam — in our states and in Washington, D.C. — that prevents us from being able to legislate the most logical and basic modern improvements to the country, such as an efficient high-speed rail system, or universal healthcare, or hell, just removing the prolific visual pollution of billboards from our beautiful landscape. We’re still fighting over oil prices and who’s to blame for them, while Spain (and Portugal) have moved ahead into a world where they don’t worry about the whims of a Saudi prince or Vladimir Putin buckling their economy or leaving them in the cold.

We are so far behind. We can do so much better here. Or can we? I guess that’s the question, isn’t it?

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Letter From The Editor Opinion

The Gambler

The view from Idaho (photo by Sydnie Hammer)

Last weekend, my girlfriend Sydnie and I did something we hadn’t done since the first months of 2020 — maybe since the tail end of 2019. We bought tickets. Baby-stepping our way back to events with other people, we caught a Saturday-night showing of A Quiet Place Part II. We bought a couple of local beers and some candy at the concession stand. We oohed and aahed at the remodeled theater — new seats, fresh coat of paint, transparent plexiglass dividers at the ticket booth. In a quarter-full theater, we watched a movie with other people, a communal experience that has been sorely missed. I even liked listening to people crunching popcorn. 

Then, giddy with a new sense of freedom of movement, we bought plane tickets. After more than a yearlong delay, we’ll be going to visit Syd’s family in Boise, Idaho. Of course, purchasing plane tickets requires a more significant investment of time, money, and optimism than ponying up for a pair of movie tickets, but it feels undeniably refreshing to look a few months into the future and decide that it’s not a bad bet to make plans. 

The secret to our newfound confidence is no secret at all. We’re vaccinated. We still wore masks in the theater (when we weren’t swilling Adjective Animal, that is) and we will on the plane. It just seems polite, especially when we’re interacting with theater or airline staff who have no way of knowing our vaccination status, or if we’re thorough hand-washers. Even after taking two doses in the arm, travel at this point is still a bit of a gamble. And, as the vaccine hesitant would point out, we’re choosing to gamble on the efficacy of a bit of medicine we don’t understand fully. 

But I do that every time I get on a plane, every time I drive somewhere. I understand that Bernoulli’s Principle is instrumental in achieving lift, just as I understand that my car is powered by combustion, but that’s about the limit of my comprehension. I choose to trust that the people who design these things know what they’re doing, and that they have an interest in not being wrong. Just as I believe that Moderna, Pfizer, and Johnson & Johnson want to make profits, a goal that is more easily achievable if your product works. 

That doesn’t mean I don’t believe some people have a good reason for choosing not to be vaccinated. I’m simply painting a picture of relatively guilt- and worry-free socialization. There has been no end of noise around this issue, and I hope it might do some measure of good to provide a clear-headed account of my experience. To that end, it’s been a month and a half since I got my second shot, and I’ve had no side effects to speak of. No surprise medical bill arrived at my door. My smartphone, I’m fairly certain, is the only device tracking my whereabouts and page-viewing trends. Best of all, I’m infinitely less worried about accidentally, unknowingly getting someone else sick. As far as I can tell, the risk was worthwhile and has paid off.  

As I write this, Shelby County is not even close to half-vaccinated. I hope we’ll continue to work to improve that statistic, but that’s going to require us to do something besides shame and mock our fellow citizens. I’ll also mention that requiring proof of vaccination status is nothing new — though I’ve not once been asked to prove my own. 

When we were children, my sister and I moved in with our dad, from Phoenix, Arizona, to Chester County, Tennessee, a trip of some 1,400 or so miles that meant we had to change school districts. I vividly remember my dad’s increasingly frantic attempts to secure our vaccination records before the beginning of the school year. Neither he nor my mother were really the record-keeping type, and things were not at their best between them at the time, which complicated the process somewhat. But, complicated or not, we were required to prove we wouldn’t bring disease with us to charming Chester County. And that was 20 years ago in an overwhelmingly conservative rural county. 

When it comes down to it, though, I doubt I can convince anyone to take their shot. I’m no doctor, have no degrees in epidemiology or virology. In this instance, I’m a gambler, but one who likes the odds, who’s willing to bet that good ol’ Bernoulli will keep the plane aloft … even if I’m not sure exactly how.
Jesse Davis

jesse@memphisflyer.com

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News News Blog

INFOGRAPHIC: Virus Cuts Half of Airport Thanksgiving Travel

CREDIT: Memphis International Airport

Note Board
Infogram

INFOGRAPHIC: Virus Cuts Half of Airport Thanksgiving Travel

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News News Blog

Tennessee Travel Normalizing, Especially Outside of Metros

CREDIT: Vanderbilt University

Vanderbilt University

Tennesseans, especially those outside metro areas, are returning to travel levels seen before the first case of COVID-19 arrived in the state, according to the latest analysis from researchers at Vanderbilt University.

Those researchers have been issuing public health policy papers since early April. Those papers have focused largely on the spread of the virus, predictions on the possible surge of patients in hospitals, and when the state may reopen the economy.

However, the newest paper focuses on travel. For it, the researchers relied on “anonymized cellular device data” to analyze travel habits in the state.

“Tennesseans dramatically scaled back their movements just after the first coronavirus case was reported in Tennessee and as reports of transmission more broadly in the U.S. began to emerge in early March,” reads the paper. “Moreover, the chart makes clear that mobility decreased statewide seven-10 days before the statewide Safer at Home policy was announced on March 31st.

“Finally, mobility began increasing in mid-April, and in some regions has now returned to levels last seen in February 2020. Non-metro areas of the state have seen larger increases in movement after the Safer at Home order expired on May 1st.”

Travel in the regions around Shelby County and Davidson County are the lowest in the state, according to the data. Travel in the rest of West Tennessee, south central Tennessee, and Upper Cumberland regions is now back above February levels.
Vanderbilt University

Researchers wondered if travel changes were different in areas most affected by the virus. They found travel patterns were the same before the first case arrived here in early March. But “sustained mobility differences between these areas emerged just after the first case, and differences became larger over time.”

Vanderbilt University

“Our results underscore an important point about the virus and its impact on the Tennessee economy,” reads the paper. “Mobility changes in areas with the most COVID-19 cases occurred at the same time as changes in areas least affected by the virus to date.

“However, through May 26 the most affected areas continue to see substantially lower economic activity. A top priority for the state and for Tennesseans must be suppressing the virus to avoid further and prolonged negative economic effects across the state.”

Hardest hit by lower travel numbers have been religious organizations, museums and historical sites, day care centers, doctors’ offices, and department stores. The study looked at 16 of the top commercial categories identified by the North American Industry Classification (NAIC) and compared travel to those types of businesses to 2019 levels.
Vanderbilt University

“… visits to many places across Tennessee began a steep decline just after the first COVID-19 case was announced in early March,” reads the paper. “These declines leveled out in mid-April, but visits to some types of places have recovered to the levels observed for the same week in 2019.

Vanderbilt University

“Even outside of Davidson and Shelby counties, visits to restaurants remain 20 percent below comparable amounts from the same week in 2019, while across all areas visits to churches remain 40 percent – 50 percent below their usual levels for mid-May, presumably due to limits on large gatherings.”

The Vanderbilt researchers explained the information they used came from anonymized and privacy-protected cellular device data from SafeGraph, a data analytics firm. The firm tracks 40 million smartphones, and location movements “are recorded in terms of travel among census block groups, which are geographic areas containing between 600 and 3,000 people.” The data is only collected from these census block groups, “and thus we do not track individuals’ movements across the state.”

Read the entire paper here:
[pdf-1]

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News News Blog

COVID-19: What to Know If You’re Planning to Travel.



With the ever-changing news regarding COVID-19, you may be wondering if and when you or your loved ones should travel.

As of mid-week, there are no government-mandated travel restrictions or bans within the United States. There are some actions that could indicate what may yet come, such as the “containment zone” in New Rochelle, New York, and some governmental restrictions on gatherings above a certain number. And there are businesses and organizations that are limiting travel for their personnel. The domestic situation is fluid and could change, and there are international destinations where you will be unable to go for the foreseeable future.

Memphis magazine and the Memphis Flyer asked Deenie Phelan, vice president of HR and Operations for the Travelennium travel agency, to speak to what’s going on in the travel industry and to address what people should consider if they have travel plans.

“Traveling now is a personal decision and can be made based on private information that only you possess. What is your overall health condition? If you are generally healthy and practice common sense, you stand an excellent chance of overcoming any potential colds, viruses, flu, or infection you may come in contact with, whether here at home or on a trip. Only you can determine how comfortable you are with the possibility of getting sick. Travel suppliers are taking extraordinary measures to sanitize everything you might come in contact with, so it might be safer now than ever to be in a hotel or on an airplane or cruise ship.

“If you would be considered unhealthy by medical standards or have an underlying health condition, you should probably not travel during what seems to be the height of the transmission.

“Another valid and pressing concern is regarding your time. If your trip becomes disrupted due to COVID-19, there is a real possibility that you could be detained or quarantined for a period of time — expect two weeks at the minimum. Will you be able to miss additional weeks from your job, child care, pet care, as well as any other responsibilities in your life? 

“Should you conclude that you are healthy and have the time to travel, definitely go and enjoy the lighter crowds. We highly recommend purchasing Cancel for Any Reason (CFAR) travel insurance. Also it would be wise to pack an extra few weeks of any medication with you, just in case.

“If you opt to postpone your travel plans, our best optimistic guess for the future is that this disruption in our normal lives will last through the end of May. The best and brightest medical and scientific minds are studying the virus and 90 days seems to cover the incubation and spread time being experienced in Asia before the upswing occurred.

“When the current situation subsides, know that the travel deals will be yours for the taking. Every travel supplier will be hoping to lure the public back with specials to get you in their hotels, and on their airplanes and cruises. You stand to score an unbelievable value on your travel later this year, and that is great news.

“Our approach is a positive one and should make you feel in control of the travel process.”

— Deenie Phelan

Amtrak

Amtrak is responding to COVID-19 and has announced the following:

  • The rail passenger carrier is implementing enhanced cleaning protocols and is increasing the frequency of cleaning service on its trains and stations.
  • There will be additional antibacterial products such as sanitizers and disinfectant wipes on trains and at stations.
  • There will be no change fees on bookings made through April 30, 2020, allowing for riders to have flexibility in changing plans.

Delta Airlines

Delta Airlines has responded to the outbreak by using a high-grade EPA-registered disinfectant on all flights, a new fogging process used by the food industry, state-of-the-art air circulation systems, more hand sanitizer, more gloves for flight attendants, and additional sanitation procedures for inbound catering equipment at international gateways.

The air carrier is also disinfecting airport kiosks multiple times daily, increased the cleaning schedule of gate areas, and washing and bagging blankets after each flight.

Links for more information:

The University of Tennessee Health Science Center Coronavirus Information Center

The Shelby County Health Department Coronavirus Information Website

Categories
News News Blog

Record Number to Travel in Tennessee, Nationwide This Holiday

A record number of Tennesseans are expected to travel this holiday season.

The auto group AAA predicts that 2.76 million Tennesseans will travel this year between Saturday, December 21st and Wednesday, January 1st.

That’s a 4 percent increase over last year. Nationwide, 115.6 million Americans are expected to travel during the holiday season. That’s 4.3 million more than last year and the highest travel volume since AAA began tracking the numbers 20 years ago.

“Holiday cheer is at an all-time high this year, with unemployment at historically low levels, and noted improvements in both disposable income and household net worth,” said Paula Twidale, vice president of AAA travel. “Travelers should be getting used to crowded highways and airports, as this marks the eighth straight year of new record-high travel volumes for the year-end holidays.”

Of the 2.76 million Tennesseans expected to travel over the next week, AAA anticipates 2.59 million will travel by car, 74,000 by plane, and 97,500 will take trains, buses, cruise ships, or other modes of transportation.

TDOT

The Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT) is halting all construction-related lane closures between noon on Friday (today) and 6 a.m. on Thursday, January 2nd.

“With 2.59 million motorists expected to travel Tennessee roadways during the Christmas and New Year’s holidays, keeping traffic moving and getting motorists to their destinations safely is our top priority,” said TDOT Commissioner Clay Bright. “As always, please wear your seatbelt, reduce your speed, avoid distractions, and never drink and drive.”

A few long-term lane closures will still be in effect for safety reasons, and workers may still be on-site in some construction zones. TDOT reminds drivers to obey all posted speed limits, including the slower speed limits posted in construction zones.

Drivers convicted of speeding through work zones when workers are present face a fine of $250 to $500 plus court fees.

Stay up to date on Tennessee road conditions here.

Categories
News News Blog

Airport Officials Expect Heavy Thanksgiving Traffic

CREDIT: Memphis International Airport

Memphis International Airport

Memphis International Airport (MEM) is expecting more than 170,000 passengers during the Thanksgiving holiday travel season, a figure up 5 percent over last year.

The airport’s travel season began on Friday, November 22nd with nearly 9,990 passengers. Officials expect Thanksgiving travelers will continue to stream through MEM until Monday, December 2nd. With most aircraft expected to be close to 100 percent capacity, MEM is expecting this will be the busiest Thanksgiving travel period since 2007.

Expected peak days (passengers):
Friday, November 22 (9,900)
Wednesday, November 27 (9,400)
Sunday, December 1 (11,300)

Other busy days will include:
Saturday, November 30 (8,500)
Monday, December 2 (8,900)

Airport officials said the early morning hours between 4 a.m. And 7 a.m. will have the heaviest traffic but the airport will be busy all day. Airlines, airport vendors, and Transportation Security Adminstration will adjust their staffing and schedules to accommodate the increased traffic.
Memphis International Airport

Travel insurance company InsureMyTrip ranked the 75 biggest airports in America from least stressful (#1: Honolulu’s Daniel K Inouye International) to the most stressful (#75 Chicago Midway International). MEM ranked 53rd overall between Kansas City International and San Francisco International.

AAA predicts air travel will increase 4.6 percent over last year with with 4.45 million Americans expected to fly. About 40,000 Tennesseans are expect to fly this Thanksgiving, according to AAA, an increase of 3.8 percent over last year.

AAA’s flight booking data from the last three years shows that flying the Monday before the Thanksgiving travel rush has the lowest average ticket price ($486) prior to the holiday and is a lighter travel day than later in the week. Travelers can also save by traveling on Thanksgiving Day, which has the week’s lowest average price per ticket ($454).

Here are some tips from MEM for Thanksgiving passengers:
Arrive early

MEM is recommending that travelers arrive at the airport at least two hours before their departure time to ensure that they have plenty of time to park, check luggage and go through the security checkpoint.
[pullquote-1] Passengers should check frequently with their airlines to monitor schedule changes. Airlines handle all aspects of ticketing, baggage and scheduling.

Know what you can cannot bring through security

In order to expedite security screening time, passengers should double-check carry-on bags and review the Transportation Security Administration’s (TSA’s) list of prohibited items.
Memphis International Airport

A TSA display of some of the items seized by airport security (2017).

Parking
MEM’s economy, long-term and short-term parking areas may periodically reach capacity during the week.

Additional signage will be added, and additional parking staff will help direct drivers to available parking spots.

MEM is prepared to activate two overflow parking areas should the existing garages reach capacity. See the attached map for the locations of the yellow and blue overflow lots.

For convenience, passengers parking in the overflow lots are encouraged to drop off other passengers and luggage at the curb before parking.

Drivers who are waiting to pick up arriving passengers can save time by utilizing one of the more than 200 spaces in the airport’s cell phone lot, which is equipped with a flight information board and free Wi-Fi.

Categories
News News Blog

Near-Record Numbers Hitting the Road This Thanksgiving

CREDIT: TDOT

TDOT

More than 1.3 million Tennesseans will hit the road this Thanksgiving holiday in what AAA is projecting to be the second-highest Thanksgiving travel volume since the auto group began tracking in 2000.

More than 55 million Americans are expected to travel 50 miles or more away from their homes over the next few days, according to AAA’s annual report. The figure is up by 1.6 million travelers over last year and just shy of the record set in 2005.

“Millions of thankful Americans are starting the holiday season off right with a Thanksgiving getaway,” said Paula Twidale, vice president of AAA Travel. “Strong economic fundamentals are motivating Americans to venture out this holiday in near-record numbers. Consumer spending remains strong, thanks to increasing wages, disposable income, and household wealth, and travel remains one of their top priorities for the holiday season.”

In all, 49.3 million Americans will make their trips on the roads, according to AAA. In Tennessee, 1.2 million travelers will hit the road this year. With that, AAA said roads will be the worst on Wednesday.

“With record levels of travelers and persistent population growth in the country’s major metropolitan areas, drivers must prepare for major delays,” said Trevor Reed, transportation analyst at INRIX, a traffic data company. “Although travel times will peak on Wednesday afternoon nationally, travelers should expect much heavier than normal congestion throughout the week.”

AAA

Fuel prices
While fuel prices have been up and down lately, they are now slightly cheaper than the national average at the same time last year. As of Tuesday morning, Tennessee regular gas prices were about $2.30, the same as they were a year ago. Average prices in Shelby County and Memphis were $2.34 on Tuesday.

Tennessee is one of this week’s cheapest gas markets, AAA said. The nation’s top 10 least expensive markets are: Louisiana ($2.21), Mississippi ($2.22), Texas ($2.25), Missouri ($2.25), Alabama ($2.27), Oklahoma ($2.28), South Carolina ($2.28), Arkansas ($2.29), Tennessee ($2.30), and Virginia ($2.31).

AAA

No lane closure, but added law enforcement
For the busy travel holiday, the Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT) has halted all lane closures on interstates and state highways.

“This is the most traveled holiday of the year,” said TDOT Commissioner Clay Bright.  “Halting road work during this busy time will provide maximum capacity on our highways and help alleviate congestion, especially during the predicted peak travel days of Wednesday and Sunday. TDOT’s regional HELP Trucks will also be working throughout the holiday weekend to assist with incidents that may occur along the interstates.”

If you’re driving I-40, watch for Tennessee Highway Patrol troopers stationed at least every 20 miles. The Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security and TDOT have partnered with law enforcement across the state for the I-40 Challenge, with the goal of having zero fatalities on the 455 miles of I-40 in Tennessee. Troopers will be out on I-40 and expect increased law enforcement on all highways.