The Fourth of July isn’t until Sunday, but the holiday weekend kicked off Thursday for many New Jersey residents.

AAA says that 1.27 million New Jerseyans will travel this holiday weekend – mostly by car. It is more traffic than many people are used to since the pandemic, so patience will be important. There will be about 36% more cars on the road than there were last year.

“People were not driving, so there was no traffic on our roadways. People did not travel,” says Tracy Noble, with AAA Mid Atlantic. “We saw very low [gas] prices last summer. That’s not the case this summer.”

Gas prices are up six cents from last week. But it isn’t stopping families from going away for the holiday.

“People have been cooped up for over a year. They are ready to get out there and they are ready to have that summer vacation, so they will be hitting the roads,” Noble says.

The surge in traffic combined with a tanker truck driver shortage has caused a new problem nationwide. Some gas stations are missing deliveries and running out of fuel. This has not been a problem in New Jersey so far, but it is certainly something to keep an eye on – especially for those traveling outside of the Garden State.

“Keep in mind, those outages are only lasting 12, 24, 48 hours and it’s not at every station. So, if one station doesn’t have fuel, it doesn’t mean the next station a mile away will also be out,” says Noble.

AAA expects the busiest travel times to be Thursday and Friday evenings, with some rollover into Saturday morning. Travelers are urged to check traffic reports before leaving.

Monday will also see heavy traffic as everyone returns from their trips.