Google Maps releases traffic and search trends during Thanksgiving holiday

Every year thousands of New Yorkers will travel in, out and around New York for the Thanksgiving holiday. Of course, this means there are usually major traffic jams.

On Tuesday, the people over at Google released data to show holiday traffic trends in New York.

If you’re planning to travel on Thanksgiving Day, be prepared to expect the heaviest traffic between 2 p.m. and 3 p.m. If possible, try to start traveling on Tuesday and Wednesday early in the day or after the p.m. rush.

The annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade will also provide New Yorkers with an additional set of traffic woes in the city, so it’s always advised to use public transportation if you plan on staying in town.

According to Google the worst time for Thanksgiving traffic problems are on Wednesday between 4 p.m. and 5 p.m. When travelling back to New York, traffic patterns reveal that you have an 8 percent better chance of avoiding serious traffic problems if you travel back on Sunday instead of Saturday.

Search trends

New Yorkers seem to search for a variety of things the day before Thanksgiving. The top searches in Google Maps on the day before Turkey Day were: butcher shop, Natural History Museum and seafood markets. According to Google, New York was the only city that had seafood make the rankings on a day that’s mostly known for turkey and ham. Due to high volumes of traffic around Thanksgiving, “tunnel traffic” was ranked second in Google Maps searches because many people will be traveling by car that day.

On Black Friday, New York ranks high when it comes to searches for electronics and computer items. Among other popular searches were: Chinese restaurants, ice skating rinks, movie theaters and tattoo shops.

To learn more interesting findings about Google trends during the holiday, click here.

Google also included traffic tips and search trends from other major cities. Check out the map below to find data taken from around the country.