{"id":359216,"date":"2026-07-02T22:52:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-02T22:52:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/359216\/"},"modified":"2026-07-02T22:52:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-02T22:52:08","slug":"what-to-expect-on-texas-roads-this-fourth-of-july","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/359216\/","title":{"rendered":"What to expect on Texas roads this Fourth of July"},"content":{"rendered":"

AUSTIN, Texas \u2014 An estimated 5.7 million Texans are expected to travel for a milestone Independence Day.<\/p>\n

Daniel Armbruster, a spokesperson for AAA Texas, reports that 4.9 million of those travelers are expected to drive — that’s over 85%.<\/p>\n

Armbruster says the heaviest traffic times start this afternoon and carry into the evening. In terms of return travel, Sunday afternoon and Monday are expected to be the most congested.<\/p>\n

MORE | Travis County urges residents to celebrate Fourth of July safely amid fire, heat risks<\/a><\/p>\n

Additionally, Armbruster wants to warn drivers about frequent causes of roadside emergencies before they hit the highway.<\/p>\n

“The top roadside emergencies we saw here in Texas last 4th of July: dead batteries, flat tires, engine problems. All of those can be exacerbated by the heat, and we’re certainly seeing a very hot week here in Texas,” he said. “Heat and vibration are a battery’s worst enemy. If your battery is over three years old, you really want to trust a mechanic to inspect the battery, check the load in the battery, and make sure that it’s good.”<\/p>\n

Armbruster says dim lights and difficult turning over your car are signs that your car battery might need a quick check. He told CBS Austin that the average battery life for a car is three to five years.<\/p>\n

ALSO | APD bans personal watercraft on Lake Austin over July 4 holiday weekend<\/a><\/p>\n

Travel is only predicted is increase 0.2% from last year’s Fourth of July, but Armbruster says consumer confidence has changed significantly.<\/p>\n

Two days before the Fourth, gas prices in Austin are $3.21 on average. Although gas prices have lowered in the last month, they’re much higher than one year ago.<\/p>\n

“It’s $0.50 less than it was a month ago, but it’s $0.48 more than it was a year ago,” said Armbruster. “That’s certainly on the minds of some folks who are traveling and on a budget. We’re seeing some families where they might change how far they go, or maybe they’re not spending as much on food or on hotels, but overall, we still see a desire to travel.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AUSTIN, Texas \u2014 An estimated 5.7 million Texans are expected to travel for a milestone Independence Day. Daniel…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":359217,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133],"class_list":["post-359216","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359216","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=359216"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359216\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/359217"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=359216"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=359216"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=359216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}