Highway 101 backs up from SLO to Nipomo as holiday travelers hit the road

Chloe Jones
·1 min read

Headed out of town for Thanksgiving? It seems like that’s the case for a lot of people in San Luis Obispo County.

Traffic on Tuesday evening was backed up more than the usual rush hour slowdowns between San Luis Obispo and Nipomo on southbound Highway 101.

According to Caltrans’ Quickmap, traffic began at Los Osos Valley Road and continued southbound through Tefft Street as of 5 p.m.

There were no car crashes along the stretch of the highway that is backed up, the map showed.

According to data from AAA, more than 49 million travelers across the country are expected to be driving at least 50 miles during Thanksgiving weekend. That is up from the year before, according to AAA.

Meanwhile AAA predicted Wednesday would be the busiest day on the roads during the holiday travel period, with average travel times up to 80% higher than normal in some metro areas.