Thanksgiving holiday travel rush underway in Bay Area

OAKLAND (KTVU & AP) — Bay Area travelers took to the roads and skies Wednesday, expected to be one of the busiest travel days of the year as people rushed to their destination ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday.

A pre-dawn fatal accident on Highway 880 in the Hayward area slowed the morning rush for commuters headed into work and for motorists trying to get a jump on holiday travel.

California Highway Patrol officials said all northbound lanes of Interstate Highway 880 in Hayward were open again around 8:30 a.m. after troopers cleared a fatal pedestrian collision from the highway.

The lanes reopened on the 880 just south of the West Tennyson Road off-ramp. The collision was reported at about 5:45 a.m. Officers issued a Sig-alert just after 6 a.m. when they blocked all northbound lanes on Highway 880 at Industrial Parkway West. Traffic was diverted off to Whipple Road. 

No major delays were reported at the Bay Area airports in San Francisco, Oakland or San Jose although lines were said to be fairly steady.

Americans hit the roads for what's expected to be the busiest Thanksgiving travel day in almost a decade, spurred by low gas prices and an improving economy. Here are some of the numbers:

• 48.7 million Americans are expected to travel 50 miles or more from home between Wednesday and Sunday. That is an increase of 1 million over last year, and the most since 2007, spokeswoman Julie Hall said. 
• More than 89 percent of holiday travelers will drive. As of Wednesday, the average price nationally for a gallon of gas was $2.13. That's the second-lowest price since 2008, when the average was $1.85.
• Almost 3.7 million people were expected to fly over the holiday, an increase of 1.6 percent from 2015. 
• Amtrak expects more than 750,000 passengers will travel by train over the holiday, surpassing last year. Sunday is the busiest day as people return home in time for work and school, spokesman Marc Magliari said.

For Bay Area travelers making their way into the Sierra, a series of storms could make for hazardous travel off-and-on into the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, with several inches of snow expected around Lake Tahoe and a mix of snow and mostly rain in the Reno area.

The first of the storms was expected to arrive Tuesday night into Wednesday morning. As much as 8 inches of snow is possible in the mountains above Lake Tahoe and up to 5 inches at lake level by Wednesday.

Forecasters say Thanksgiving Day itself may be the best day for travel with sunny skies and mild conditions.

The second storm is expected to move into the Sierra late Friday, and another one is possible as a colder system arrives on Sunday.

The National Weather Service issued a winter weather advisory through Wednesday morning for the Lake Tahoe area, including Stateline and Incline Village in Nevada and Truckee and South Lake Tahoe, California.

"It's a weak to moderate winter storm, but it's definitely going to cause heavy traffic delays," service meteorologist Scott McGuire told the Reno Gazette-Journal.

The series of storms will make their way across the state from west to east as the week progresses, and could slow travel in parts of north-central and northeast Nevada as well on U.S. Interstate 80 and U.S. Highways 95, 93, 50 and 6, the service said.

"While none of these will be powerful or have much in the way of snow accumulation, they produce small amounts of snow, often very slushy," the weather service said Tuesday in a statement out of Elko. "Being prepared for snowy travel is a good idea. Having a 'Plan B' just in case is smart."

The system is tracking further north than originally expected, so it should not affect southern Nevada, including the greater Las Vegas area, the service said.

"A generally dry weather pattern with near average temperatures can be expected across the Mojave Desert and southern Great Basin this week," the service said in Las Vegas.