Daily Herald editorial

For Austin area residents who plan to take to the road (or the skies) this week, or who have friends or relatives traveling to this area, the news is good: Forecasts are for a mild, dry holiday week. That does not, however, mean that it won’t be an unusually hazardous time to be traveling the nation’s highways.

Thanksgiving tends to cause travel problems, because so many people are rushing somewhere on Wednesday, and rushing back wherever they came from on Sunday. Often enough, bad weather makes crowded roads particularly dangerous. This year, reports are that Tuesday will be the new Wednesday, with many people traveling on Tuesday to avoid the Wednesday rush. That may make the going a little easier before Thanksgiving, but will do nothing to make things easier on Sunday.

Regardless of the prevailing patterns, the holiday week — any holiday week — is a time for motorists to be particularly careful. There will be a lot of tired, anxious drivers on the road, with all the bad behaviors those two conditions tend to cause.

There may be no few, as well, who have fueled their trips with holiday spirits.

There’s no point in advising people to avoid driving tired or drunk. Those conditions, by their nature, lead to bad judgment. It is worth noting, however, that the next few days will be a great time to, as the old saying goes, “watch out for the other guy.”