Thanksgiving Traffic Secrets

Thanksgiving traffic secrets: New data reveals strategies for dodging the road mess

Houston traffic Galleria area traffic jam

Thanksgiving week means terrible road congestion, although Google Maps' data can help you avoid the worst of Houston's traffic.

Local.AllState.com

Thanksgiving can be an extremely frustrating holiday if you aren't prepared, and that includes everything from roasting the turkey to the horrendous traffic you experience on your way to see your loved ones. According to new data from Google Maps, Houston experiences the seventh highest increase in traffic during Thanksgiving week.

For its findings, Google Maps looked at traffic information for 21 cities across the United States from 2012 to 2013 to reveal traffic insights and top tips for avoiding traffic. Data was taken from the Monday before Thanksgiving to the Sunday after.

Data indicated the absolute worst time for traffic was from 1 to 5 p.m. on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving.

With so many people traveling in and out of the city, it should come as no surprise that data indicated the absolute worst time for traffic was from 1 to 5 p.m. on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. If you have to drive somewhere that Wednesday, Google suggests leaving before 12 p.m. or after 6 p.m. to beat the worst of it, helping save your sanity at least a bit.

While Wednesday may be a horrific traffic day, Turkey Day itself actually has very little road congestion, although Google does suggest staying off the road from 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. to avoid light traffic.

Heading back home over the weekend? Well, if you're planning to head out on Saturday, data indicates you should probably stick around an extra day to avoid the worst of the post-Thanksgiving traffic.

According to Google Maps, traffic is 22 percent worse on Saturday than on Sunday, so tear into some leftovers and hang out with family for an extra day to avoid the worst of it.

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Thanks, Queen Bey

Pop icon Beyoncé donates $100,000 to University of Houston Law School

Photo by Erza Shaw Getty Images

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Pop megastar Beyoncé Knowles-Carter has donated $100,000 to the University of Houston Law Center Criminal Justice Clinic through her BeyGOOD Foundation. The gift will allow the clinic to hire fill-time faculty to head it, benefiting the students who study there.

“I am delighted that the BeyGOOD Foundation has made this very generous gift to the UH Law Center,” said Leonard Baynes, dean of the UH Law Center. “Not only will this funding help establish a full-time criminal justice clinic that provides pro bono legal services in our community, but it will also supercharge our already excellent criminal law and justice programming.”

The clinic is one of nine at UHLC. It helps students learn to navigate the criminal justice system, especially on behalf of clients that are underserved by skilled attorneys. People of color are affected disproportionately by a lack of good, ethical representation.

Beyoncé, the most decorated artist in Grammy history and easily the biggest musical star native to Houston, has a long history of advocating for criminal justice reform. She was a staunch supporter of the police reform following the deaths of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, asking law enforcement to “stop killing us” in a web post. In 2020, she penned an open letter to the Kentucky attorney general asking for justice in the death of Breonna Taylor.

Through her BeyGOOD Foundation, established in 2013, Beyoncé has focused mostly on expanding the prospects of Black-owned business and offering education opportunities to students. Forwarding the cause of legal representation in Texas while also helping out marginalized communities compliments her other philanthropic work.

“At UH Law, we envision a legal profession where ‘everyone has the opportunity to prosper,’ as BeyGOOD envisions, and we will achieve this vision by providing access to strong and effective legal representation in criminal proceedings,” Baynes said. “And together, through this gift, the BeyGOOD Foundation and UHLC will shepherd the next generation of criminal justice attorneys in the city of Houston, the state of Texas and the nation.”