If you're hitting the road Thursday, whether you're going to work or out of town for Christmas vacation, you'll have more company than usual.
AAA reports one third of Americans will be traveling this holiday season. A lot of them are driving, and a lot of them are leaving Thursday.
It's expected to be the busiest day for driving nationwide, with millions of drivers flooding the interstates.
That's according to global transport company, INRIX.
But your phone could help alleviate some of that annoyance you're anticipating thanks to a navigation app.
"They use all these complex algorithms to figure out, based on traffic, the best route," said Paul Sponcia, CEO of The IT Company in Knoxville.
He said following a traffic app on your phone can make a big difference.
We looked at the four most popular navigation apps: Google Maps, Apple Maps, Waze and Inrix.
They all give you multiple options for starting a drive.
"If you pull up Google Maps or Apple Maps and you put a location in you want to go to, it'll show you multiple routes and say this one is one minute longer," said Sponcia.
That's pretty standard for all these apps. Plus, they'll all tell you when a road block is coming up.
But Waze and INRIX let you report things like accidents and police sightings so other users know what to watch out for.
"Because a lot of people use it and it's tracking where they're at from a GPS perspective, it knows how fast people are going," said Sponcia.
Waze will do whatever it takes to avoid traffic, even changing your route while you drive if necessary. But a lot of that help is user generated, so it's not as helpful in rural areas.
Inrix will show you a projected travel time if you want to schedule it ahead of time, but sometimes it's not giving you the fastest routes.
Google Maps and Apple Maps don't crowd source, so you're missing some helpful warnings.
If you don't want to download a new app, your built-in phone app will still get the job done.
Waze is Sponcia's top pick for Thursday's bad traffic, but all these apps have their perks. The choice is up to you.
"You can rely on them," said Sponcia. "They're gonna take you to the right place."