Thousands of New Jersey residents hit the road to travel ahead of the Fourth of July holiday.

AAA said that nearly 47 million Americans were traveling for the holiday, with 40 million of them traveling by car. The agency says that the number of traveling Americans was expected to increase by 5 percent over last year.

Traffic along the Garden State Parkway started to get heavy by late Tuesday afternoon as many people headed down to the Jersey Shore to celebrate. The traffic was also impacted by some severe thunderstorms in the area.

New Jersey State Police said that there would be an increase in troopers patrolling state roadways in order to discourage unsafe driving during the holiday.

Statewide crash fatalities are down from this time last year, according to state police.

State police will also be looking for boaters who are driving impaired.