Driving down - would you go 100 miles out of your way to avoid traffic?

[Anal Annie]

We'll be driving down starting next Fri. evening. We live in the northern DC suburbs. It's only our 2nd time driving in recent times and I was thinking maybe we should consider an alternate route to avoid the DC beltway / I-95 South during Friday evening rush hour traffic. We COULD go north west up to Hagerstown, MD and take I-81 South. That's a heavily traveled truck route which is always a little nerve wracking to be surrounded by all those big rigs. I always feel like I'm about to be mowed over. I looked at the route on Mapquest a few days ago. It's about a 100 miles further to go that way and easily 60-90 minutes longer with "normal" traffic. But it seems like we've always gotten stuck on the I-95 corridor to Richmond whenever we've tried to go anywhere in that direction before so I was wondering if it might actually work out to be faster?!

Has anybody else done this? Do you think in the end it would be a time saver? Or should we just stick to the tried & true and suck it up around the beltway / I-95 until we can get past Richmond?? We don't have a set time that we're heading out - just whenever DH can get home from work that afternoon and we can get his car loaded up. It could be 3:00 or it could be 6:00. Thoughts??

 

[Brian Noble]

I'd make the call based on when you are leaving, using something like Waze to plan the route. But, a summer time drive is likely to have backups no matter what route you take, whether traffic or construction.

 

[DisneyRegulars]

Have you ever used the google maps ap with traffic information? I would plug in both routes at the time you are leaving, and see which way is faster at that time. If they are within twenty minutes of each other, choose the one that will give you less stress.

 

[han22735]

I agree with the PP as Google owns Waze they have built in real time traffic updates from people already on the road.

 

[dgaston]

We used to drive from CT and ALWAYS took the 1-81 route. I've been stuck in DC traffic at 3 am !?! You can swing back to I-95 at Richmond or later on in NC. You can always check out the threads on the Transportation Board too. Plus the NC rest stops are beautiful.

 

[Anal Annie]

Uggg. I'm too much of a planner to wait until that day to figure out which route!! I was going to try to get a little research done on a couple of hotel options along the way - figuring we'd drive as far as we could & stop around 11:00 - then get up at 6 or 6:30 am to head back out (thinking most Hampton Inn type places probably start the breakfast buffets around 7:00). But my research time is limited between now & then - I will be lucky to get us packed by Friday! Maybe I'll plug it in tomorrow at like 4 or 5:00 & see what it says just to see the difference during a Friday rush.

I think the route I looked at had us not even returning to I-95 until sometime in SC. It's just hard to think about going 100 miles out of our way ON PURPOSE! Guess I should run the idea past DH….

 

[GrumpySue]

We drive from New York every year and we ALWAYS go that route, its about an hour more but soooooo much better. It's a nice road with beautiful scenery and nothing like the Beltway which can be nerve wracking to say the least. Just do it, you will not be sorry.

 

[dgaston]

Yes the route that takes you through NC and back onto I-95 in SC really is beautiful and not that bad with the trucks, but then the trucks don't bother me as much as they seem to bother you. I have even driven this route towing a pop-up trailer to the Fort Wilderness Campground pre-DVC.

I-81 to I-77 to I-26 to I-95

 

[Anchored]

I would do anything to avoid DC traffic lol

 

[kirstenb1]

Agree with Anchored. We live outside Richmond, and the few times we've been to Nova, OMG!!! I'd rather have a sure bet, even with more time. We have a back way we take to the beach in summer. Adds a little time but beats the HRBT everytime.

 

[Anal Annie]

I have been monitoring both routes this afternoon (refreshing my mapquest tab every so often as rush hour gets going). The "normal" I-95 beltway route has gone from 13 hours; 16 min. @ 11:45 am to 13 hours 57 min. @ 5:08. The alternate route (I-81 to I-77 to I-26 to I-95) has gone from 14 hours; 42 min. to 15.0 hours over the same time period. Wondering how accurate that timing is? I HATE to add another hour….but sitting in traffic IS frustrating and I have no desire to get stuck on the beltway for a long time. We had a dreadful experience on it a few months ago. Our DS had a swim meet around the beltway in Alexandria - we had to BE there by 6:30 am for warm-ups. It started snowing there around 10:00 or so. Came out to leave around 11:00 or 11:30 to a light coating of snow THERE but it had started snowing much earlier up where we live in MD and we ended up getting about a foot while they still only got a few inches there. Anyway, it took us nearly 4 hours to go the 38 or 39 miles to home. It was a MESS. I know we don't have to worry about snow now but it's still a bad memory….. Even going up to I-81 we will have outbound northern traffic if we leave too close to rush hour.

Hopefully DH can get home from work by 2:00ish so we can head out ASAP.

Anybody have any places they like to stop at over night on the I-77 route??

 

[DVC96]

I am just off 95 in nova - off the 160 exit. Do you have an EZpass? If so, I would use that for sure. Can you leave a little earlier or later? It always slows down at my exit in the regular lanes during rush hour because it goes from 4 lanes to 3. If you can use the HOT lanes you will avoid that. We always drive down (2x/year for the last 20 something years) and always take 95. Last time we left around 1 pm and had smooth sailing. Wishing the same for you!

 

[mac_tlc]

I've done the drive from CT a dozen times. Have considered I-81 to I-77 to I-26, but never done it. Typically on the way down we are not going through any of the northeast nightmares at rush hour. On the return, I'm too eager to get home to intentionally go 150 miles more.

mac_tlc

 

[karrit2000]

Having just done the I-95 route last month from NY I vote for AVOID IT! I had originally planned to take the route through the peninsula in Delaware and Maryland through the Chesapeake Bay Bridge & Tunnel and I'm still regreting having stayed on I-95.

 

[Dictator]

have you tried taking 301 on the east side of 495 all the way down to richmond?

 

[Anchored]

Having just done the I-95 route last month from NY I vote for AVOID IT! I had originally planned to take the route through the peninsula in Delaware and Maryland through the Chesapeake Bay Bridge & Tunnel and I'm still regreting having stayed on I-95.

Chesapeake Tunnel is an excellent alternate route IMO

 

[Anal Annie]

have you tried taking 301 on the east side of 495 all the way down to richmond?

No - we live in upper Montgomery Co. so it would be very awkward (geographically) for us to go all the way over to 301 just to head south. I just tried looking at that route on map quest - we could take the ICC (200) which is a really nice easy breezy toll road over to I-95 but then we'd have to get from I-95 to 301. It is a few less miles in total but works out to almost the same amount of time as it would be for us to go to the I-81 route. (We have a neighbor from the Richmond area and he just uses I-95 I think.) We do have a regular Easy Pass but I think the Express Lanes on the NoVA beltway require something called and Easy Pass Flex to use those HOT lanes.

 

[DVC96]

You can use a regular EZ Pass on the 95 express lanes but you will pay the toll even if you have 3 or more in the car. The flex EZ Pass allows you to switch between HOV and HOT. If you have 3 or more in the car and your pass is in hov mode, you don't pay a toll. During rush hour the tolls can be quite high but often well worth it if you are in a hurry.

 

[Anal Annie]

You can use a regular EZ Pass on the 95 express lanes but you will pay the toll even if you have 3 or more in the car. The flex EZ Pass allows you to switch between HOV and HOT. If you have 3 or more in the car and your pass is in hov mode, you don't pay a toll. During rush hour the tolls can be quite high but often well worth it if you are in a hurry.

OH, OK. Thanks. Any idea how much a one-way ride might cost (max)? I know the lanes really aren't THAT long are they but the tolls vary based on traffic, right? I know the tolls on the ICC are ridiculously high - but worth every penny if you need to get to I-95 from upper Mo. Co. at a peak time…we use it to get to Laurel for swim meets so we can avoid the beltway altogether….

I was just thinking about the last time we drove (2 years ago) when we came home. We hit night-time road construction on I-95 just before the beltway….down to 1 and 2 lanes. Easily added another hour to when we finally got home.

 

[mickeymom629]

When we've driven from MD (many, many times!), we go I-95, but we get up and leave at 3 a.m.

I vote for going to bed early and getting up very early on Saturday morning.