Richmond Va Driving Advice

[PSUGuy]

Going south on I-95 we're near Richmond in the evening and we swing around, is it I-295?, and traffic is nil. Heading North, usually on a Sat and usually late afternoon, the last few times on I-295 we hit a big squeeze as that route approaches I-95 north of Richmond, reducing us to a crawl. I'm wondering if on that leg of the trip it might be better to stay on I-95 right through Richmond itself. We've already eliminated the DC beltway by taking I-81 to Winchester to Fredericksburg, I'd hate to think we'll have to avoid I-95 until south of Richmond. Thanks for any thoughts on this.

Bill From PA

 

[cranbiz]

In my experience, no you will not want to stay in 95 through Richmond. You can and will run into traffic most times and it's 50 mph for quite away as they have the Highway safety corridor with lower speed limits and higher speeding fines.

I295 may be a bit longer mileage wise, but has always been shorter timewise for my many trips through the Richmond area.

 

[kirstenb1]

We live just west of Richmond. 295 is always the smart bet in summer. However, in the off season, I could go either way. When you get close, just pull up traffic updates. 295 does have so many lanes, it's very rare to be impacted by anything.

 

[NH-to-FL]

I recently went south through Richmond on I95 in the early afternoon on a weekday. No serious traffic. I spent a few days before my trip watching Google Maps traffic for a few of the I95 metro areas around the times of the day I would be going through to get a sense of the potential traffic. After doing that I decided to stay on I95. Of course I also went around DC on the western loop of I495 with no serious traffic so maybe I just got lucky that day.

 

[DisneyMandC]

Richmonder here: I recommend 295 as well. Check as you get closer if you have GPS with traffic because you never know, but the I-95 I-64 interchange downtown is always way more hectic than 295 regardless.