Washington traffic can be very manageable if you understand how it works. Of course there is always the exception to the rule (like an accident or road construction) but, on the whole, the parts of the road where things are going to be slow are very predictable. People from the northeast driving through the Washington DC area usually come down Rt. 95 from Baltimore and hit “the Beltway” north of town. At this point, in order to get to Rt. 95 in Northern Virginia, you can either go east or west – mileage-wise it’s about the same. In the past (when construction on the Wilson Bridge was at its peak) the advice was to go to the west. But now that the bridge work is finished, it’s far better to go east. At the moment Virginia is adding an HOV lane to their portion of the Beltway so there are a lot of problems there. But the Beltway is not the problem area. It’s Rt. 95 in Northern Virginia. If there is a worse stretch of road than the 30 miles of Rt. 95 south of Washington, I haven’t seen it. Virtually every car going from the northeast to anywhere on the southeast coast goes through the three lanes of Rt. 95 between Washington and Richmond. The situation gets further complicated by two things – rush hour traffic for the workers in DC and summertime beach traffic. Rush hour traffic is into the city in the morning and out of the city in the afternoon/evening. Summertime beach traffic is heaviest out of town on Friday afternoon/evening (and to a lesser degree, Thursday afternoon/evening) and Saturday morning and into town on Saturday afternoon and Sunday evening. Describing your experience in “driving through Washington” is a little like a blind man touching an elephant. It depends on when you were there. If you are travelling from the north on a workday, try to “hit the Beltway” after 9:00 am and go to the east. This will get you onto Rt. 95 in Northern Virginia in plenty of time to avoid the afternoon rush hour traffic which begins to build up around 2:30 pm. Rule #1 – If heading south on a workday stay off of Rt. 95 in Northern Virginia from 3:00 pm to 8:00 pm. Rule #2 – If heading south on a Saturday in the summer avoid Rt. 95 in Northern Virginia from mid-morning to mid-afternoon. Rule #3 - Never, never go near Rt. 95 in Northern Virginia in the summer between 2:30 pm and 9:00 pm on a Friday (it's faster to walk!). Google Maps is very good for showing where congestion is. I live just north of Washington and when we drive of WDW I plan on leaving home around 9:00 am (always on a weekday) but I check Google Maps first just to make sure the coast is clear. On a normal trip, we get to WDW between 9:15 and 9:45 pm.
