Washington, DC traffic pros?

[eangel12]

Hi,

We are taking a family trip to OBX in a few weeks. Large extended family trip. My small family has decided to take a mini vacation before our big vacation. We are leaving Wednesday night, driving to Baltimore, staying overnight and visiting the aquarium on Thursday.

We are then leaving the aquarium and heading to Washington, DC to spend the night and visit the zoo on Friday.

Our plan was to leave the zoo at 1pm and start our trip to Elizabeth City, NC to stay overnight on Friday before driving to OBX on Saturday morning.

My question: how bad will traffic be at 1pm on a Friday afternoon in August? My GPS is saying 95S and then we branch off around Richmond VA. Would we be better off waiting until later? I don't drive around Washington, DC, but we drive in and out of Philly all the time. Same traffic patterns? Any advice would be greatly appreciated!!

 

[Simba07]

1pm may be OK, maybe. By 3, you can count on it taking at least 3.5 hours from the southern intersection of 95 and 495 and Richmond due to the construction between Woodbridge and Quantico. But it doesn't clear out until late.

 

[PlutoPony]

Rush hour starts earlier on Fridays, especially in the summer. Most weeks I think you'd be relatively OK leaving by 1 but wouldn't wait much longer. By 2 traffic will likely be ugly. You will be going with traffic unfortunately so that won't help. Not sure of the construction situation on 95 south.

One thing you can do is check Googlemaps for the DC area and south on Friday afternoons for the next couple weeks. Turn on the traffic function and see how things look during the time you'd be driving. Compare when you see the roads change to yellow and red for a couple Fridays and that should give you a better idea of when and where the bottlenecks appear.

 

[SteveMouse]

Note also that parking around the zoo is limited at best. They have launched a tool for reserving parking see http://nationalzoo.si.edu/Visit/gettingtozoo.cfm.

 

[eangel12]

Thank you for the information. Our plan is to stay at Omni Shoreham and walk to the zoo then walk back to the hotel to get our car. We figured if we are already paying for parking, why pay twice!!

The idea of checking the map and seeing traffic patterns for the next few Fridays is genius! Thank you!! Will put a reminder on my phone so I'll remember!!

Any other tips or suggestions are greatly appreciated!

 

[SwimChicSQ]

If you have a smart phone I HIGHLY recommend a traffic app called WAZE, it will route you around traffic by monitoring how everyone using the app is driving; leaving that area at one you're taking chance but should be ahead of the worst of it assuming its not labor day weekend

 

[mikehn]

Dont bother trying to outsmart the local commuters. You should be fine at 1pm

 

[MillauFr]

Dont bother trying to outsmart the local commuters. You should be fine at 1pm

The smart ones are taking the train and Metro.

 

[greenclan67]

We just did this drive to Williamsburg. We left Baltimore Friday morning at 11:30 should have taken us by google map times, 3.5 hours, we did fine until we hit Washington, and then it was a parking lot. Brutal, we got to Williamsburg around 5:15 pm. Almost 2 hours after projected time. Once we got thorough Washington, it started moving, then a parking lot again, then would move at a good pace then a standstill. Good luck, and enjoy your vacation. We really liked Baltimore, wished we could have spent more time there.

 

[Jeanine3kids]

We are driving from NYC to disney we plan to leave at 3am I am worried about the DC traffic what time does it start around?

Jeanine

 

[firegurl]

We are driving from NYC to disney we plan to leave at 3am I am worried about the DC traffic what time does it start around?

Jeanine

What day of the week are you leaving? If you are leaving NYC around 3am, that is going to put you in Baltimore around 6. By the time you move down 95 and get closer to DC you are going to be right in the middle of it. This is all assuming that you are planning on leaving on a weekday. You time through Maryland to the tunnels will vary greatly as well. Catch it on a good morning, maybe 40 minutes from the time you enter the state until you get to the tunnels. Catch a bad day and it could be hours. There is one particular stretch about 20 miles north of the tunnels that can be bad because you go 8 miles between exits. Everyone gets stuck there.

 

[Altoqueenkelly]

Make sure you leave by 1pm... if for some reason you get delayed... DO NOT try to make up time and leave... I would avoid DC traffic from 3-7pm... Yes, it gets THAT bad

 

[Altoqueenkelly]

We just did this drive to Williamsburg. We left Baltimore Friday morning at 11:30 should have taken us by google map times, 3.5 hours, we did fine until we hit Washington, and then it was a parking lot. Brutal, we got to Williamsburg around 5:15 pm. Almost 2 hours after projected time. Once we got thorough Washington, it started moving, then a parking lot again, then would move at a good pace then a standstill. Good luck, and enjoy your vacation. We really liked Baltimore, wished we could have spent more time there.

Yes... traffic around Fredricksburg backs up TERRIBLY in the evenings. I hate getting stuck in it!!

 

[BigTigger]

Just drove through there a few weeks back on Thursday June 29th. Went through DC just after noon time (I'd guess at 12:45 pm give or take 10 minutes) on the eastern 95/495 spur and made it fine down to where the HOV lanes begin. Was a bit slow at the merge/split as the lanes weren't open and people were slowing down expecting to get into the HOV lanes. It was OK again after that until near the big outlet mall (Potomac Mills I think). Some construction vehicles had lanes closed for a few miles then it was OK to just before Quantico as there was a concert at the outdoor music place near there and everybody was going early to tailgate. Once clear of there it was smooth sailing. Lots of police enforcement in this zone. WAZE said straight through Richmond was OK so didn't do the I-295 loop and made it to the NC border without any issues. There was some heavy traffic just into NC heading to the northern shore points but it cleared quickly once we were about 30 miles into NC. Have fun at the aquarium and zoo!!

 

[eangel12]

We are making the drive on Friday, August 8th. Our plan now is to hit the road at noon. We figure that will give us a little wiggle room. We need to get lunch for our kids so they aren't starving on the road. Hoping there is a fast food place between leaving the zoo and where we will merge onto a major highway. It looks like there is a McDonald's near the zoo.

 

[Jeanine3kids]

What day of the week are you leaving? If you are leaving NYC around 3am, that is going to put you in Baltimore around 6. By the time you move down 95 and get closer to DC you are going to be right in the middle of it. This is all assuming that you are planning on leaving on a weekday. You time through Maryland to the tunnels will vary greatly as well. Catch it on a good morning, maybe 40 minutes from the time you enter the state until you get to the tunnels. Catch a bad day and it could be hours. There is one particular stretch about 20 miles north of the tunnels that can be bad because you go 8 miles between exits. Everyone gets stuck there.

HI I am leaving on Friday Morning I am very close to NJ so the map says DC is 3.5 hours away so I am hoping to hit dc around 630 maybe I will leave around 230 am I am so nervous about this traffic because I plan on driving straight with a few stops along the way, and everyone says once you pass DC its smooth sailing we have 2 drivers right now in the car possibly 3 so I think we can do it.

 

[SteveMouse]

HI I am leaving on Friday Morning I am very close to NJ so the map says DC is 3.5 hours away so I am hoping to hit dc around 630 maybe I will leave around 230 am I am so nervous about this traffic because I plan on driving straight with a few stops along the way, and everyone says once you pass DC its smooth sailing we have 2 drivers right now in the car possibly 3 so I think we can do it.

Earlier (2:30) is better- gives you more flexibility.

 

[firegurl]

HI I am leaving on Friday Morning I am very close to NJ so the map says DC is 3.5 hours away so I am hoping to hit dc around 630 maybe I will leave around 230 am I am so nervous about this traffic because I plan on driving straight with a few stops along the way, and everyone says once you pass DC its smooth sailing we have 2 drivers right now in the car possibly 3 so I think we can do it.

As the previous poster said, leave at 2:30. I think you will be okay if you leave at that point. You may hit a little bit as you get to DC but it shouldn't be too bad. One thing I will caution, follow the overhead signs on 95 in Maryland before you get to Baltimore. There are 2 tunnels (Baltimore and Harbor tunnels) but they both lead back to 95 South. If there is a problem at one you can bypass that one and go to the second. I am assuming you will have a GPS so it will reroute you without much of a problem. I worked on the outskirts of DC for many years and would just take whichever one had the least amount of traffic that morning.