Driving to Washington DC (Atlanta, Greensboro: house, live in, moving)

[movingtoduluth]

My partner and I are driving to DC for the memorial day Holiday, and we were told by a friend that there is a way that we can actually cut two hours of hour drive time by taking a back road of some sort is this true? and if so what is the back road? Thank you in advance for all responses

[DC's Finest]

85 is the back road!

[PKCorey]

[SIZE=5]movingtoduluth[/SIZE]
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movingduluth, I believe they are telling you of the 85 to 77 to 81 then back over to 66 to get into DC..I'm not sure if those are all the right roads. Lookin for the old post on this but that's the rough estimate tho....

I still just stick to 85 to 95....the main issue is when you get to the DC Metro..especially if you hit during rush hour...

[JakilaTheHun]

Originally Posted by movingtoduluth

My partner and I are driving to DC for the memorial day Holiday, and we were told by a friend that there is a way that we can actually cut two hours of hour drive time by taking a back road of some sort is this true? and if so what is the back road? Thank you in advance for all responses

I think your friend is either (a) the exaggerating type or (b) doesn't know what he/she is talking about.

I-85 to I-95 is the way I always drive it.

I guess you could take I-85 to I-77 to I-81 to I-66, but it would take about the exact same time. Plus, I-66 typically tends to be the worst highway in all of the DC Metro area during rush hour (or even during mid-day).

If you live in the extreme NW Atlanta suburbs, I guess it's possible that taking I-75 to I-40 to I-81 to I-66 could make sense, but I'd warn that I-81 can be bad during the holidays. So, I really don't think there's any major "shortcut"


On the other hand, if you were heading to Baltimore, the WV panhandle, or the eastern MD suburbs of DC and wanted to avoid DC traffic, there might be a few other routes that would cut your time a little bit. Probably not two hours, though. And both the routes I know of have their own problems.

[JakilaTheHun]

Originally Posted by JakilaTheHun

I think your friend is either (a) the exaggerating type or (b) doesn't know what he/she is talking about.

Btw, I say this not to be insulting to your friends --- I say it because I too have a lot of friends who seem to exaggerate their travelling times. Me being the skeptical type, I normally will chart their route out on Google Maps and calculate the average speed needed to complete their journey in the stated time.

I once had a friend who claimed he drove from Johnson City, TN to Atlanta in two hours and I think you'd basically have to drive an average speed of 120+ mph in order to do that. That includes gas stops and stoplights, mind you, so they'd probably have to go 130+ mph on the freeways. I have a tendency to call my friends out on this and they slowly start backtracking on their stories ("uhhh ... maybe it was 3 hours --- I wasn't counting the stops").

For whatever reason, travelling times seem to get exaggerated by people. It's sort of like how people always exaggerate how big of a fish they caught. You just have to assume they are full of crap unless shown otherwise.

[PKCorey]

Exactly, JakilaTheHun.

I've made the drive to Baltimore from here numerous times. Roughly, 8-10 hours, depending on who else is driving with me and the biggest factor, what time I hit DC/495. If you hit DC before 4am, you are good to go. If not, expect to add 2-3 hours to the trip.

I need to learn some other routes to jump on after the WW Bridge...

[movingtoduluth]

Thanks for everyone's input, now I know all of the back roads up in DC mind you that is where we moved from after 17 yrs of being there, I kind of figured she exaggerated when she said you could cut out the travelling time so I appreciate everyone's input, we usually leave like 2 or 3 am and head up, it puts us there at a decent hour especially stopping at a relatives house in North Carolina to rest a little, so Thanks again

[Akhenaton06]

Actually the route I think they may be referring to--the route I took to DC from Charlotte when I drove up for inauguration--is to take I-85, then when in Greensboro, take Hwy 29 N which takes you through Danville, Lynchburg, and Charlottesville. Then you'll get in I-66 E into DC. I drove at night, so traffic was light. But I honestly wouldn't recommend the route. There are some stoplights along the way and the road dips and curves in several places. It took me about the same amount of time had I took the regular 85-to-95 route. But it was cool getting a chance to see some Virginia towns I'd never seen before.