Drive to DC from Raleigh for July 4th? (Gorman: for sale, house)
Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill, CaryThe Triangle Area
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Any recommendations of when to drive from Raleigh to DC on 95 for the Holiday weekend? Is the morning or afternoon of July 3 any better than July 4 itself? Thanks!
Wonder why the link didn't work - the thread is still there and active. Last post was 6/29/13 so it's currently down towards the bottom of the 2nd page.
When driving to the DC area you either leave between 7AM and 10AM, or you wait until 5PM/6PM or later (this of course depends on where you re leaving from in the triangle, in terms of traffic when you leave). The main idea is to avoid NoVa during any kind of peak time (6am-10am and 130pm-8pm) and secondarily avoid Richmond->Fredericksburg during close hours.
This is a very finicky drive in terms of avoiding traffic. Especially when construction often takes place late night, so leaving super late often doesn't get you anywhere either.
I would say your best bet would be to leave this morning, definitely no later than 10am. Don't stop on the way, keep a brisk pace, and you should just make it. NoVa traffic is going to start early today and be heavy.
Government offices are getting out 2 hrs early today, so be sure to account for that. I'm inclined to say the morning of July 4th would be best to avoid the work traffic.
Location: Chapel Hill, NC, formerly NoVA and Phila
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We drive up to NoVA often, usually leaving about 6 PM on a Friday night from the Triangle. We rarely hit traffic heading north, but you will see TONS of traffic heading south on 95 leaving DC. Wednesday, July 3 might be different because lots of people are heading out of town, but I still think most of it will be heading out of DC rather than towards it. Just my guess, though.
We just came back from NoVA on Sunday night so are waiting until Thursday morning to head back up there (we're getting our house there ready for sale). I would treat Thursday as a weekend and weekend traffic on 95 is usually horrible south of DC in every direction. So I would suggest leaving as early as possible. I think as the day moves on, it will get worse.
Also, traffic on Sunday for a return trip is going to be bad. We hit a lot of volume last Sunday. There was no big accident or anything. It seemed to take forever to just get to Fredericksburg. Good luck! Hope we both don't hit much traffic. :-)
We left last night (the 3rd) at 5:30 and got to NoVA at 10:30. The only traffic we hit was an accident near Gorman St on 40. Smooth sailing the rest of the way.
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