We usually leave early Saturday morning, have found 7-8am to be fairly traffic free (for 95). Can't believe so many people take that cluster of a road every day to work.

We always leave Sat. morning around 8am going down to OBX over memorial day weekend, hardy ever hit bad traffic. Good luck and safe driving!

Op- just FYI. It is not just traffic out of DC. All of 95s will be a clusterfk. Leave as late as possible or as early in the morning.

I would leave Saturday at 6 am.

I say leave early Friday before noon if possible. Or depending on where you are actually going and coming from, take 301 south thru PG County and pick up 95 closer to Fredericksburg or Richmond (but still leave early.)

Anonymous wrote:We left at noon on a regular Friday heading to Va Beach last month. Used HOV and it took us 90min just to get from Springfield to Fredericksburg.

Leave at 4am or wait until 8 or 9 at night.

I agree, 395/95 south is much worse than the Bay Bridge. It's been backed up since the '80's and there's no relief in sight.

We left at noon on a regular Friday heading to Va Beach last month. Used HOV and it took us 90min just to get from Springfield to Fredericksburg.

Leave at 4am or wait until 8 or 9 at night.

Concur that HOV won't help much. The worst of the backup is caused by the HOV traffic merging back into the regular lanes near Dumfries. Then it's still bad most of the way to Fredricksburg.

I would leave late Friday. I frequently drive down south on 95 and it always is best to leave late at night. And the HOV lanes often are terrible the last few miles before they end.

HOV can be a nightmare on holiday weekends too, especially At he merge in Dumfries. Leave Friday night, if you have to travel at all.

Great, thank you.

Since it sounds like you have young kids, I would vote for Friday at like 9. Keep them up as long as you can, pop them in the car, hope they fall asleep. Traffic should have cleared out by then. IMHO.

Just curious-if we qualify for the HOV lanes, it wouldn't be faster to leave Friday while they are still in effect? We rarely drive on 395/95 but a few years ago were in a horrible holiday weekend traffic jam with a crying baby.

Friday night after 8 or 9. Even if you leave Friday right after they turn the HOV lanes to the southbound direction, it will suck. Saturdays are almost as bad as Friday.

We always leave Friday around 8 when we are headed to VB.

If you could choose, would you leave Friday during the day, Friday night after rush hour (8 pm or so) or Saturday morning before 8 a.m.?