From Richmond to Alexandria, via Maryland?

My MIL's family gets together every year at the end of July for a big family picnic get together. This year we met just outside Richmond on Saturday. Unfortunately, traffic on Interstate 95 between the Washington DC area and Richmond was beyond heavy on Saturday. I thought I had allotted plenty of time for the trip, and the first dozen miles or so went well. I was using the reversible HOV lanes in the middle of the highway, and traffic was moving along at or slightly above the posted speed limit, while the southbound traffic in the regular lanes crawled. Unfortunately, the HOV lanes don't stretch all the way to Richmond, and we eventually slowed to a snail's pace as we reached the end of our isolated lanes and had to merge into the heavy traffic in the regular lanes.

It would be well over an hour before I would be able to reach anything close to the speed limit again. For the next 20 miles to Fredericksburg we crawled along, rarely going more than 30 miles an hour and often completely stopped. It took us over an hour to travel that 20 miles. By the time we reach Fredericksburg, I was thoroughly frustrated, and was trying to decide whether to attempt US-1, which parallels I-95 through much of Virginia. However, I was afraid that it was too obvious an alternate, so that traffic would be just as bad.

My wife pulled out the Rand-McNally road atlas, and looked over our choices. "How about US-301?" she asked. Why not? There was no indication that the traffic situation on the Interstate was going to change, and there was no way we were going to get to Richmond on time anyway, so what harm was there in exploring? We pulled off onto US-17 (Business), hung a right onto US-1 (which was almost as congested as I expected), and skirted our way around Fredericksburg on VA-3. After a bit, we found ourselves headed south on VA-2, towards Bowling Green, where we merged with US-301. Here there was very little traffic, a pleasant breeze and plenty of shade, and we finally began to make headway to Richmond.

We finally arrived at our destination an hour after the meal was scheduled to be served, and after a hurried lunch, we tried to catch up with the family before everyone decided it was time to head for home. All too soon, it was over (in fact, we spent less time with the family than it took to actually make the trip down). As we pulled back out onto the highway for home, we debated the merits of just taking US-301 north across the Potomac River to Maryland and then back to Alexandria on the Washington Beltway. I knew it was significantly more mileage, but if the Interstate was still crawling, we might make better time, and it certainly would be less stressful.

Because there were a number of places to cut across from I-95 to US-301 on the Richmond end, we decided to see what the traffic looked like before making a decision. After crossing I-295 north of the city, the traffic slowed to a crawl at the next interchange, sped up almost to the speed limit and then slowed to a crawl again at the second interchange. That was enough for us. We bailed out and cut over to US-301. We had a relaxing drive north through the Virginia and Maryland countryside before catching the Beltway in the Maryland suburbs and crossing the Potomac back into Virginia. It took us over three hours to drive south to Richmond, and only two and half to come home. So, while it might seem counter-intuitive to drive from Richmond to Alexandria (both in Virginia) through Maryland, it actually worked well for us on Saturday.

Oh, and I talked to a colleague at work who came north on I-95 on Saturday. He said it took him over seven hours (!!) to drive from Virginia Beach to Alexandria, and that I-95 crawled all the way from Richmond to Alexandria. Looks like we made a good choice...