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Road Trip to North Carolina

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02 Park Ave:
Thanks for this detailed information 1995hoo.  Would the fact that I will be making this trip on a Saturday late next month affect any of your recommendations?  I've read that I-95 can be very congested on Saturdays coming out of Washington, even south of Fredericksburg.  Would there be similar congestion on US29 then?

Google Maps frequently shows the same travel time for both routes from Washington to Burlington.

webny99:

--- Quote from: 1995hoo on March 30, 2023, 12:35:50 PM ---I remember I once took NC-87 from Burlington up to Reidsville to connect to US-29 back in my law school days when I wanted to clinch all of US-29 in Virginia. Back then, that made some level of sense because otherwise you had to go almost to Death Valley to pick up Route 29. Nowadays, the new Greensboro beltway might change the equation.

--- End quote ---

Upon reading this, I went to look up Death Valley, and as soon as I added "NC", Google Maps' only remaining suggestion was the North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, near downtown Greensboro. I'm curious if this is what you meant, and if so, where the nickname comes from.

1995hoo:

--- Quote from: webny99 on March 30, 2023, 02:33:15 PM ---
--- Quote from: 1995hoo on March 30, 2023, 12:35:50 PM ---I remember I once took NC-87 from Burlington up to Reidsville to connect to US-29 back in my law school days when I wanted to clinch all of US-29 in Virginia. Back then, that made some level of sense because otherwise you had to go almost to Death Valley to pick up Route 29. Nowadays, the new Greensboro beltway might change the equation.

--- End quote ---

Upon reading this, I went to look up Death Valley, and as soon as I added "NC", Google Maps' only remaining suggestion was the North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, near downtown Greensboro. I'm curious if this is what you meant, and if so, where the nickname comes from.

--- End quote ---

It's the name used in North Carolina for a short section of I-85 between roughly US-29 to the east and the old I-85/I-40 split to the west (prior to I-85 being relocated). It was a stretch of road known for having a large number of accidents.


--- Quote from: 02 Park Ave on March 30, 2023, 02:03:57 PM ---Thanks for this detailed information 1995hoo.  Would the fact that I will be making this trip on a Saturday late next month affect any of your recommendations?  I've read that I-95 can be very congested on Saturdays coming out of Washington, even south of Fredericksburg.  Would there be similar congestion on US29 then?

Google Maps frequently shows the same travel time for both routes from Washington to Burlington.

--- End quote ---

Hard to say. I hate to give a somewhat wishy-washy answer, but I'd probably listen to the WTOP (103.5-FM) traffic report and then decide, but of course I live here and I need to decide on a route reasonably quickly when I'm leaving home. I don't know how far their signal reaches, so I don't know how far away they would be of use to decide how to go. A mapping app that includes traffic information might be a reasonable substitute.

In your case, late April means you would miss Easter and Passover weekend (Easter is April 9 this year) and, assuming you wouldn't be travelling on April 16, you'd miss most of the spring break traffic too (in Virginia, many school systems have spring break either the week before or the week after Easter). So those would be two factors in the positive direction. You'd also be too early for college graduations, so that's a plus (you would obviously want to avoid Route 29 on the weekends when UVA and Liberty University hold graduation, for example). On the downside, as the weather starts getting warmer Kings Dominion gets busier, so that's a factor in more traffic using I-95.

On balance, unless there is a big event in Charlottesville or Lynchburg (the latter is where Liberty is located), Route 29 is likely to have less traffic overall than I-95 is. The issue with an event in Charlottesville is not so much the Charlottesville area itself as it is that 29 has only two lanes per side for pretty much the entire distance between Gainesville and the Rivanna River near Charlottesville, so when traffic gets heavy the road becomes unpleasant.

Note that with I-95 you can always bail out to US-1, which parallels it, although it is certainly not an unknown alternative. Last time I went south (the Friday of Washington's Birthday weekend last month), I wound up bailing off I-95 at Exit 143 (south end of the HO/T lanes) and just taking Route 1 all the way to I-295.

Mapmikey:
Two more potential alternatives:

US 360 from Richmond to Danville.  Pretty wide open once you leave Richmod's orbit.  Pairs well with US 301/VA 207 option using I-95 to I-195 to VA 76 (toll) to VA 288 to US 360.  Or you could go I-95 to I-295 to I-64 to Va 288 which is longer but avoids central Richmond.  US 360 has ample 60 mph sections but is a little sparse on places to stop at night.  Very few stoplights between Richmond and South Boston.  Definitely observe all village speed limits.  Google has this as just 14 min slower (and 17 miles shorter) than 95 north of Richmond to 85 to Greensboro - https://goo.gl/maps/kCWHFfK3jpNA6EY96. 

The other is US 1 parallel to I-85 wihin Virginia.  Mostly multilane and zero traffic south of Dinwiddie.  Only a couple stoplights.  In NC it starts going through a lot of 35 mph villages, so returning to I-85 just inside NC is prudent.

For the first time in several years i drove US 29 from Gainesville to Warrenton yesterday.  The first half of this is full of dense stop lights and if it is busy at all you will get hung up.  I endorse VA 245 to US 17, which has zero stoplights.

Surprisingly, US 211/VA 229 is a little shorter and only 7 minutes slower despite having to slog through downtown Culpeper.

sprjus4:
For reasons of clinching or wishing to take an alternative route, those do sound like good potential alternatives. You could also do something like I-85 -> US-58 -> US-29.

I will ask though - if using alternative routes for the sole purpose of avoiding traffic congestion, trying to stick to the fastest routes - do US-360 or US-1 help much south/west of Richmond? Is I-85 bad south of Petersburg? I recall it being a fairly light route traffic wise, and it has lower volumes generally all the way to Durham. There is a small 5-10 mile segment west of Durham that is 4 lanes and carries over 50,000 AADT, but then it opens to 8 lanes west of I-40 and is free-flowing >70 mph even during heavy traffic.

I would imagine I-85 would be adequate for the Petersburg to Burlington leg of the trip, you’ll likely be moving 75+ mph the whole way with little obstruction, the only real problems would be I-95 between Washington and Richmond that may draw you toward the US-29 corridor.

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