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How bad is Route 95 this summer

Bunk

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We're driving from New York to Charleston this weekend. Usually we leave New York about 5 on Saturday morning and don't have problems on 95 until Virginia.
This year, we have a doctor's appointment on Saturday morning, and so won't be able to leave New York until about 11 in the morning.
I'm tempted to get off 95 as early as possible and take 81 to 77 to 26.

Just looking for your advice.

Thank you.
 

HenryT

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It's Bad.

If you are not leaving New York until 11am you will not be a happy camper when you get to Virginia. I-95 through VA will be horrible during that time.

I-95 is bad outside of summer, gets worst during summer and even worst at the end of the summer as people are taking their last vacations before school starts and shopping for back to school items.

I would take I81 if I were you.
 

SMHarman

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We're driving from New York to Charleston this weekend. Usually we leave New York about 5 on Saturday morning and don't have problems on 95 until Virginia.
This year, we have a doctor's appointment on Saturday morning, and so won't be able to leave New York until about 11 in the morning.
I'm tempted to get off 95 as early as possible and take 81 to 77 to 26.

Just looking for your advice.

Thank you.
If you have Google maps navigation on your phone install it and use it even if you know where you are going.

Then follow the route Google gives you slavishly.

Did this too and from Cape Cod to NYC. It saved is over 7 hours in the car.

It routed us route 101 from Providence to Hartford then a hop on the interstate then 15. I usually 95 > 15 but there was a 2.5 hr roadworks / accident mess in New London.

Similarly heading for the bridges of the cape it deftly navigated some back roads shaving off 75 mins there and also some other route 6 shenanigans up and down the cape.

Sent from my LT26i using Tapatalk
 

pedro47

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Suggestion only please avoid the following traffic times 5:30 AM - 9:00 AM; 11:30 AM - 1:30 PM and 3:30 PM - 6:45 PM (Monday - Saturday's).

Also please purchase an Easy Pass for tolls and use the WAVE app on your smart phone.
 
Last edited:

WinniWoman

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We will never drive south from NY again after a very bad experience on 95 to Virginia. I think some people from where I live in Hudson Valley NY take Route 80 I think or something like that? We are flying if we ever head that way again- and I really hate to fly also!
 

ira g

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We're driving from New York to Charleston this weekend. Usually we leave New York about 5 on Saturday morning and don't have problems on 95 until Virginia.
This year, we have a doctor's appointment on Saturday morning, and so won't be able to leave New York until about 11 in the morning.
I'm tempted to get off 95 as early as possible and take 81 to 77 to 26.

Just looking for your advice.

Thank you.
Definitely would avoid 95 and take 81-77-26. However there is ongoing construction on 26, but avoid 95 at all cost.
 

Ty1on

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Suggestion only please avoid the following traffic times 5:30 AM - 9:00 AM; 11:30 AM - 1:30 PM and 3:30 PM - 6:45 PM (Monday - Saturday's).

Also please purchase an Easy Pass for tolls and use the WAVE app on your smart phone.

Do you mean WAZE?
 

ibcnu

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I like Google Maps better than Waze. The only thing good about Wave is that you sometimes get notifications of police up ahead.

We are planning on driving to Panama City Beach in March and haven't decided if we should take I-95 to Jacksonville, then west on I-10 or take 66 outside Washington DC to 81 to 77 to 85 through Atlanta down to the panhandle.

My main concern are winding and hilly roads along 66, 81, 77 as that could put more wear and tear on the vehicle, than just the flat, easy road of 95 and 10.

Any suggestions?
 

mark201235

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I will say this. We returned from OBX on Saturday, travelling on 95N from Richmond to Washington beginning around 8 AM. 95S was TERRIBLE mostly the entire way (fortunately we had smooth sailing). There was about a 5 mile backup from the southern most point of the HOV lane where it merges and another 5-8 miles on the regular 95S lanes. It was also backed up for a few miles a few other times before getting close to Washington. Anyone travelling south to a destination had to have a terrible experience. It was really bad.

Mark
 

vacationhopeful

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I went to college near Daytona Beach ... I95 was not totally finished thru GA and SC ... and it was a MESS THEN as for extremely heavy traffic, lots of cops and idiots driving.

We did this run several times a term ... more than once a month but not twice a month.

Since then the US population has tripled, the Southeast coast line has even MORE population increase than tripled, I95 has been finished, upgraded, enlarged, and enlarged again .... and had bypasses added.

Us college students would do the CONVOY routine with the truckers and found 24/7 gas & food at their truck stops.

Nonstop - except for gas and then one stayed with the car to fuel and the others RAN for bathroom or food reload.

It was a terrible run then .... and much, much worst NOW.

And that is why I fly to Florida .... I ain't that young, more cops with instant speed trap readouts, impossible to talk your way OUT of a ticket (I was real good at that), and my butt can tolerate 3 hours in an airline seat over the 22 hours in a car.

PS I have the money but money can't buy me MORE vacation time.
 

Ty1on

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I like Google Maps better than Waze. The only thing good about Wave is that you sometimes get notifications of police up ahead.

We are planning on driving to Panama City Beach in March and haven't decided if we should take I-95 to Jacksonville, then west on I-10 or take 66 outside Washington DC to 81 to 77 to 85 through Atlanta down to the panhandle.

My main concern are winding and hilly roads along 66, 81, 77 as that could put more wear and tear on the vehicle, than just the flat, easy road of 95 and 10.

Any suggestions?

I've seen on another thread a TUGger mentioned that Google Maps now utilizes Waze data. Will your Google Maps App recalculate Best Path in real time now like Waze does?

And the cop warnings are a big benefit. I probably spared myself 3 tickets driving from Vegas to Oklahoma and back in April.
 

Ty1on

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Yes! Thanks for the correction. 95 is a nightmare on the weekend.

I felt like a speeling nazi writing the post, but I had images of the OP spending the next 4 hours trying to find the WAVE app.
 

SMHarman

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I've seen on another thread a TUGger mentioned that Google Maps now utilizes Waze data. Will your Google Maps App recalculate Best Path in real time now like Waze does?

And the cop warnings are a big benefit. I probably spared myself 3 tickets driving from Vegas to Oklahoma and back in April.
Yes it does. And update arrival time in real time.

Pretty miserable to be doing 75 and watching your arrival time tick further and further away due to traffic ahead.

Google has a reassuring you are on the fastest route thing going at times as well.

I think this all comes from the waze data and likely feedback from yourself and other maps data users with GPS on.

Sent from my LT26i using Tapatalk
 

GrayFal

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We use WAZE on our iPhone.
It has saved us countless hours in the past few months. Living out east on Long Island and traveling to NYC/NJ numerous times, it REALLY helps get around the traffic.
It is a free app on your iPhone. Suspect it is also supported on Android.
 

GrayFal

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I went to college near Daytona Beach ... I95 was not totally finished thru GA and SC ... and it was a MESS THEN as for extremely heavy traffic, lots of cops and idiots driving.

We did this run several times a term ... more than once a month but not twice a month.

Since then the US population has tripled, the Southeast coast line has even MORE population increase than tripled, I95 has been finished, upgraded, enlarged, and enlarged again .... and had bypasses added.

Us college students would do the CONVOY routine with the truckers and found 24/7 gas & food at their truck stops.

Nonstop - except for gas and then one stayed with the car to fuel and the others RAN for bathroom or food reload.

It was a terrible run then .... and much, much worst NOW.

And that is why I fly to Florida .... I ain't that young, more cops with instant speed trap readouts, impossible to talk your way OUT of a ticket (I was real good at that), and my butt can tolerate 3 hours in an airline seat over the 22 hours in a car.

PS I have the money but money can't buy me MORE vacation time.

I think your college days were quite a long time ago. Just sayin'
 

TRAVELING FOOL

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We're driving from New York to Charleston this weekend. Usually we leave New York about 5 on Saturday morning and don't have problems on 95 until Virginia.
This year, we have a doctor's appointment on Saturday morning, and so won't be able to leave New York until about 11 in the morning.
I'm tempted to get off 95 as early as possible and take 81 to 77 to 26.

Just looking for your advice.

Thank you.

Absolutely avoid 95! I live in Richmond and avoid it like the plague in the summer. Take 81-77-26. When we visit our daughter in DC, we leave early on the weekends. Timing is everything!
 

Bunk

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We left the Bronx after 10:00 am and got into Charleston about 1:00 am
We hit a little traffic on Route 95 once we got over the George Washington Bridge and a little traffic because of an accident. Other than that, there was no congestion. There was construction on Route 26, but because it was so late, there was no congestion.

We stopped for about 1 1/2 hour to gas up, and food and bathroom breaks.

If you leave NYC, you would like to get off 95 as soon as possible. So take lower level of GW bridge and get on 80 as soon as you can. 80 leads to 287 to 78.

If you take NYS Thruway, get onto NJ 287 as soon as you can.

Waze kept us informed about the accident on 287. We were able to see that it wasn't worth it to get off 287 and take local roads.
 

Ann-Marie

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We drive from LI to Hilton Head area several times a year. Much better to leave on Sunday, but Saturday is your next bet. We leave at 9am and we are going around DC by 1:30. We got stuck in construction traffic just south of DC last year and it was awful. But, We didn't understand the signs for the HOV lanes. It says 3or more passengers or Richmond pass. Since we don't have a Richmond pass and it was the two of us, we did not enter. What a major mistake. I have since been told that we would have had to pay more money but we could do it. Would have saved us about 2 hours.
 

pedro47

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This passed weekend my sister-in-law drove from Washington, DC to Newport News,VA in 3 1/2 hours. She reported that was no traffic problems on I95 between 10:30 AM - 2:00 PM.
 
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