How's Fredericksburg I-95 traffic on Black Friday?

November 23, 2008 4:38 PM

How bad will I-95 traffic around Fredericksburg be on Black Friday?

I'll be traveling from Richmond to DC and back on the day after Thanksgiving and I'm concerned the traffic around Fredericksburg (and all the malls/outlets) will be terrible. Is that exactly what I should expect? Would it be worth taking an alternate route (like 301) to avoid it altogether or would that burn up as much time as being in the traffic?

posted by parttimesaint to Travel & Transportation (3 answers total)

I-95 is pretty much always a little slow between exits 130 and 133, lots of cars getting on and off there every day. Black Friday has become a 5 AM event with the silly early bird specials. I live about a mile from Central Park and have been surprised the last couple of Black Fridays at how little impact I saw on RT 3. It's slow and crowded, but really no worse than the typical rush hour. I don't think you need to worry about alternate routes unless you hear about a bad accident on the radio.
posted by COD at 5:33 PM on November 23, 2008

Echoing COD. Route 3 will be god-awful, sure, but 95 shouldn't be much worse than normal. Save your fear for all of the territory between Potomac Mills and Tysons Corner.
posted by soma lkzx at 7:33 PM on November 23, 2008

Save your fear for all of the territory between Potomac Mills and Tysons Corner.

Agreed. If you decide to take 301, Waldorf will be the bottleneck, which you can avoid by cutting West to Indian Head Highway and taking that to the Beltway.
posted by hoppytoad at 8:24 PM on November 23, 2008