US Thanksgiving highway traffic - Toronto-DC-Toronto

September 11, 2013 7:16 AM

I live in Washington DC and my sister and her family live in Toronto. They want to come visit us for the American Thanksgiving weekend. What kind of traffic can they expect on the drive down?

We're Canadian and this is my first Thanksgiving down here, so I'm not certain what to tell her myself. I know that flying is a nightmare over that weekend and I'm assuming the roads will be similarly congested. How much extra time should she expect it to take her to drive here?

posted by fso to Travel & Transportation (12 answers total)

When exactly are they planning to drive? I think recently, most people have started traveling by car Tuesday night, so you can expect a lot of traffic anytime after Tuesday afternoon. It probably does not need to be said that the Sunday following Thanksgiving is a huge nightmare, traffic-wise.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 7:20 AM on September 11, 2013

They should expect the border to be a multi-hour wait b/c of all the Ontarians crossing for black Friday deals.

Otherwise I'd guess that that particular route is likely to be just really busy until they get to somewhere like Hagerstown or wherever the DC metroplex has metastasized to now, at which point it will shift to Apocalyptic. Google maps says 8.5 hours, so I"d bet on at least 12 -- an extra 2 at the border and then another random 2 added for congestion.

They might have better luck coming for Canadian Thanksgiving, but the border will be awful then too.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 7:26 AM on September 11, 2013

I can't speak for Toronto-DC, but when I used to live in North Carolina, visiting my folks in DC would change a drive that would normally take 5 hours to something like 7-10 hours depending on how many idiots had managed to get in accidents.
posted by zombieflanders at 7:28 AM on September 11, 2013

Assuming they are taking this route: I take that drive often between Buffalo and DC. The NY and upper parts of PA are on the 219. The 219 is my favorite road BUT it's mostly a two lane highway. If I recall previous thanksgivings correctly it wasn't too terrible, traffic-wise. But if there's an accident, or the weather is not great, it backs up REAL QUICK.

Also there are a lot of speed traps.
posted by troika at 7:28 AM on September 11, 2013 [1 favorite]

Best answer: In general the earlier in the morning you go, the fewer people will have gotten their butts out of bed to leave too. 9 hours you can't time the whole drive to avoid traffic, but you can at least get several hours out of the way before everyone else is on the road. If they can leave at 5 a.m. and cross the border by 6:30 a.m., they'll be doing rush hour in rural PA (no problem) and traffic's probably pretty clear until they get to DC traffic around lunchtime.

Another option might be to drive late Wednesday night, cross the border, and get a ways into PA before stopping at a motel, then getting up early Thursday morning and driving the last 3-4 hours early Thursday morning. Traffic on Thanksgiving morning is REALLY LIGHT, though 8-9 hours with a border crossing and the DC metroplex is too much to try on Thursday and be sure you'll arrive in time for turkey.
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 7:43 AM on September 11, 2013 [1 favorite]

In my experiences doing nominally the route Troika mentioned between Buffalo and DC, you may want to avoid Breezewood, PA. That area always turns into a bit of a cluster around Thanksgiving. DC traffic will be bad, but not terribly worse than normal.

And the border always sucks around holidays, but watch the various traffic reports and border crossing reports. There are several Buffalo-area crossings, and I usually pick the one that is reported to be running the smoothest.

I'd budget 12 hours unless the weather turns bad, which is worth a few more hours in itself
posted by kaszeta at 7:48 AM on September 11, 2013

Traffic on Thanksgiving morning is REALLY LIGHT

Doubly so in DC, which clears out on like, Tuesday.
posted by troika at 7:48 AM on September 11, 2013

Driving ANYWHERE on the Wednesday before or Sunday after Thanksgiving is going to be nuts, regardless of when you leave. Doubling the amount of time the drive normally takes is probably not an unreasonable estimate. I'd advise planning the trip so that they avoid driving on those days entirely.

In the past I lived in the Boston area and had a long-distance girlfriend in the Niagara Falls/St. Catherine's area. One time I visited her, I was returning home on the Sunday after Thanksgiving. I left around 11AM. The border crossing was nice and quick -- I had a Nexus Pass, but even the lines for the unwashed masses didn't seem that long. Traffic started for me around Syracuse and I started to wonder if I'd get home in time to go to work on Monday morning. I'm not sure where traffic would start going south toward DC.

Amtrak might be an option, though I'm not sure how busy or delayed the trains are during the holidays. I know they link up with Via Rail on the Canadian side of Niagara Falls, but I am not sure that train goes all the way to Toronto. I never took that train because to me it seemed ridiculous to have to go to NYC, then up to Boston, then back to Worcester, or to leave at an inconvenient time of day.
posted by tckma at 9:12 AM on September 11, 2013

Amtrak is also hella busy during that week, and the times I've taken it during busy travel, somewhat delay-ridden.
posted by kaszeta at 9:48 AM on September 11, 2013

I'm vigorously knocking on wood as I say this but as an individual who flies for Thanksgiving annually (from Baltimore to Buffalo), it's not *that* bad. To make it slightly easier on myself, I fly out Tuesday night and return Saturday afternoon. The problem with flying Tuesday night is that there are decent odds that my flight will leave late for the same reason that evening flights are often late - any back-ups that occur during the day push back the flights later in the day. But it's not that bad. And returning Saturday afternoon also isn't that bad. I wouldn't want to fly Wednesday night to Sunday night and maybe I've just been extremely lucky flying but I've found that it's usually fine as long as I give myself more time than I need.

If they're intent on driving, I don't know how realistic it is to be prepared to cross the border at a different bridge but that might be a good idea. You can check for delays here. If they drive back Saturday, I think they'll be fine. They'll avoid Canadians returning after hitting up black Friday sales in the U.S. and I don't think D.C. area traffic will be that bad.

If I remember correctly, Route 219 is a nice way to go. However, it goes through one of the snowier parts of western New York so if there's inclement weather, it could be an ordeal. Look up alternate routes just in case.

I would not do Amtrak but in general, I don't do Amtrak much. I think you would have to go to NYC which would add time and potential for chaos. Amtrak is unpleasant when it's crowded. I've also been on Amtrak when it hit someone so I'm generally not a fan.

If they can avoid driving Wednesday before and Sunday after, I think they'll be okay. Plan alternate routes, keep an eye on traffic, take breaks, breathe.
posted by kat518 at 10:55 AM on September 11, 2013

I would say Amtrak is a bad idea. There's one train a day from Toronto to New York, it will probably take you more than two hours to get across the border at Niagara Falls (because the train is likely to be packed), and it will probably end up taking nearly 24 hours total to get to Washington.
posted by one more dead town's last parade at 12:15 PM on September 11, 2013

If they're intent on driving, I don't know how realistic it is to be prepared to cross the border at a different bridge but that might be a good idea.

Enough people have habitual bridges that you can run into situation where the Peace Bridge has an hour delay while the Lewiston/Queenston is only ten minutes, but you can expect multi-hour delays on all the WNY/ON bridges around then.

If you mean going east to Kingston and crossing the St. Lawrence, it looks like that would add several hours and there's no guarantee that bridge will be free-running either.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 2:10 PM on September 11, 2013