Driving from Columbus OHIO to Raleigh: how safe is the drive through West Virginia? Any advices? :)
Posted 07-28-2013 at 11:12 AM by moving2013
Quote:
Originally Posted by seggerinie
US 52 through Winston isn't that awful. Definitely a lot faster than I-77 to I-40 in Statesville and then to Raleigh. Not sure of any other sensible way besides I-74/US 52 to get over to Raleigh.
If you get off at Fancy Gap and take US 52 down the mountain like silverwing suggested - and I would definitely do that unless you have passengers who get carsick easily - the fastest way to Raleigh would be straight down 52 and onto one of the 40s in Winston Salem (business or regular - I find the time is about the same). They merge just east of Greensboro anyway.
But I definitely think that I-77 through Fancy Gap is much more treacherous (esp southbound) than the stretch through the mountains in WV. I grew up in Mount Airy and I was actually headed back to my parents from visiting northern VA on the day of that massive pile up in the spring. VDOT was posting warnings north of Roanoke. We always get off 77 at Draper and take RT 100 to 52 in Hillsville and then 52 to Mount Airy, but so many people were using 52 as a detour that day that we took the parkway and went down Orchard Gap, which is even more dangerous but has barely any traffic. When we got home, we could see all the emergency vehicles on 77 from our house on the north side of town. Unfortunately those fog pileups happen much more often than you'd think. I read somewhere that those few miles of 77 are some of the most deadly in the entire interstate system.
If you get off at Fancy Gap and take US 52 down the mountain like silverwing suggested - and I would definitely do that unless you have passengers who get carsick easily - the fastest way to Raleigh would be straight down 52 and onto one of the 40s in Winston Salem (business or regular - I find the time is about the same). They merge just east of Greensboro anyway.
But I definitely think that I-77 through Fancy Gap is much more treacherous (esp southbound) than the stretch through the mountains in WV. I grew up in Mount Airy and I was actually headed back to my parents from visiting northern VA on the day of that massive pile up in the spring. VDOT was posting warnings north of Roanoke. We always get off 77 at Draper and take RT 100 to 52 in Hillsville and then 52 to Mount Airy, but so many people were using 52 as a detour that day that we took the parkway and went down Orchard Gap, which is even more dangerous but has barely any traffic. When we got home, we could see all the emergency vehicles on 77 from our house on the north side of town. Unfortunately those fog pileups happen much more often than you'd think. I read somewhere that those few miles of 77 are some of the most deadly in the entire interstate system.
hahaWhat we are going to do is: leave around 5pm from columbus and stop at maybe Charleston WV/spend the night there then leave saturday around 2:30 to get to Raleigh around 7pm, that way we will go through Fancy Gap during the daytime.
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