Alternate route to get south vice I-95/Hwy 1 on Friday

[HokieFan]

Originally Posted by ChristineVA

If you are on the beltway from the Tyson's area, there actually is a new exit off to the left side of the beltway that will put you directly into the HOV lanes right at the mixing bowl. Coming from any other direction, I think you have to travel into I95 in Springfield and enter down there.

The HOV lanes are pretty awful when you get down to 234 and have to merge in, so they are not always a good thing to do on a "travel" weekend. You can just get stuck in there.

Not sure how the OP did. My daughter came home yesterday from West Virginia. She got into the Springfield area around 4PM and just bailed at Backlick Road, meandered over to 123, and came through Woodbridge to get home. It was pretty bad she said. Her 3.5 hour trip took 5 hours and most of her traffic started at Springfield.

There is also a new HOV exit from the Beltway coming from Alexandria. You no longer have to get on 95S, and then get on the HOV. Access directly from the beltway.

[ChristineVA]

Originally Posted by HokieFan

There is also a new HOV exit from the Beltway coming from Alexandria. You no longer have to get on 95S, and then get on the HOV. Access directly from the beltway.

Good to know. I never travel that way so did not know if they opened a new exit.

[dkf747]

Originally Posted by HokieFan

There is also a new HOV exit from the Beltway coming from Alexandria. You no longer have to get on 95S, and then get on the HOV. Access directly from the beltway.

That's good news! I thought that there was no exit, but I didn't know that they added one in.

[CAVA1990]

Originally Posted by ChristineVA

Interesting. The first time I ever heard "the" used before a Rt. Number I was in California. Someone told me to get on "the 10". I was like "WHAT?" Then they used "the" before every highway number designation. I've never heard anyone from around here to that. I don't spend much time in NC so maybe that's common there?

Part of the reason for that is freeways in CA have names, which are said more naturally with a "the" preceding them (The Santa Monica, The Golden State, The San Bernardino, etc.). That practice then carried over to numbers, which weren't used as often as names, at least back in the old days. I rarely ever referred to numbers unless it was "The 15" to Vegas or "The 5" up through the Central Valley which didn't have local names. Northern Californians seem more partial to numbers.

Your California culture lesson for the day.