WASHINGTON 鈥� You鈥檝e planned every part of your Labor Day weekend trip out of town. But what time should you drive back to the D.C. area to avoid the worst of the traffic returning to the city?
Thankfully, the Virginia Department of Transportation provides a聽聽map which shows when backups begin to happen and when they get really bad around the back end of the holiday.
Roads are generally clear in the morning on Monday, but traffic begins to slow along the Interstate 95 North corridor through Fredericksburg around noon, remaining slow until 9 p.m.
If you鈥檙e coming back toward Washington from I-81, by 3 p.m., both the east and west ends of I-66 start to experience heavy congestion, which doesn鈥檛 fully ease until 8 p.m.
But as veteran 草莓传媒 Traffic reporter Bob Marbourg noted when , predicting the best times to be on the roads has gotten more complex over the years. Thankfully, in slowing down the roads, but an accident on any of the area鈥檚 busiest corridors can scuttle the best-laid plans.
That said, based on the historical data, if you鈥檙e home before noon or can wait until the later evening, you should be in the best shape to avoid the backups on the roads on Monday.
