2.7M Virginians head home for holidays, tonight’s commute impacted

Tonight’s commute looks like it could be worse than usual.

According to Mid Atlantic AAA, 7.2 million people from the Virginia, Maryland, and D.C. Metro area will be traveling in their car for Christmas and New Year’s Eve celebrations.

Projects show that the worst time for gridlock for the holiday season is between 3 p.m. and 6 p.m. tonight.

“Travel times will elongate by two and a half times during those three hellish hours. Traffic delays will lengthen and frustrations will mount. Know the roads, traffic jams and times to avoid,” stated a release.

According to AAA, 2,721,384 Virginians will be out on the roads.

More on the traffic troubles, from a release:

Travel times could double and treble. If history is an unerring guide, there are four major highways to hell in the guise of escape routes. Delays will more than double on Interstate 66 westbound, Interstate 270, Interstate 95 in Maryland, and Interstate 95 in Virginia. Be especially wary of I-95 southbound @ US-17/US-1/exit 126 in the vicinity of Fredericksburg, and I-95 at the Occoquan River, where three parallel roadways combined convey 225,000 cars a day. Critical mass will also manifest itself along on the newly minted nine-mile-long Express Lanes corridor from 3 P.M. – 7 P.M. To circumnavigate these gridlocked routes and avoid the bottlenecks, rely upon AAA’s TripTik Travel Planner, or use a GPS before you begin your trip.

Things will grind to a halt on the Capital Beltway in Maryland at Exit 27, at the confluence on I-495 and I-95 north, as travel volume curiously dropped from 253,835 cars daily in 2015 to 247,970 vehicles a day in 2016. Brace yourself for extensive arterial congestion on the Capital Beltway in Montgomery County at exit 41- the Clara Barton Parkway, where traffic volume averages 237,702 vehicles per day in 2016, and at exit 40 – Cabin John Parkway – Glen Echo, which averages 227,042 vehicles daily. Holiday commuters will also encounter bottlenecks on the Capital Beltway at exit 39 – MD 190 (River Road), and around exit 38 – the  I-270 Spur north, which saw 243,060 vehicles daily in 2016, down from 249,632 vehicles per day in 2015.