Virginia State Police are initiating "Operation Air, Land and Speed" aimed at ticketing speeders on this road. If you plan to travel this route please see this URL:

http://tinyurl.com/z2dzw

Would it not be just as easy to drive the speed limit and obey the traffic laws? Who would'a thunk of that.

Oh RedRock...I agree completely! This route having been a major part of my life for more years that I like to admit I have been alive, I can attest that we are in a minority.

They have also stepped up patrols on I-81. This is partly due to the increase in traffic deaths YTD over last year.

I agreement with RedRock (and you too?) I'd just as soon those endangering the lives of others just got their well-deserved ticket, instead of this warning.

Great! Drive the speed limit for gosh sakes, it won't kill you.

I saw several police today on I 95 in southern va today.

Unfortunately, I have traveled 95 several times this summer and I must say that I tend to speed a little on the open highway (not too much over
But, I am shocked at how close people ride your butt going 75 miles an hour. It is a scary highway and there are people that blow by me doing at least 90. I can see why there are so many fatalities.
Thanks polly for the warning. I wish the high speed speeders would slow down and take heed.

The warning was not intended help people avoid tickets so much as it was to give people a reason to slow down. The stretch of I-95 between Richmond and DC is indeed like girlonthego described it. More than any road I have ever driven, I feel I am taking my life in my hands when I am on that stretch...actually, more like putting my life in the hands of idiots!

I'd rather them ticket people for tailgating and weaving than speeding. Speed in itself doesn't kill -- stupid driving does.

Virginia is the worse state in the union for treating its motoring travelers. Only state (besides DC) that a radar detector is illegal, and it's still sticking to a 65mph speed limit, when neighboring NC and WV are both 70.

And only recently is it starting to widen the extremely heavily traveled I-81.

One of the main reason that going between the SW and NE, I recommend people to go through KY, OH and PA, instead of using I-81.

Oh, I'm reading that starting 7/1/06, I-85 in VA may be reposted to 70mph.

The Commonwealth of Virginia is responsible for widening I-81?

rb_travelerxATyahoo I happen to know that the Virginia State Police are not in the business of issuing warnings to drivers they pull over for speeding. They issue tickets. Maybe the press release is intended to slow down some people so that it is safer for the police when they pull over the speedsters who don't get the word about the crackdown.

The Commonwealth of Virginia is responsible for widening I-81?

Hm... Let me rephrase. VA has the most useless US Representatives and Senators. While Robert Byrd in WV managed to get miles and miles of beautiful roads in his state next door with little traffic, and those politicians in MA can get Billions of dollars to dig the big hole in Boston, VA politicians are absolutely worthless.

Sometimes, pork isn't the worse thing.

Do you like this better?

Or maybe I've gotten this all wrong to start with. VA politicians have actually gotten millions and millions, if not billions, of highway dollars. They've just spent it all in the Mixing Bowl. Is it finished yet?

VA politicians are absolutely worthless.

That's true, of course.

Re the mixing bowl: I live a couple of miles from it and have watched it all happen on a weekly basis over the years. All those flyover bridges look very impressive. But has the Mixing Bowl done anything to help the traffic around that interchange and southbound 95? NOT THAT I CAN TELL. Traffic still gets backed up on the outerloop of the Beltway from Braddock Rd. to go south on I95, and on the inner loop to go south on I95. And you still STOP in traffic right at that interchange if you are proceeding south from 395 to 95. And there is still a parking lot of traffic just past the mixing bowl going south for miles EVEN ON THE WEEKENDS.

But the flyover bridges look impressive.

I just keep looking at the mixing bowl progress and thinking, "I hope someone knows what they are doing". It has been chaos for years and I just keep forcing myself to have faith that they know what they are doing.

rkkwan,
We locals in the Shenandoah Valley/I-81 corridor can do without the widening of I-81. Why destroy the battlefields, the farms, the scenery and the wetlands to turn it into another I-95?

So, heavy truck traffic going up and down the hills on I-81 24 hours a day on just two lanes are better for the locals?

Goods have to be moved. Whether I-81 is 2 lanes or 4, most of the truck traffic from the SW to NE is still going to use it.

Making it easy for motorists to speed thru Virginia on their way from, say, Texas to New York was never an issue at the ballot box. Certainly not to No. VA voters nor, apparently, to Valley voters.

The Mixing Bowl (springfieldinterchange.com/) the Wilson Bridge, widening I-66, widening I-95, widening the Beltway, slowing down the wackos on I-95 are issues that are being addressed to some extent. The Virginia pols need to be focusing on federal jobs and contracting, not I81.

Right. Our nostalgic Shenandoahians (or whatever they're called) can always just stick to US11 and avoid the freeway.