Did you make it past short pump yet?
Growing up I remember going to Kings Dominion and Busch Gardens multiple times a summer. Never remember terrible traffic. Of course that was 30 years ago. Now I attempt to never go south of DC.
This is gonna sound HoCo snobbish, but we never deal with that type of traffic. Maybe 1-2 hours of slowdowns during peak rush hour on 29/95/100, but theres plenty of ways around it. Nova is like one big ball of traffic that lasts hours and hours.