Richmond sits at the intersection of I-95 and I-64, which makes it convenient to drive here from much of the East Coast. With a newly expanded airport, averaging 180 flights in and out per day, just 7 miles from downtown and two Amtrak stations, it’s easy to get here.
Once here, you’ll most likely want a car to get around unless your visit is limited to downtown. Though Richmond installed the first large-scale, successful system of electric streetcars in 1888, public transportation today consists of the award-winning yet under-utilized GRTC bus system. It works great if it goes where you want to go, but it doesn’t serve many parts of the region. Using cabs to get around is possible, but you’ll have to call in advance for pickup. The city is walkable and bikeable, but the counties less so. Henrico (pronounced Hen-RYE-co) County, with only two pedestrian walk buttons at crosswalks in the entire county, isn’t exactly made for walking.
Luckily, the highways and roads in and around Richmond are usually free of major tie-ups. With the average commute for Richmonders under 24 minutes and the pace of traffic moving at a good clip, it’s remarkably easy to get from one side of town to the other. Perhaps that’s why in 2008 Richmond ranked 10th out of the 75 largest metro areas in the U.S., according to Forbes.com in “10 Best Cities for Commuters.”
I-95, which travels from Maine to Florida, connects us southward to Petersburg, then North Carolina and beyond. I-95 north connects Richmond to northern Virginia and Washington, D.C. That’s a trip that could take two hours or seemingly forever, depending on congestion up north. We’re content to let our northern neighbors wrestle with road rage; we don’t have it here. Those who move here from larger metropolitan areas are pleasantly surprised at how painless driving in and around Richmond can be—unless it snows!