Whether you are headed to the National Mall this weekend or out of town, 7 is On Your Side with the travel forecast.

For 4th of July vacationers, it's hit the road and the brakes. "We've just been in back to back traffic for three hours straight," said Joseph Avery, a traveler.

"It's really slow," added Phon Sary. "[It's] bumper to bumper."

Despite travel numbers for Metro-area residents taking a two-percent drop this July compared to last, AAA Mid-Atlantic expects almost 900,000 people to head out of town -- and it's no surprise many of those vacationers will be traveling by car.

"I think we're going to take the back roads because traffic's just going to be horrible," said Danny Joachin, a traveler.

The traffic began early Friday morning when I-95 South slowed to a crawl. By 3:45 p.m., there was still heavy traffic at the Springfield Mixing Bowl.

Heading from Sterling to Busch Gardens, the Gullapalli family got a healthy dose of the Independence Day travel backup. "The traffic so far is pretty bad. We started at around 10 o'clock and we're still here," said Sally Gullapalli.

It's a similar story for one Maryland family heading to a North Carolina beach. Their energy drained from the slow ride so they stopped to refuel.

Madeline Avery says with five hours to go, the frustrations of holiday travel are setting in. "This trip just takes forever and ever and ever and ever," she said.

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