7 Morning Habits That Instantly Give Away a Non-Virginian

Think you could pass for a longtime Virginian before your coffee kicks in?

We’re willing to bet you can’t.

More than 170,000 people have moved into Virginia since 2020, and their headlights are easy for native Virginians to pick out of the pack by 7 a.m.

These are the morning habits that instantly give away a non-Virginian.

Note: This is general information, not legal advice. Vehicle inspection and toll-lane rules are subject to change.

1. Breaking Slug Line Rules

Northern Virginia’s slug lines have run since the 1975 gas crisis, when commuters started forming free, no-appointment carpools to dodge tolls and traffic together.

Wait your turn in line, skip the small talk unless the driver starts it, and never offer to pay for the ride.

Break any of those rules.

The whole line notices.

Slugging runs entirely on trust between strangers who never even exchange names.

The Pentagon, the country’s largest single workplace with about 25,000 employees, is the single most popular slug drop-off point in the region.

It beats out Crystal City, Rosslyn, and 14th Street, according to a 2023 GWRideConnect survey.

Regulars even have a name for scooping up a rider outside the official line: body snatching.

A rider who climbs in out of turn, strikes up a conversation before the car clears the lot, or tries to hand over gas money reads as a rookie to everyone else in line.

Many people notice when someone does.

2. Skipping the E-ZPass Flex

Virginia’s Express Lanes on I-66 run toll-free for carpoolers only during the morning and evening peaks, and only for cars carrying three or more people with an E-ZPass Flex switched to high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) mode.

Virginia raised that carpool minimum from two riders to three back in December 2022.

Many newer commuters never got the memo.

Express Mobility Partners, which runs the I-66 lanes, has told 7News that roughly 30% of declared HOV trips some months don’t carry three or more people.

Virginia State Troopers respond by working the shoulder during the morning inbound rush, pulling cars over mid-merge to count heads.

Everyone stacked up behind gets a front-row view.

A trooper waves over a newcomer who forgot to flip the switch, or never bought a Flex transponder at all, in full sight of the whole backed-up lane.

That’s the tell.

Not the bill that shows up weeks later.

3. Paying the Greenway Toll

Loudoun County’s Dulles Greenway charges up to $5.80 during the morning rush for a single 14-mile stretch.

Virginia ranks #1 nationally for the highest average per-mile toll cost on interstate roads, according to a LendingTree analysis.

Many longtime commuters detour onto Route 7 instead.

It’s free.

It costs a few extra stoplights and saves several dollars a day.

A transplant merges onto the Greenway without a second thought and pays full price every morning.

They wonder why the car ahead always peels off toward the side road.

That side road is the workaround.

4. Ignoring an Expired Sticker

Virginia requires every registered vehicle to pass a safety inspection every 12 months, and the windshield sticker announces exactly when that clock runs out.

Many longtime Virginians check their own sticker on the way out the driveway each morning, the same automatic glance as the gas gauge.

It becomes a habit fast.

Virginia State Police rolled out a redesigned sticker for 2026, green with a dogwood watermark and two quick response (QR) codes, so a trooper can spot a forged or expired sticker at a glance.

Morning rush hour is exactly when that glance lands.

Bumper-to-bumper traffic parks a Virginia driver next to the same trooper or commuter for a full minute at a time, far longer than a quick pass at highway speed later in the day.

A newcomer from one of the many states with no inspection program never develops the habit of checking their own windshield.

Months can pass before anyone in the next lane clocks the mismatched color.

Troopers read the sticker’s color and month from the next lane over, so an expired sticker gives a driver away before anyone even runs the plate.

5. Calling Any Ham "Smithfield"

Smithfield, Virginia lent its name to a ham prized across the South, and state law has protected that name since 1926.

Only ham cured, smoked, and aged for at least six months inside the town's own corporate limits can legally wear the label.

Every other country ham is just that.

Country ham.

A newcomer grabbing a biscuit at a rural gas station calls the whole category "Smithfield" out of habit, the same way a stranger reaches for "Kleenex" to mean any tissue.

That mix-up earns a quick, good-natured correction from whoever's behind the counter.

Confusing a legal definition with a whole food category is an easy mistake to make exactly once.

6. Timing the Tunnel Wrong

Hampton Roads, Virginia runs on a handful of bridge-tunnels, and the busiest ones back up for miles the moment a standard 8 a.m. rush hits.

Many longtime residents leave the house well before 7 a.m. to clear the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel, or they detour onto the parallel Monitor-Merrimac Memorial Bridge-Tunnel instead.

A transplant merges onto I-64 at a normal hour like it's any other highway.

Big mistake.

Virginia is in the middle of a $3.9 billion expansion of the crossing, the largest highway construction project in state history, and the ongoing work has only made the timing trickier.

A driver who hasn't lived through a few backups yet has no instinct for which tunnel to avoid on a given morning.

7. Sleeping Through the River Rush

Richmond, Virginia's James River carries rare Class III-IV rapids, a large, powerful whitewater rating, running straight through downtown, one of the only such stretches in the country according to National Geographic.

The water empties out again well before the workday starts on many mornings.

Some Richmonders who paddle time their runs before work, not after.

Outside magazine crowned Richmond the country's "Best River Town" in a reader vote, and the same stretch still draws kayaks and paddleboards before 7 a.m. on many mornings.

Riverside Outfitters and RVA Paddlesports both run guided trips before the workday even starts.

Locals checking whether the water is runnable that day pull up How's the James, a live gauge site many newcomers have never even heard of.

A transplant new to the city sleeps right through it.

Every time.

They find out the James has rapids at all only when a coworker shows up soaked from the morning run.

Virginia Keeps Filling Up

Virginia's population passed 8.88 million in 2025, adding more than 248,000 residents since the 2020 census.

Net migration drove most of that growth, close to 69% of the total increase.

Not births.

New arrivals added roughly 170,000 people since 2020.

Domestic migration into the state more than doubled between 2024 and 2025 alone, according to the Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service at the University of Virginia.

Northern Virginia grew from about 2.55 million residents in 2020 to more than 2.6 million by 2025.