While that may have been arguably true for my experience with the 2017 total solar eclipse in the United States, that was not true for my experience with the 2019 total solar eclipse in Chile, as no other viable road options existed.

Lesson to be learned: expect at least triple the usual traffic time when driving away from totality — regardless of where you are...

...but my logic was that getting to the site of the total solar eclipse was far more important than leaving. I did not really care how much time leaving took — as long as my experience was successful.