January ’16 – Trail Condition: That time they predicted mind-boggling amounts of snow

[dasgeh]

@kcb203 133039 wrote:

I think the Bluemont trail may have been plowed. I say this only because a friend who lives near it complained on Facebook that the nearby trail was plowed before her street.

My neighborhood listserve has erupted in a vicious, I mean “spirited” discussion of whether the Custis should be cleared before roads (including the roads with super-steep hills that like 10 people live on and that otherwise no one would drive on). If you appreciate the fact that County is equitably clearing routes for people who use various forms of transportation, now is the time to let the County Manager (countymanager@arlingtonva.us) and County Board (countyboard@arlingtonva.us) know.

Seriously, these people are clearly sitting around, with power, and with nothing better to do, so I’m sure they are firing off emails.

[lordofthemark]

A discussion has started on the City of Alexandria Facebook page on the issue of plows pushing snow onto sidewalks. The city points out that their priority is to make roads passable for emergency vehicles. While accepting this, I suggested that tomorrow, when the focus turns to transportation, the City should honor it’s commitment to modal balance.

[PotomacCyclist]

For those who can walk over to the Crystal City Shops, a few of the stores are open, including Schakolad, Subway and Philadelphia Mike’s. The Pentagon City mall is closed. They will supposedly reopen tomorrow at 11 am.

[PotomacCyclist]

Highline RxR is also open. No food though.

[Steve O]

@dasgeh 133065 wrote:

My neighborhood listserve has erupted in a vicious, I mean “spirited” discussion of whether the Custis should be cleared before roads (including the roads with super-steep hills that like 10 people live on and that otherwise no one would drive on). If you appreciate the fact that County is equitably clearing routes for people who use various forms of transportation, now is the time to let the County Manager (countymanager@arlingtonva.us) and County Board (countyboard@arlingtonva.us) know.

Seriously, these people are clearly sitting around, with power, and with nothing better to do, so I’m sure they are firing off emails.

I’m sure you probably don’t want to weigh in, and rationality may not work well anyway. But you could point out that the county is almost certainly using every single piece of equipment they have, but the machines they use to clear the trail cannot be used to clear roads. So the fact that they have cleared the trail is totally irrelevant to whether or not their street has been cleared.

[dasgeh]

@Steve O 133081 wrote:

I’m sure you probably don’t want to weigh in, and rationality may not work well anyway. But you could point out that the county is almost certainly using every single piece of equipment they have, but the machines they use to clear the trail cannot be used to clear roads. So the fact that they have cleared the trail is totally irrelevant to whether or not their street has been cleared.

It has been pointed out by many. Plenty of folks want every street cleared before any trail because of serving the most people (no, the logic does not hold). Many others are mad that in the middle of what will likely be the blizzard of the decade, their street wasn’t passable.

The listserve comments have actually been about half pro – clearing the trail or at least “whoa you’re over reacting”. A culled version of only negative emails has already been sent to the Board. Please, if you’re stuck at home without power, or if you think over the next few days that Arlington has done a good job with the trails and you appreciate it, please let people know.

[DismalScientist]

Streets are a substitute for trails, but not vice versa. If manpower is the constraint and not machines, streets should be cleared first. During Snomaggeden, we wait almost a week for the first pass of the plow.

[TwoWheelsDC]

@DismalScientist 133090 wrote:

Streets are a substitute for trails, but not vice versa. If manpower is the constraint and not machines, streets should be cleared first. During Snomaggeden, we wait almost a week for the first pass of the plow.

Longfellow and its sidestreets got plowed once yesterday, I think, but nothing today. But they probably skipped West Westover as usual.

[dasgeh]

@DismalScientist 133090 wrote:

Streets are a substitute for trails, but not vice versa. If manpower is the constraint and not machines, streets should be cleared first. During Snomaggeden, we wait almost a week for the first pass of the plow.

My understanding is that the machines used to clear the trails and the people operating those machines could not be used to clear the streets.

[bobco85]

I found this map on the Arlington site that shows the priorities for plowing snow on both roads and trails here: http://gis.arlingtonva.us/gallery/map.html?webmap=292bfb65622f4431b4103b50bf574af1

I also found this from VDOT: http://www.novasnowplowing.virginia.gov/

@dasgeh 133065 wrote:

Seriously, these people are clearly sitting around, with power, and with nothing better to do, so I’m sure they are firing off emails.

They have the energy to complain, yet do they have the energy to work together and clear a street themselves? I mean, if an entire block chipped in for a snowblower, who knows how quickly a street could become passable for driving/cycling/walking?

[PotomacCyclist]

Capital Bikeshare remains closed tomorrow. If conditions improve, they could change their decision. But as of now, no CaBi on Sunday.

http://us7.campaign-archive2.com/?u=82aea0ed5a22304e4d0b18338&id=e8f1d27b3d&e=b16f830972

“Due to the large amounts of snow over the last 36 hours, Capital Bikeshare will remain closed through Sunday January 24. We will reevaluate as conditions change and provide additional information as it becomes available.

Closure and re-opening information will be posted to CapitalBikeshare.com,
Facebook.com/CapitalBikeshare, and Twitter (@bikeshare). Annual, 30-day, and Day Key members will also be informed of closure and re-opening via email.

The Capital Bikeshare Severe Weather Closure Policy can be found at CapitalBikeshare.com/safety/.”

[The photo included in the announcement is credited to Steve O on Twitter.]

[PotomacCyclist]

I think it needs to be noted that the emphasis in so many media reports about the death toll of the blizzard/winter storm is highly misleading. How so? Isn’t 18 deaths bad?

Yes it is. But on an average day, 90 Americans get killed because of car driving, whether it’s drivers or people getting hit by drivers. (Most of the fatalities are car drivers, not pedestrians, motorcyclists or cyclists.) The blizzard conditions greatly reduced the amount of car driving in the Northeast. The greatly reduced amount of car driving also meant a greatly reduced death toll from car driving.

The affected area includes about one-fourth of the U.S. population. I think there is a slightly lower rate of traffic death in urban areas. So maybe the expected death toll from traffic in the Northeast would have been 20-22 today. But the blizzard affected many rural areas as well. Without more detailed study, I’ll just go with dividing the average daily traffic death rate by four and call it close enough. (If someone wants to do a detailed study, taking into account all the variables, be my guest.)

While several people died of heart attacks from shoveling snow or from snow plow incidents, there may have actually been fewer people that died of sudden and traumatic events than there would have been otherwise. None of these sudden/traumatic deaths are good, but at the very least, it’s misleading to talk about a “killer” storm, not when the usual sudden/traumatic death toll actually went down during the weekend. I wouldn’t necessarily celebrate this because I’d much rather read about zero sudden/traumatic deaths. But at the same time, it’s not accurate to think of the blizzard as a horrific event in terms of human loss of life. The death rate from trauma and sudden causes was slightly lower or about average. Thus, I can’t really think of it as a “killer” storm.

I don’t mean to be disrespectful to anyone who was personally affected by any fatalities from the storm. I just want to emphasize that it’s kind of outrageous for so many people across the country to think that 90 American traffic deaths a day is somehow OK and acceptable and a natural part of existence. It isn’t.

[PotomacCyclist]

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Not officially on a bike ride, so I didn’t add it to the “Post your ride pics” thread.

[ginacico]

@consularrider 133030 wrote:

Just wait until they try to plow it. Last year the plow truck (with chains) couldn’t get up the hill after it got so packed down from the sledders. We learned to park a car down on Four Mile Run. Guess I should have mentioned that yesterday.

Um, I think your car is under there somewhere. I assume it will be well preserved until spring thaw. I doubt we’ll see a plow for awhile. Gladly I have no need to drive anywhere, but my Subaru will be fine when I do.

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That said….. the Custis got cleared at least twice yesterday! The W&OD was impassable beyond the junction, though. It was still snowing and blowing like crazy, so it was quickly covered up again. Made for GREAT cross-country skiing. Jesse (accordioneur) and I went down around Bon Air Park, and by the time we came back our outgoing tracks had disappeared.

This was taken about 3:00 PM yesterday. (I’ll post another when I get out there today.)
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Somewhere in the mix, sjclaeys was spotted schlepping his bike through Madison Manor, presumably trying to get in a sleaze mile.

[lordofthemark]

Shoot! I got all my wraps on, and went down to the bike room, which, to remind everyone, is accessible from the outside only. The door was blocked in by snow. I would have clambered over and schlepped the bike out anyway, but the workmen trying to wrestle a dumpster said “it’s closed”. I may go back and shovel it out myself later.

Edit:Shoveling done. Sleaze ride done.

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