No snow clearing this winter

[TwoWheelsDC]

$100,000 is a lot of money when the county only has $300 million surplus cash-on-hand…

[consularrider]

@TwoWheelsDC 67989 wrote:

$100,000 is a lot of money when the county only has $300 million surplus cash-on-hand…

Of course when we were getting our bike/pedestrian count indoctrination in September, the county rep stated that the trail clearing policy had changed and that money was available to clear the high traffic routes. This was after saying that the automatic trail counters recorded a hugh drop off in trail usage during the big snow events of the 2009/2010 winter and the case was made that clearing the trails should be a priority. And don’t get the discussion restarted on the street car, aquatic center, bus shelter, dog parks, bocce courts, etc debates. That and the county can’t get its act together to do its part to clear snow off county property sidewalks for kids to walk to school, but is able to enact an ordinance for home and business owners. Over to Arlnow.com to enjoy that site’s comments pages on these topics. grumble, grumble, grumble.

[chris_s]

I’ve emailed the County Manager and County Board suggesting that this would be an excellent expenditure to include in the budget close-out (where the board decides what to do with any money that didn’t get spent in the current fiscal year) because I believe that process is happening in November. It certainly wouldn’t hurt if others made the same suggestion. Even if it is too late to get it included in closeout it will demonstrate support for including it in next year’s budget.

[Tim Kelley]

Thank you.

[kcb203]

@Steve O 67983 wrote:

Chris Slatt posted this message from David Goodman of the Arlington County Staff on the Arlington County Bicycle Advisory Committee list serve this morning:

As I have told the committee before, if Arlington continues to insist that it somehow deserves to be considered for a Gold Bicycle-Friendly Community certification from the League of American Bicyclists, I will personally go down to their offices and lobby to have it rolled back to Silver. No community that treats its bicycle and ped transportation corridors as second-class to its roads deserves to consider itself somehow among the elite communities in the United States.

How can it cost $10K to have a snowplow drive up the Custis then down the W&OD? That’s 2 hours of plowing, tops.

I wish I could cross country ski. I’ve always thought the best plowing policy would be to leave them unplowed as long as they’re skiable, then once bare spots develop, plow it. I realize at that point it’s packed down ice and hard to plow. Hmm.

[jabberwocky]

@kcb203 68027 wrote:

How can it cost $10K to have a snowplow drive up the Custis then down the W&OD? That’s 2 hours of plowing, tops.

I wish I could cross country ski. I’ve always thought the best plowing policy would be to leave them unplowed as long as they’re skiable, then once bare spots develop, plow it. I realize at that point it’s packed down ice and hard to plow. Hmm.

I’ve always seen the “cross country ski” thing as a barely concealed excuse to avoid the cost of plowing. I rode the W&OD all winter long for several years and never saw someone on skis, even when there was lots of snow on the ground. I did see lots of people walking/running/cycling on it though, even when it was a snowy, icy, rutted, dangerous mess.

They really need to just treat it like the transportation corridor that it plainly is.

[americancyclo]

I skied on the W&OD those two big snowstorm years we had. I also skied down Broad St. in Falls Church City since it was so desolate. I think XC skiers would be fine using the gravel running tracks alongside the trail, on the assumption we have enough snow to merit that activity at all.

[consularrider]

@jabberwocky 68029 wrote:

I’ve always seen the “cross country ski” thing as a barely concealed excuse to avoid the cost of plowing. I rode the W&OD all winter long for several years and never saw someone on skis, even when there was lots of snow on the ground. I did see lots of people walking/running/cycling on it though, even when it was a snowy, icy, rutted, dangerous mess.

They really need to just treat it like the transportation corridor that it plainly is.

I’ve got a pair of 35 year old waxless cross-country skis that I’ve used very little in the Arlington area. However, during the 2009/2010 snow events I was out skiing every day that my office was closed and headed from my neighborhood to Shirlington on a combination of the 4MRT and the W&OD. I’ve also skied from my neighborhood up the Custis Trail, across the Key Bridge into Geogetown. Most of our snow events do not drop enough snow for good skiing on the MUPs and the quality of the snow is poor for my equipment, too wet so that it sticks and clumps on the bottoms of the skis.

[jabberwocky]

I’ve heard that people do actually ski on it, I just never saw anyone (or even saw tracks that I can remember). Obviously, when the snow was really deep I generally wasn’t riding. Pushing a bike through 12″ of snow was a bit much for me.

Even conceding that, I would bet that the number of people riding/running/walking during snow events outnumbered XC skiers by a few orders of magnitude.

[Rootchopper]

I love the language in the last paragraph. Maybe Arlington County cyclists should send in a statement like this in lieu of their property taxes:

My financial status at this time does not allow me to accommodate your request for funds. I spent it all on bicycles, sewing machines, and espresso. During next year’s household budget discussions, I will raise your proposal again with my she who will not be named, a.k.a the quilter. Thank you for your concern.

[chris_s]

I put up a post on my blog about it encouraging folks to write the county if anyone wants to reference it in a Blog Post, Facebook Share, Tweet, etc.

http://www.alongthepike.com/archive/2013/10/31/still-no-money-in-budget-to-plow-arlingtons-trails.aspx

[KWL]

@jabberwocky 68029 wrote:

I’ve always seen the “cross country ski” thing as a barely concealed excuse to avoid the cost of plowing. I rode the W&OD all winter long for several years and never saw someone on skis, even when there was lots of snow on the ground. I did see lots of people walking/running/cycling on it though, even when it was a snowy, icy, rutted, dangerous mess.

They really need to just treat it like the transportation corridor that it plainly is.

Yes. A number of years ago I got a response from the GW Parkway folks that the MVT should not be cleared because it is a multi-modal trail that skiers should be allowed to use. The thing is, within 24 hours the footprints and bicycle tire tracks freeze and no skier in their right mind would be caught dead using the trail. Ski tracks I’ve seen during the winter have always been off the trail.

[DCAKen]

A few years back, I wrote to the Rock Creek Park staff about their failure to clear the snow from the trail. Their response also justified their lack of plowing with the specter of cross country skiers.

Due to the fact that it is a multi use trail there can be conflicts in
philosophy between those who believe we should leave the snow for
recreational purposes such as cross country skiing and those who use it to
bike on and feel it should be cleared down to asphalt. Finding the happy
medium is not always possible but we make an effort to do so. This was
less of an issue in past years because we did not have this continuum of
cold weather. To answer your question- why the trail doesn’t get the same
attention a week after the snow ? – if its icy and unsafe, a week after a
snow, it should be getting that attention. Our overall goal and guiding
principal is to keep the trail safe. If in the future you notice areas
that need attention please let me know and we’ll take care of it.

[mstone]

@DCAKen 68134 wrote:

A few years back, I wrote to the Rock Creek Park staff about their failure to clear the snow from the trail. Their response also justified their lack of plowing with the specter of cross country skiers. <"if its icy and unsafe, a week after a snow, it should be getting that attention">

lol, if a major snow is not plowed before getting trampled, it’s guaranteed to be icy and unsafe a week after a snow–and nearly impossible to fix.

[DismalScientist]

@mstone 68144 wrote:

lol, if a major snow is not plowed before getting trampled, it’s guaranteed to be icy and unsafe a week after a snow–and nearly impossible to fix.

Of course, that would probably smooth out the Rock Creek trail.:rolleyes:

[Author]

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