PotomacCyclist
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January 25, 2016 at 2:54 pm in reply to: January ’16 – Trail Condition: That time they predicted mind-boggling amounts of snow #1046147
PotomacCyclist
ParticipantARLNOW posted a link to the Arlington Snow Plow Status Map. Green means the street has been plowed (although more snow could have fallen or blown onto those streets after the first pass). The dark lines are roads and highways not maintained by Arlington (VDOT or federal agencies or privately-maintained streets).
You can click to display “Bike Routes – Snow Removal Priority Trails” in the Layers menu. I think the map only displays trails maintained by Arlington, so the status of the MVT and W&OD don’t appear to be included on the map.
The map is updated at noon and midnight. (It wasn’t updated over the weekend during the worst of the storm.)
The County is now working on clearing neighborhood streets.
https://www.arlnow.com/2016/01/25/major-roads-passable-as-county-enters-phase-3-of-snow-removal/NOTE – The strong winds and heavy snow ended on Saturday so it’s unlikely that plowed streets would have gotten covered up again after they were plowed. But snow and melted snow could have frozen overnight.
January 25, 2016 at 2:44 pm in reply to: January ’16 – Trail Condition: That time they predicted mind-boggling amounts of snow #1046143ParticipantEven other species are hard at work clearing the snow in Kentucky. I’m not sure how effective he is though. He seems to be shoveling the snow back into the street.
[video]https://www.facebook.com/TheWeatherChannel/videos/10153997113400921/[/video]
January 25, 2016 at 3:14 am in reply to: Capital Bikeshare closing during the storm at 7 pm Fri Jan. 22, 2016 #1046129Participant“Capital Bikeshare will remain closed Monday, 1/25. Our staff will begin the process of digging out stations during the day tomorrow, and we will determine if we can resume service as we measure our progress in the big dig out.”
http://us7.campaign-archive2.com/?u=82aea0ed5a22304e4d0b18338&id=9c623c518f&e=b16f830972
January 24, 2016 at 11:12 pm in reply to: January ’16 – Trail Condition: That time they predicted mind-boggling amounts of snow #1046108ParticipantAs noted in the lengthy post above, all area governments (including the federal government) are closed tomorrow. All school systems are closed. (Verify with the websites for your local system just to be sure. Links to all websites are included in the post above.) MetroRail will only operate on underground lines in and connecting to central DC. (All rides will be free on Monday.) Metrobus is only operating a very limited schedule on certain routes and partial routes.
Some school systems have already announced closures for Tue. as well.
Possible rain on Tue. night/Wed. morning along with some flurries or light snow. Weather Underground forecasts less than an inch of snow, if there is any measurable accumulation at all.
But on Thursday night, there could be ice pellets, with an accumulation overnight of 1 to 3 inches. I’m not sure if that means ice, snow or ice/snow mix. It’s possible that roads and trails will be in rough condition on Friday morning.
January 24, 2016 at 8:40 pm in reply to: January ’16 – Trail Condition: That time they predicted mind-boggling amounts of snow #1046096ParticipantI would be very surprised to see many businesses open tomorrow.
UPDATE – The federal government has announced that DC-area offices will be closed on Monday. Many private businesses follow the lead of the fed. gov’t, so most of them will be closed too.
CLOSURES FOR MONDAY, JAN. 25
*** FEDERAL GOVERNMENT ***
https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/snow-dismissal-procedures/current-status/
“Washington, DC Area
Applies to: Monday, January 25, 2016
STATUS: FEDERAL OFFICES ARE CLOSED – EMERGENCY AND TELEWORK-READY EMPLOYEES MUST FOLLOW THEIR AGENCY’S POLICIESFEDERAL OFFICES in the Washington, DC area are CLOSED. Emergency and telework-ready employees required to work must follow their agency’s policies, including written telework agreements.”
ARLINGTON
https://www.facebook.com/ArlingtonVA/posts/10153392850802776
“Arlington County government offices, courts, & facilities are closed Monday, Jan. 25, due to treacherous travel conditions. All programs are cancelled. If possible, stay off the roads while snow removal efforts continue throughout the day.”
“Monday (1/25): All APS Schools & Offices Will Be Closed
All schools and offices will be closed on Mon, Jan. 25. Extracurricular activities, interscholastic games, team practices, field trips, adult education classes, and programs in schools and on school grounds are canceled.Tuesday (1/26): All APS Schools Closed; Status for Offices TBD
All schools will be closed on Tue, Jan. 26. School officials will announce the status of operations for buildings and offices on Monday afternoon.”DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
“DC Public Schools will be closed tomorrow, Monday, January 25, 2016.
Essential personnel should report to schools to prepare the buildings for opening.”FAIRFAX COUNTY
“Government offices, courts and schools CLOSED, Monday, Jan. 25.”
CITY OF ALEXANDRIA
“All City government facilities, as well as the Alexandria Courthouse at 520 King Street, will be closed on Monday, January 25.”
http://www.acps.k12.va.us/emergency/
“Monday, 1/25: ACPS SCHOOLS AND OFFICES ARE CLOSED. LAS ESCUELAS Y OFICINAS DE ACPS ESTARÁN CERRADAS.”
FALLS CHURCH
http://www.fccps.org/index.php?lang=en
“Falls Church City Public Schools and Day Care will be closed Monday, January 25, 2016.”
LOUDOUN COUNTY
https://www.loudoun.gov/CivicAlerts.aspx?AID=3090
“Monday, January 25, 2016: Loudoun County Government will be closed on Monday, January 25, 2016.”
“Loudoun County Public Schools announced that all schools will be closed Monday, January 25, and Tuesday, January 26, 2016. Visit http://www.lcps.org for up-to-date information about schools and school activities.”
PRINCE GEORGE’S COUNTY
https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=1200252603337480&id=237192356310181&fref=nf
@PrinceGeorgesMD government will be closed tomorrow Monday, January 25th.
“ALERT: Code Yellow – PGCPS schools and offices are closed on Monday, January 25, 2016. EMERGENCY PERSONNEL only must report to work.”
MONTGOMERY COUNTY
http://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/home.aspx
“Montgomery County Government and Facilities Closed Monday, January 25. Essential personnel must report as scheduled.
No trash/recycling pickup on Monday 1/25.”http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/
“MCPS Schools Closed January 25 & 26; Administrative Offices Closed January 25
Montgomery County Public Schools and all administrative offices are closed Monday (Jan 25) due to emergency weather conditions. All school, childcare and community activities in school buildings are canceled.
Montgomery County Public Schools are also closed Tuesday (Jan 26) due to emergency weather conditions. All school and community activities in school buildings are canceled.”
HOWARD COUNTY
http://www.howardcountymd.gov/
“Howard County Government offices will be closed Monday, January 25.”
“All Howard County public schools and offices are closed Monday, January 25, 2016.”
CAPITAL BIKESHARE CB
http://us7.campaign-archive2.com/?u=82aea0ed5a22304e4d0b18338&id=9c623c518f&e=b16f830972
“Capital Bikeshare will remain closed Monday, 1/25. Our staff will begin the process of digging out stations during the day tomorrow, and we will determine if we can resume service as we measure our progress in the big dig out.”
NATIONAL ZOO
“UPDATE: The Zoo will also be closed Monday, Jan. 25.”
*****
LIMITED METRORAIL AND METROBUS SERVICE ONLY
“The Metrorail system will open at 7 a.m. with limited underground service on the Red, Orange and Green lines.
Orange Line: Ballston to Eastern Market only
Red Line: Medical Center to Union Station only
Green Line: Fort Totten to Anacostia onlyAt the start of service, trains will run every 20-25 minutes. Service levels may be upgraded as conditions allow. The system will remain open until midnight. Fares will not be charged on Metrorail on Monday, January 25.
Metrobus service will operate Monday from 12 p.m. until 5 p.m. on Lifeline Service, meaning service will be limited to 22 routes only. Additionally, many of these routes will operate on snow emergency routes only to keep vehicles off hilly terrain, narrow side streets and other problem areas.”
DC CIRCULATOR BUS
“The District Department of Transportation (DDOT) announced today that the DC Circulator will resume limited service Monday, January 25.
Circulator buses will operate on the Georgetown-Union Station and Woodley Park-Adams Morgan-McPherson Square routes beginning at 12 pm and ending at 5 pm. Buses will operate on 20-minute headways. DC Circulator is following the service resumption plan announced by WMATA for Metrobus earlier today.”
*****
Some restaurants and retailers were open yesterday and today.
– Arlington Cinema & Drafthouse is open.
https://www.facebook.com/drafthouseThe Wizards game on Monday, Jan. 25, will be played as scheduled at Verizon Center.
http://wizardstoday.monumentalnetwork.com/2016/01/25/wizards-celtics-game-to-be-played-as-scheduled
https://twitter.com/Monumentalntwrk
http://verizoncenter.monumentalnetwork.com/events/January 24, 2016 at 6:44 pm in reply to: January ’16 – Trail Condition: That time they predicted mind-boggling amounts of snow #1046091ParticipantPosted on the CaBi Facebook page — future proposals for Capital Skishare during blizzards. (Not serious, in case anyone is upset by this.)
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Participant@cvcalhoun 133102 wrote:
On our street, it wouldn’t have mattered. No snow plows have yet been by.
More generally, I think there are two differences between bikes and motor vehicles
- Bicyclists can hear the snow plow coming, and get out of its way. It’s just not that hard to drag a bike up onto the sidewalk (or over the curb, even if there is no sidewalk), and keep it there until the snow plow has finished.
- If a bicycle goes out of control, only the bicyclist is likely to get hurt. It won’t crash into parked cars or injure pedestrians.
If you’re not willing or able to get the bike out of the way of snow plows, then you shouldn’t be biking. But if you are, I can’t see the harm.
It wouldn’t have been possible to drag a bike onto the sidewalk yesterday, at least on the roads in Pentagon City and Crystal City. As I mentioned earlier, the initial snowplow runs pushed the early snow onto the sides of the streets, creating snowbanks from 2 to 7 feet high. Even where there weren’t any artificial snowbanks, the rest of the curbs were buried under 10-20 inches of snow. There’s no way any cyclist is going to be able to move onto the sidewalk quickly in those conditions.
In the mid-afternoon, when a new storm wave rolled in, the wind was whipping around the snow. Visibility was extremely poor. I was walking on the sidewalk for a couple brief periods. I don’t think I would have heard a snowplow with all that wind hitting my face and creating a roar. All the sounds would have blended together. If I would have been riding, I would have been focused on maintaining my balance and I would have been distracted by the sound of the wind and all those ice pellets hitting my face.
These are a few photos of the conditions, taken while I was walking around on the nearby sidewalks (not in the street). I really don’t think it would have been safe for anyone to have been biking or driving yesterday. When I was walking around, I only saw one driver (other than the snowplows) and one cyclist (who later returned down the street with his dog on a leash).
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Participant@cvcalhoun 133102 wrote:
On our street, it wouldn’t have mattered. No snow plows have yet been by.
More generally, I think there are two differences between bikes and motor vehicles
- Bicyclists can hear the snow plow coming, and get out of its way. It’s just not that hard to drag a bike up onto the sidewalk (or over the curb, even if there is no sidewalk), and keep it there until the snow plow has finished.
- If a bicycle goes out of control, only the bicyclist is likely to get hurt. It won’t crash into parked cars or injure pedestrians.
If you’re not willing or able to get the bike out of the way of snow plows, then you shouldn’t be biking. But if you are, I can’t see the harm.
It wouldn’t have been possible to drag a bike onto the sidewalk yesterday, at least on the roads in Pentagon City and Crystal City. As I mentioned earlier, the initial snowplow runs pushed the early snow onto the sides of the streets, creating snowbanks from 2 to 7 feet high. Even where there weren’t any artificial snowbanks, the rest of the curbs were buried under 10-20 inches of snow. There’s no way any cyclist is going to be able to move onto the sidewalk quickly in those conditions.
In the mid-afternoon, when a new storm wave rolled in, the wind was whipping around the snow. Visibility was extremely poor. I was walking on the sidewalk for a couple brief periods. I don’t think I would have heard a snowplow with all that wind hitting my face and creating a roar. All the sounds would have blended together. If I would have been riding, I would have been focused on maintaining my balance and I would have been distracted by the sound of the wind and all those ice pellets hitting my face.
These are a few photos of the conditions, taken while I was walking around on the nearby sidewalks (not in the street). I really don’t think it would have been safe for anyone to have been biking or driving yesterday. When I was walking around, I only saw one driver (other than the snowplows) and one cyclist (who later returned down the street with his dog on a leash).
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January 24, 2016 at 4:06 am in reply to: January ’16 – Trail Condition: That time they predicted mind-boggling amounts of snow #1046064Participant[ATTACH=CONFIG]10588[/ATTACH]
Not officially on a bike ride, so I didn’t add it to the “Post your ride pics” thread.
January 24, 2016 at 2:07 am in reply to: January ’16 – Trail Condition: That time they predicted mind-boggling amounts of snow #1046051ParticipantI 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.
January 24, 2016 at 1:52 am in reply to: January ’16 – Trail Condition: That time they predicted mind-boggling amounts of snow #1046047ParticipantCapital 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.]
January 24, 2016 at 1:50 am in reply to: Capital Bikeshare closing during the storm at 7 pm Fri Jan. 22, 2016 #1046046Participant“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/.
Thank you for your cooperation.
DDOT, Arlington County, the City of Alexandria, Montgomery County,
Operated by Motivate International.”
http://us7.campaign-archive2.com/?u=82aea0ed5a22304e4d0b18338&id=e8f1d27b3d&e=b16f830972
[Photo Credit: Steve O on Twitter]
ParticipantNot always. I walked around (on the sidewalks) for a little bit. When that wind is howling, you’re not going to hear the plows.
As for people not getting out of the way of plows, I can believe it. Drivers, pedestrians and cyclists engage in this passive-aggressive behavior even on non-blizzard days (such as when pedestrians will jaywalk and step into oncoming 40 mph traffic and expect drivers to slam on the brakes, which I’ve actually seen happen several times). Was there an official ban on private traffic today in the DC area? If not, I’m not sure what the government has to do with it. I think it’s smart to advise people to avoid non-emergency trips on days like today. I saw several people walking in the middle of streets and roads. When a lot of people do that, that will definitely slow down plowing operations by a significant amount.
January 23, 2016 at 11:52 pm in reply to: January ’16 – Trail Condition: That time they predicted mind-boggling amounts of snow #1046022ParticipantHighline RxR is also open. No food though.
January 23, 2016 at 10:47 pm in reply to: January ’16 – Trail Condition: That time they predicted mind-boggling amounts of snow #1046018ParticipantFor 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.
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