Explaining DC’s Irrational Fear of Snow
For my friends not in DC, let me explain the city’s tendency to fold like a cheap suit in the face of potential snow. It has noting to do with ACTUAL snow, but rather the potential impact on traffic.
Two years ago April and I had to go into downtown DC at rush hour. The government had announced a closure at 3pm, but since it wasn’t snowing at 3pm, everyone stayed at work until rush hour. That’s when the snow arrived en masse. It took us 2 1/2 hours to go from DC to McLean (a total distance of about 8 miles). I had friends that were stuck in traffic for 8 hours or more trying to get home.
A study last year indicates DC has the worst traffic in the country – and that’s on a good day. When DC’s already terrible roads are covered with a layer of snow and ice, they become truly horrific.
So it seems completely ridiculous that we shut down at the hint of snow, but they’d rather that than strand the 5.4 million people in the Beltway area in traffic. It often results in shutting down, and no snow ends up falling, but that’s the logic.
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When my Dad lived here while dating my mom, he was in the Army and he always said that if anyone ever wanted to attack DC they just needed to wait for a snowstorm.
A study last year ranked DC as the worst traffic in the country – and that’s on a normal day. You pack on a few inches of snow, and it’s downright lethal. The vast majority of roads in DC meander all over the place, so unlike New York’s grid system, you’ve compounded problems even worse. http://capitalnews.vcu.edu/2013/02/05/study-ranks-d-c-traffic-worst-in-u-s/
Oh I totally agree with you that it’s a traffic thing, and take your point about the roads. But DC drivers, I noticed immediately upon moving here, can’t drive in ANY weather. Rain, wind, beautiful sunny day. Not sure what that is…
I think a lot of people move here from cities laid out on a grid and simply can’t process the lack of any straight roads.
9:58 am. Now just starting to snow in downtown/Capitol Hill.
Yes, Steven, but the alternative is bring people in from 9-12 and then dump them into traffic when it’s supposed to be the worst.
this right?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/26/AR2011012608980.html
Drivers in Seattle have the same inability to drive in any weather condition. Rain, sun, snow, fog… Weather leaves people here completely flummoxed.
Yup, Adam. That was the perfect combination of storm, rush hour, and DC hubris.
L.A. has kind of a crooked and broken grid system, but I definitely wasn’t used to all the narrow, sometimes one-way streets, that don’t allow you to turn left at certain hours, or the lack of free parking lots in the city.
That leads to delivery trucks parked in weird places, people making weird maneuvers when an unfamiliar street doesn’t allow them to do something they planned on doing, and some people clogging up the streets while they look for decent parking.
Also, people from different cities adopt certain local conventions about what’s acceptable and how to communicate with other drivers. Throw them together into one city and everyone gets frustrated with each other.
I think I stole that last part from Megan McArdle: http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2010/09/its-official-dc-has-the-worst-drivers-anywhere/62555/
I need to meet Megan at some point. I’ve been a fan of hers for years, but we’ve never crossed paths.
And with every snowstorm we have people who recently moved here and are seeing snow for the first time; they don’t know how to drive in icy conditions.
Living here almost 7 years it just takes that one intensely bad experience to bring full on PTSD with some people. The traffic is THAT bad.
I actually enjoy the fact that the city empties out for this very reason.
I always figured you had so many people who learned to drive in so many different places, and in different conditions. Put it all together and that creates the traffic shit show that is DC.
Especially with the huge foreign influence. People from MANY countries simply don’t get how we can drive so badly give that our average two-lane road is the equivalent of an eight lane highway back home.
I ride the VRE into DC. Two stations are each less than three miles from my home. A great way in/out of the city.
More than that, we tend to be warm enough that we get that layer that melts and then re-freezes immediately. I just saw the trucks scrape the road in front of me. While the snow’s gone, the road is glazed. Glad I don’t have to drive in that tomorrow morning.
It’d be nice if officials explained that traffic is the reason for worrying about winter weather.
I learned to drive around here, but spent nearly 5 years in Wisconsin, two riding motorcycle and nearly three driving a car.
I was pretty good back then at dealing with snow and ice. The problem here is most people don’t know how.