It’s not quite the traffic nightmare of Friday, but today’s commute is exceptionally slow in Northern Virginia.
The Arlington stretch of I-66 was backed up earlier, but it’s now beginning to clear out. I-395 North, meanwhile, is still jammed almost the entire way to the I-95 Interchange.
Arlington students are set to return to school this morning after enjoying a snowy, week-long reprieve from classes.
Arlington Public Schools are opening on a two-hour delay today due to continued concerns about road and sidewalk conditions. Over the weekend, the county urged property owners to clear sidewalks so students could safely walk to and from school.
Getting to work was awful, and tonight getting back home was no picnic, either. At least it’s a three day weekend.
Could anything else go wrong on outgoing Metro General Manager John Catoe’s watch? Catoe leaves office on April 2, which may be time enough for Metro to have another major, every-one’s-commute-affected catastrophe.
Today started out with Metrorail only serving the closer-to-the-city stations, leaving those in the outer suburbs to fend for themselves. Many people chose to drive, causing highways to turn into parking lots.
Update at 12:10 PM – It’s noon and the traffic still looks like it did at 9:30, when the picture to the left was taken. At this point don’t you just turn around and head home?
Update at 10:10 AM – Metro trains on the Orange Line are running about once every 45 minutes, resulting in a huge crowd of waiting passengers at Ballston station, according to a reader via Twitter.
Clarendon’s Screwtop Wine Bar received a flattering write-up in today’s Washington Post.
One local’s conclusion about the two-month-old wine bar and cheese shop? Screwtop is “just what the neighborhood needed.”
Those hoping to ride the Blue, Orange or Yellow line from Arlington toward Alexandria or Fairfax County are out of luck. Metro has announced that it is running limited rail and bus service today.
Trains are running between the following stations:
We learned that the county received emergency support from the state in advance of Wednesday’s blizzard. Eight front end loader and 16 operators arrived from Richmond Monday night.
We also learned who was driving all those dump trucks and other heavy equipment, seen on main corridors during the height of the storms. Starting on Friday, on the eve of Snowmageddon, the county contracted with the following companies to provide snow removal services: DHC Corporation, Bell Brothers, Inc., Rock Hard Contracting, Inc., Sagres Construction, Inc., Martin & Gass, Inc., and DRC Emergency Services, LLC.
Almost missed this one. While we were in the midst of yesterday’s blizzard, the Virginia House of Delegates passed a bill that would ban the forced implantation of microchips in people.
RFID chips are already being implanted in humans voluntarily for use as portable health records. Some groups have objected to the use of implantable microchips due to privacy concerns. But some fundamentalist Christians — and at least two Virginia lawmakers — believe that the microchips may be used as the antichrist’s “mark of the beast,” from the Book of Revelations.
IOTA Club and Cafe in Clarendon is hosting a benefit concert for Haiti tonight. Remember Haiti? It’s the place we were feeling sorry for before we had three feet of snow dumped on us.
The concert will feature local acts Will Rast and the Funk Arc, DC Traffic, Rico and The Lighthorse Band. Proceeds will benefit the Red Cross.
Update: The bill has narrowly passed the House Transportation Committee. The Virginia Bicycling Federation is calling on supporters to call their local delegate in advance of an upcoming vote before the full House.
From 2/9/10:
Arlington’s snow removal crews are heading back into the neighborhoods to finish what they started (and what they did not start) on Monday. From the county’s web site:
Arlington’s snow crews worked overnight following yesterday’s blizzard conditions to clear primary and secondary roadways. Today, trucks are beginning to move into neighborhood streets. The snow operations team will work to prioritize streets that were not plowed or treated following the February 5th storm, but please note crews must pass through and clear some previously plowed streets in order to reach these unplowed streets.
