FABB Blog

 

Respect for all transportation modes

We attended the Board of Supervisors Snow Summit last week and listened as VDOT discussed the logistics of plowing the roads of Northern Virginia. By most accounts, clearing the roads after the historic snowfall was handled well, but as we all know, one of the side effects was that snow and ice were dumped on sidewalks and trails, blocking access for people who don't drive. Walking to schools, bus stops, or just about anywhere else was nearly impossible, and made much worse by VDOT snow clearing. There was no mention of this problem by VDOT; they only discussed clearing snow for cars, trucks, and buses.

We're pleased that today's Post contains our letter to the editor (Virginia's other snow routes) suggesting some ways that VDOT could avoid this situation in the future.

Labels: snow summit, vdot

posted by Bruce Wright at 8:42 PM #

 

Snow summit

The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors will hold a Snow Summit to "focus on this winter's snow and assess both what worked well and what did not at the state - Virginia Department of Transportation - and county levels. The lessons learned from this summit will be invaluable not only for the next snow storm, but for any emergency."

If you have ideas about what local government can do to help bicyclists after the next big snowstorm, now is the time to send them to the Board. On the Snow Summit webpage you can "Write about your experiences with the storms and how they impacted your family, neighborhood and/or business." (tell us) or provide a "new idea." The top list of new ideas is:

• 48 (number of responses) - Require Sidewalk Shoveling
• 44 - Map with location of fire hydrants
• 37 - Better Web Information Services
• 34 - Come up with "snow emergency" parking and ticketing rules
• 30 - Clearing streets vs. clearing sidewalks

The county has done a good job of using crowdsourcing tools to gather this info.

Update: Details about the Snow Summit:

• Tuesday, March 16, 2010 at 3:30 p.m.
• Fairfax County Government Center
• Board Auditorium
• 12000 Government Center Parkway
• Fairfax, VA

Labels: snow, snow summit

posted by Bruce Wright at 3:29 PM #