Plans to plow the W&OD Trail
While we do much of our riding on the road, but we also use the W&OD Trail to get to Vienna and points east and to Herndon and points west. It's been discouraging that the Trail still remains snow-covered several days after the last snowfall. Most roads are clear of snow, although we did notice that some roads, such as Soapstone Dr in Reston where the outside travel lanes were not completely clear of snow, have undergone a road diet and seem to be functioning fine. Maybe VDOT should experiment with
road diets where feasible by not plowing outside lanes and intentionally creating narrower roads to see how traffic flows. The same is true of
curb radii; intersections where snow is still on the edges (including blocking the sidewalks and trails) now have much narrower turning radii and they're working fine.
Anyway, we just learned that the
Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority has ordered a John Deere snow blower that attaches to one of their tractors. They hope to have the blower by mid-February. While they don't have a formal policy, it's expected that once the trail becomes snow-covered, NVRPA will begin to clear the Trail, including at intersections, where snow plowed from the street has piled up. They will allow a few days after the snowfall to provide skiers or snowshoe users time to use the trail.
Labels: road diet, snow, W and OD Trail
posted by Bruce Wright at 4:50 PM permalink
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