Capital Crescent Trail, after the snow

 

I took a walk on the Capital Crescent Trail between River Road and Downtown Bethesda today.  The trail is clear to bare pavement the whole way there.  There were a lot of people out walking and a few people running or biking on the trail.  The county has done a very good job clearing it this storm. 

Capital Crescent Trail at Little Falls Parkway

 

 

Bikeshare Bike

This bikeshare station along River Road at the Capital Crescent trail has been visited by the bike angels post-snow storm.  There were two red bikesare bikes and one electric bike at the station and the wheels were on top of the snow (and you could see tire tracks on top of the snow) so they were clearly added post-storm.

River Road in the snow

The road itself is clear, but the bike lanes and sidewalks are not.  People have to walk along the partially cleared lane, or, like the guy at the top, run down the suicide lane in the middle.

Breakdown

Two people were putting gas in this bobcat in the suicide lane on River Road.  Not sure if that was the only problem or if other issues were also there.  Notice that the right lane in both directions is full of snow and not passable.

 

I saw someone on a side trail skiing.

 

 

 

 

Snow in Bethesda

Yesterday we got about 7 inches of snow and sleet in Bethesda, Maryland.  I walked around downtown Bethesda this afternoon (roughly 3pm-4pm) to see how the city is recovering.  Overall, the main roads are in decent shape.  Often at least one of the lanes isn't fully plowed, but there aren't many cars out right now so that isn't a real issue. It may be in the coming days as people go back to work though. A lot of the sidewalks are clear in the downtown area, but not all of them are, especially problematic are along Old Georgetown Road and along Wisconsin Avenue, as well as at intersections where snow has been piled up by plows.

Some snow on Old Georgetown

Old Georgetown Road had at least two lanes clear, but in some places there was still a little bit of loose snow on the road. 

More snow on Old Georgetown

Snow on Wisconsin

 

Walking in the road

The blocked sidewalks and high snow at intersections is forcing these folks to walk in the road on Wisconsin Avenue.  This is dangerous for everyone involved.

Capital Crescent Trail: plowed to the asphalt

Bike Lane

The separated bike lane on Woodmont Avenue had been cleared at some point, but is now covered with snow again.

 

Snowy sidewalk on St. Elmo

Uncleared sidewalk on Woodmont

Not all neighborhood streets are plowed

 

Clearing Bethesda Lane

 

All that snow has to go somewhere, in places it is piled quite high

No Broccoli

 Fresh vegetables were in short supply at Lidl this afternoon.  There was no fresh broccoli in the store.  There was, however, frozen broccoli, whic is just as good for you so I got that instead.

 

 

A good week for snow in Bethesda

 

Southbound on Old Georgetown Road at Democracy Blvd

It's been a good week for snow here in Bethesda.  At the beginning of the week we got 4+ inches which closed school on Tuesday and Wednesday, then last night and today we got another 3 or so.  School was again closed.  By this afternoon the accumulation had mostly stopped though there were still flurries coming down.

The roads are wet but clear. Bike lanes, on the other hand, are not clear. There doesn't appear to be a plan for clearing them.

Looking south on Old Georgetown Road

This is the intersection with Cheshire Drive, at the south end of Wildwood.  Driving is fine now but things will freeze up overnight so consider curling up with a cup of hot cocoa tonight instead of going out.

Wildwood parking lot

Parking lots are not in as good shape as the roads, but they were actively clearing them at both Wildwood and Georgetown Square.

What to expect on the roads in Bethesda this morning

I saved some images from the traffic cameras so that you can see how many lanes are open on the roads leading in to downtown Bethesda.  I saved these pictures at 7 this morning.  You can see that most roads are only one or two lanes each direction.  Even heavily used roads like Old Georgetown Road and East-West Highway are only one lane each way.

Wisconsin Ave and Bradley Blvd,  looks like two lanes each direction are open

MD-355 at Ceder Ln, heading towards NIH and downtown.  Two lanes open

Bradley Blvd at Arlington Rd, one lane open each direction

East-West Hwy at Montgomery Ave.  Looks to me like there is about one and a half lanes open

Old Georgetown Rd at Arlington Rd.  One lane each direction

Old Georgetown Rd at Cedar Ln One lane plus two half lanes.

Woodmont Ave and Norfolk Ave. One lane each way plus the turn lane

Are Bethesda roads ready for you?

Arlington Road and Bethesda Avenue

 So you've been cooped up in your house/apartment for the past 3 days, your neighborhood road just got plowed and you are ready to get out and get to work first thing in the morning.  But are the roads ready for you?  I drove around downtown Bethesda, MD this evening and the answer is "probably not".  Most of the roads were wet and plowed down to the pavement, but only for one lane each direction.  Even Old Georgetown Road is one lane each way (plus the suicide turn lane in the middle), there doesn't seem to be any place to put the snow.  Even places where it is two lanes don't last long before being filled with piles of snow again.

As more people head back to work on roads that can handle significantly fewer cars than usual, be prepared for delays.

Bethesda Avenue sidewalk near Uncle Julios

  

Even the sidewalks are narrowed if they are clear at all.

Bethesda Avenue at the parking garage

Snow, wonderful snow

We now have well over a foot of snow here in Bethesda, MD and it much more to come.  I went out this morning to take a look around.  The state and county are doing a pretty good job keeping the roads passable (at least for 4-wheel drive vehicles) and this is helped by almost no one being out on them.  With few exceptions, the only vehicles on the road are state/county plows and private plowing contractors going from job to job.

Snow is still coming down hard and there is over a foot on the ground.  Interstate 495 has been plowed but is mostly deserted, only a single car drives on it.

A front-end loader equipped with a plow clears snow on Old Georgetown Road

A John Deere tractor, equipped with a plow clears snow on Old Georgetown Road

The county is pulling out all the stops, even putting a plow on the front of this full-size tractor

The intersection of Old Georgetown Rd and Democracy Blvd. Both roads have been plowed, but there are a couple of inches of packed snow on them, and the intersection itself has small mounds of snow in it.

Sign for Interstate 495 in the snow.

Prepping for the Impending Doom snow

It is getting close to time for the snow to start and everyone is doing last minute preparations I went to Giant and Balducci's around noon today to see how they were coping.  Balducci's was busy but not much worse than the average weekend, all the registers were open with 2 or 3 people in line for each.  I didn't notice anything out of stock and there were several employees stocking shelves.

Giant was a bit of a different story.  Again, they had a bunch of people stocking shelves, especially in the dairy area, but it looks like they have run out of milk, eggs are almost gone, and other areas of the store (such as the soup aisle) had limited selection available.

The place was also packed.  The line for the self checkout was well over half way down the aisle behind it, the express lane had a similar number of people in it.

The gas station across the street was busy, with all pumps being used, but not more than one car waiting in line.

I didn't see many plows out in Bethesda, but towards Silver Spring they were starting to stack them up on the side of the road to be ready.

Mid-day in Bethesda, After the snow

Last night I went to bed to the sound of snapping limbs and flashes from transformers arcing. Surprisingly, I woke up with power, but with no internet/cable TV. I think I got off pretty lucky. I headed out around lunch time and saw someone else who was lucky, a very large branch had snapped part way off and was hanging about two feet above their car. That's close.


The roads now are good, the sun, warmer temperatures, and plowing have really cleaned up the major roads, if you can get out of your neighborhood you can probably get to where you are going.


The sidewalks in downtown Bethesda, MD are spotty, there are lots of them that haven't been shoveled yet, but many have been.

There is lots of snow still stuck to the branches of trees but it is steadily falling off, so look up before going under a tree to make sure you aren't going to be hit by a chunk of snow.

The snow is coming down hard in Bethesda

After a day of rain (and jokes about schools closing on account of light drizzle) the snow finally arrived. Wet snow coming down at a rapid rate, just like the weather people promised. Traffic, which was moving steadily at 4pm was barely crawling by 5pm It took me 45 minutes to go about 3 miles leaving downtown Bethesda, MD. The plows that I had seen earlier in the day were strangely absent. I'm not sure if they were on higher priority roads or just stuck in traffic like the rest of us.
There has also been some thunder and lightning, the first flash I saw I thought was a transformer blowing up, but the streetlights remained on. Hopefully the power will remain on, this heavy, wet snow is perfect for bringing down trees so we will get to see if all the tree trimming Pepco has been doing has the desired effect. (Minutes after posting this I saw reports on twitter of people in Bethesda loosing power.)

We should get around 5 inches and most of it will be done by midnight. Hopefully the road crews will have enough time to clear out the roads for the morning but I wouldn't be surprised to see Montgomery county schools closed for a second day.