Lots of commutes have been longer than usual in the D.C. region since a winter storm dropped snow and sleet nearly two weeks ago, leaving behind thick ice on roadways.
Among those drivers spending some extra time on the road is a commuter who takes the Beltway; she said ice is covering the lanes to transition from the Wilson Bridge to Interstate 295.
“First lane on the left and then a lane on the right are lost, causing major traffic backups,” she told WTOP. “A week and a half since the snowstorm, and there’s no sign that there’s been any effort to clear it, melt it or anything, which is really frustrating.”
She’s one of many drivers who told WTOP that leftover wintry weather continues to create travel headaches — especially in the form of nonexistent turn lanes or merge lanes.
Many of those drivers who reached out to WTOP said the weather has extended the length of their commute, with some even reporting that it’s doubled.
WTOP Traffic Reporter Dave Dildine said four places were hardest hit by delays: Rockville, Bethesda, Bowie in Maryland and Old Town Alexandria in Virginia.
“It wasn’t widespread ice, it was piles of it at sensitive points in the road network,” Dildine said. “A merge lane crowded here, a turn lane cover there. But it all added up to tremendous recurring backups in certain places.”
One driver told WTOP he couldn’t get through downtown Bethesda.
“The police could have been out directing traffic,” he said. “There could have been a combined effort to remove the snow between state and county officials.”
Ice-covered lanes are forcing some drivers to migrate toward the center of the roadways — causing gridlock.
“The delays that we’ve been seeing this week are something that I haven’t seen in past snowstorms,” WTOP Traffic Reporter Reada Kessler said.
The backups have been at their worse during the morning and evening rush hours.
“When you’re driving on these roads and you suddenly lose a lane, people have to merge over very quickly,” Kessler said. “And if people aren’t watching, that’s where the accidents or the crashes are going to happen.”
Outside of traveling on the roads, finding a place to park can be challenging too.
“In D.C., the parking is terrible still. All the parking spots being filled with mountains of ice,” a woman who commutes through D.C. told WTOP.
That seems to have led some desperate drivers to park where they shouldn’t.
“There’s a lot of questionable parking jobs,” she said. “I saw one person parked just in the road by Sibley Hospital, and I was shocked it hadn’t been hit by a car on my way to work.”
Dildine did notice a slight improvement Thursday night.
“The backups weren’t off the charts,” Dildine said. “A couple of days above freezing. Progress is progress.”
WTOP’s Jessica Kronzer contributed to this report.
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