Ben Cichy pulls a sled with his sons Adrian, 18-months-old, and Logan 3, inside as they head for sledding in the snow on Capitol Hill, Friday, Jan. 22, 2016 in Washington.
(AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
AP Photo/Alex Brandon
Travelers navigate snow covered steps at the Union Turnpike subway station in the Queens borough of New York during a snowstorm Saturday, Jan. 23, 2016. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has announced a travel ban in New York City and on Long Island, saying all non-emergency vehicles should be off New York City’s roads after 2:30 p.m. Saturday.
(AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)
AP Photo/Frank Franklin II
A tuber heads to a hill as area residents dig out from a massive snowstorm in Richmond, Va., Sunday, Jan. 24, 2016.
(AP Photo/Steve Helber)
AP Photo/Steve Helber
People clear snow from parked cars on Henry Street in the Chinatown neighborhood in New York on Sunday, Jan. 24, 2016. Millions of Americans began digging out Sunday from a mammoth blizzard that set a new single-day snowfall record in Washington and New York City.
(AP Photo/Peter Morgan)
AP Photo/Peter Morgan
Two people use cross country skis to get around the snow in front of the U.S. Capitol, Saturday, Jan. 23, 2016 in Washington. A blizzard with hurricane-force winds brought much of the East Coast to a standstill Saturday, dumping as much as 3 feet of snow, stranding tens of thousands of travelers and shutting down the nation’s capital and its largest city.
(AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
WASHINGTON — Cabin fever is setting in and conditions on major roads are improving — a perfect combination to tempt people to hop in the car Monday, but D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser is urging drivers to continue to stay off the roads.
“We are pleased with the progress we have made on our major arterials. All of them are passable and many of them are down to the blacktop — now we have to get full access from curb to curb,” she said on WTOP Sunday.
Crews have started work on secondary and residential streets, but having lots of drivers on the road can impede progress, Bowser says.
“We are looking forward to another big cleanup day [Monday.] We continue to ask people to stay off the road so our plows can have access to the streets,” she says.
The passable streets may give drivers a false sense of security on the roads, but Bowser says black ice will be a problem.
“For the rest of the week at night, we are expecting temperatures well below freezing, which makes just about every treatment we put on the road ineffective,” she says.
Roads will be icy — especially in the mornings — which could mean trouble for drivers and pedestrians.
“We are asking neighbors to shovel,” she says. “One way to get a city back to normal is to have passable sidewalks.”
Sarah Beth Hensley is the Digital News Director at WTOP. She has worked several different roles since she began with WTOP in 2013 and has contributed to award-winning stories and coverage on the website.
