Drivers, Pedestrians Continue to Cope

WASHINGTON (AP) - Drivers and pedestrians in the metropolitan Washington, D.C. area continue to cope with partially-cleared roads and, in many areas, unshoveled sidewalks.

Major roadways are generally drivable, after two huge snowstorms buried the region. But often they are missing a lane of traffic because of piles of snow shoved to the side by plows.

Many residential streets remain icy and slushy with room for only one lane of traffic.

At a Metro bus stop on busy Georgia Avenue at Piney Branch Road, riders had a difficult time getting from the shoveled sidewalk to the bus doorway. A huge pile of snow – more than eight feet wide and nearly four feet high – separated riders from the sidewalk and the bus.

Riders had the choice of navigating a narrow, uneven, icy footpath through the mound, or walking down the block to a plowed driveway entrance. Most chose the driveway.

Perry Jones was swinging a pickaxe on a nine-inch-thick layer of ice on Sommerset Place in the Hyattsville section of Prince George’s County. “We can’t get out of our homes,” Jones complained, as cars skidded up and down the hilly road which appeared unplowed.

Jim Keary, the spokesman for County Executive Jack Johnson, said road crews are doing the best they can. When told about the condition of Sommerset Place, Keary asked an inspector to take a look. The inspector disagreed that the road had not been plowed since the most recent snowstorm, but thought that the ice was so thick that he ordered a front-end loader to clean up the street.