Snow tires needed today

Hunter ready to roll

FABB member Hunter McCleary came to our place today to help with some FABB bookkeeping. We weren't sure if he would be able to ride from his house in Vienna to ours in Reston.

Here he is getting ready to leave our place. His hybrid bike has studded snow tires but Hunter said that the W&OD Trail, which he used for most of his route, was mostly clear of snow. At the usual spot just west of Hunter Mill Road it was snow/ice covered but other than that he had no real problems. It sure helps to have snow tires.

Vienna Town Council votes down snow removal ordinance

We were very disappointed to hear that the Vienna Town Council voted down a proposed snow removal ordinance at their December 5th meeting. Unfortunately, this was the first we had heard about the proposed ordinance. Otherwise we would have testified in favor and would have encouraged others to do the same.

While we are aware of the dangers of riding on the sidewalk, many people do it anyway. In fact, Vienna Police encourage people to ride on the sidewalk and not in the street on Maple Ave. Not having plowed sidewalks prevents these people, many of whom depend on bicycles as their main form of transportation, to get to jobs and other places. Children walking to school in the winter would also benefit from the ordinance. It works in Alexandria and other Arlington and we think it could be made to work in Vienna.

One of the main arguments against the ordinance is that even when sidewalks are cleared, snow plows will often dump snow from the road onto the sidewalk. I assume the same thing happens in other communities and they figure out ways to deal with it. Otherwise, the message this sends to residents is that we care more about moving cars than moving people.

The only votes in favor were from Councilwomen Laurie DiRocco and Carey Sienicki. We hope the town reconsiders in the future.

To view the video of the public hearing, it's at about 22:40 of Part 1.