What to know about clearing snow

Hello and welcome to a special Friday edition of The 51st. Ahead of this weekend's frigid forecast, we thought it might be useful to explain some of the intricacies of D.C.'s snow clearing rules and regulations. Per usual, contributor Martin Austermuhle is prepared with all the relevant info.

If you haven't already, take a look at our other weekend coverage and our handy guide to navigating an apartment sans adequate heat.

Everything you need to know about clearing snow (or not) in D.C.

“We’re not a snow town.”

Like or dislike him, the late mayor-for-life Marion Barry definitely got it right when he uttered those words back in 1987. Back-to-back storms had just buried D.C., and Barry was enjoying sunnier climes in Southern California as his snowbound constituents were left to dig out with little help from their government. 

Now, Barry was trying to dodge some responsibility for why roads and sidewalks remained impassable for days, but he also somewhat had a point: D.C. isn’t a snow town. And it’s even less a snow-clearing town. Whenever enough of the white stuff falls, you can safely assume that sidewalks, alleys, and even some roadways are going to be unsafely covered in a layer of untouched ice. (And be warned: Between one and three inches of snow could fall on Sunday.)

Now, some of the lack of snow-clearing can be blamed on the D.C. government. But it’s also you, dear resident, who can fail in your collective responsibility of shoveling snow. (Here’s me giving you a judgy look.) To be fair, the rules can be confusing, for government and residents alike. So we’re going to attempt to clear them up, just as you should go ahead and clear that icy deathtrap of a sidewalk that you still have outside your house.

Who’s responsible for clearing snow in D.C.?

It’s a little bit of everyone. In terms of actual responsibilities, this is how it breaks down:

• Major roads and residential streets are cleared by the D.C. Department of Public Works. 
• Private roads, say on a university campus or in a residential development, are the responsibility of the land owner. 
• Sidewalks outside of D.C. facilities (like schools and government buildings) are the purview of the D.C. Department of General Services. Except for D.C.’s public libraries: those are handled by the library system itself. 
• Otherwise, sidewalks are the responsibility of residents and businesses of adjacent properties. That also extends to alleys: the city won’t clear them, that’s on you. 
• As for Metro stations and bus stops, that’s the province of WMATA.
• Anything owned by the federal government – like buildings, memorials, and parks – is up to them to clear, which usually falls to the National Park Service.

OK, that sounds simple enough.

Yes, in theory. But if you want to exponentially increase the chance that nothing will get done, confusingly make it the responsibility of multiple agencies or people. 

Take bike lanes. Normal on-street bike lanes should be cleared by the Department of Public Works. But protected lanes – those that are separated from car traffic with bollards or other impediments – are supposed to be managed by… the D.C. Department of Transportation. (Want to have more fun with this? What if DPW pushes snow from the roads into protected bike lanes? It has happened.)

Then there’s the pedestrian bridge crossing from the Rhode Island Avenue Metro station to the Edgewood neighborhood in Northeast. As ANC Commissioner Joe Bishop-Henchman detailed on social media recently, bureaucratic confusion between Metro and two D.C. agencies has meant that the bridge regularly goes uncleared after snow storms.