WASHINGTON – During any major snowstorm, you may stare out your window frustrated because you never know when the plows will be hitting your streets.
Now, the Virginia Department of Transportation has unveiled an online tool that will tell residents of Northern Virginia just when the plows will arrive.
Just go to the site, enter in your address and the color-coded map will tell you if your neighborhood has been plowed, is in progress of being plowed or if they haven’t started plowing yet.
VDOT has organized Northern Virginia into 600 “snow maps,” which are assigned to plow drivers. It’s these maps, not individual streets that are shown on the map.
Green means your neighborhood has been plowed, yellow means plows are working in your neighborhood, and blue means they haven’t been in your neighborhood yet.
Cities, towns and some developments maintain their own roads. These areas are shown in gray.
The map only updates if two or more inches of snow have accumulated, and is currently only for neighborhoods in Northern Virginia
This video from VDOT shows how it works:
VDOT says this map is still in a trial run, and they welcome any feedback residents have on how the map works. VDOT can be contacted anytime by calling 1-800-367-7623 or emailing them here.
Of course, given this way this winter is going, it might be a while before there is a way to test it.
WTOP’s Jamie Forzato contributed to this report. Follow WTOP on Twitter.
(Copyright 2012 by WTOP. All Rights Reserved.)
