I’ve been in my car for 26 hours now, the majority of that spent at a standstill on I-95 caused by yesterday’s snowstorm.

I had no signal until just now, GPS stopped working and I couldn’t contact anyone or look up what was going on. I imagine this was because of too many phones pinging off of too few towers in the affected areas.

Local radio is actually corporate radio, and except for the repeated promos (“you’re listening to the rock of Fredericksburg” type BS) so there was no news or information on the radio either.

I ran out of food and water by the end, but fortunately had stuff with me.

I saw people going to the bathroom between their car doors and carrying containers for gas or water to the nearest exit over two miles away.

There were abandoned vehicles and trucks and more and more people started taking the shoulder, blocking its use for emergency vehicles when they got stuck themselves.

I saw no emergency or response vehicles until after 10AM today, 15 hours after traffic stopped for me.

I’m grateful that my gas tank was full.

This has been infuriating and shameful. Infuriating because this is the consequence of building our lives and cities around the personal automobile. Shameful because this response is just pitiful - snow should be no surprise, accidents should be no surprise. I can’t for the life of me figure out how two hours outside the Nations capitol things are this bad.

I’ve lived in southern Germany where it snows like this regularly and the highways are just fine. How are we this incapable?

Getting a glimpse of just how quickly things can go off the rails has certainly galvanized me. America is broken, shamefully, pitifully broken, and when the signal goes on your phone, the calculus changes.

UPDATE: I made it home.

First off I wanted to say why I was on the road - I had to be for work. I delayed returning to the DC area by a full day to try to avoid this exact storm, but couldnt delay any further. Now, the facility I work at is closed possibly until the 7th. That wasn't the case at the time though - so I had to head back.

It was around 10AM when I saw the first cop, a full 15 hours after traffic stopped. They blocked off 95 and ushered all traffic onto an exit ramp and US-1, which subsequently became it's own parking lot. I only got out of that traffic by heading west on backroads, past entirely dark neighborhoods and dozens of ditched cars and looping my way back to my own neighborhood. 95 and US-1 were complete gridlock still when I arrived home 25 hours after traffic stopped.

It took me three stops after leaving the highway to find gas, and when I stopped at a Publix for food, I was shocked to find the place trashed, nearly stripped bare and closing at 5PM. There wasnt even any toilet paper in the bathroom.

I never regained signal (T-Mobile) while around US-1 or 95, which made the whole thing so much more frustrating because I couldnt contact anyone or see what my options were traffic wise.

Traffic updates did come onto the radio by midday - but all they said was "avoid the interstate" and then they started referring to US-1 as a parking lot as if there were any other option or as if the police hadnt directed traffic that way.

Anyway I'm exhausted and pissed that this entire fiasco occurred. We need investments in mass transit/rail/walkable cities yesterday.