Gaggle of geese escorted along 395 Express Lanes in Virginia
There was plenty of honking on the northbound 395 Express Lanes Tuesday morning in Northern Virginia, but it wasn’t just drivers stuck in traffic — it was also due to six geese on the roadway.
A gaggle of geese got its own police and Virginia Department of Transportation escort toward Edsall Road, taking up two lanes of traffic starting around 7 a.m. WTOP Traffic reporters said it took about two hours to get the geese off the roadway.
Judy Malana, of Woodbridge, was on her way to work to Navy Yard, thinking the worst — “another big car accident” — when she saw two geese and four goslings and their police escort.
“It was a delight to see something different. And it just really made me stop and think,” Malana said. “You know, no matter how familiar our commute is, we don’t really know what’s up ahead.”
Because she was in the EZ-Pass lanes, the six geese a-crossing the road, only added 10 minutes to her commute.
And because there were six of them, the geese probably didn’t have to pay a toll. But it still took a couple of hours to get to their exit on the Edsall Road ramp.
“It just reminded me to be open-minded,” Malana said. “We don’t control traffic. We don’t even control who we’re on the road with. Just learning what’s up ahead, it could be a surprise.”
And as a WTOP Traffic reporter said about the traffic impact on Tuesday morning, “No harm, no ‘fowl.'” Get it?
What’s the holdup on I-395 NB express lanes you ask? Just some SSP and VSP heroes saving some geese #VaTraffic #DMVTraffic pic.twitter.com/MQicj0wB6V
— VDOT Northern VA (@VaDOTNOVA) June 11, 2024