BREAKING: It is probably going to snow quite a bit this weekend. Washingtonians with late-onset snow panic may be reaching to their beloved apps in the coming days to save them from snow-related lines at grocery stores or to rescue them when Metro inevitably leaves them stranded.
But your apps can’t save you now.
Car2Go will suspend service in D.C. and Arlington at 9 p.m. “indefinitely until the severity of the storm has passed,” it said in an email to customers Thursday afternoon. Uber will operate unless a travel ban is put in place. The company is already warning that demand may be high, which means surge pricing will be in effect. However, Uber’s surge pricing will be capped in D.C., Maryland, and Virginia, where states of emergency have been declared (D.C.’s snow emergency begins at 9:30 a.m. Friday); at how much, we don’t yet know (the company says it sets the price by “excluding the three highest-priced, non-emergency days of the preceding two months”). During a January 2015 snowstorm, Uber capped prices at 2.8 times the normal fare in New York and 2.9 times in Boston. Lyft will completely suspend its surge pricing in D.C. because of the state of emergency, a spokesperson says.
This post has been updated.
Photo by Darrow Montgomery