That’s the quote of the morning, as we survey the fact that most major highways in Virginia and Maryland, and some arterial routes in the District, looked more like a wintertime version of the explosion scene from The Day After than a normal stretch of highway.

I suppose it was inevitable: so much traffic and so many plows and emergency vehicles trying to break through that traffic causing so many frustrated commuters to abandon ship, figuring that they could walk home faster than they could have in their vehicles — add in the general snow craze which always blankets this region, and our highway infrastructure was never going to be able to handle the crush. After all, a large chunk of the massive blizzards which hit Washington during the winter of 2009-2010 occurred during weekends, so people leaving downtown offices during rush hour wasn’t necessarily a big problem then, as it was yesterday.

As former DDOT director Gabe Klein noted this morning during an appearance on NewsTalk with Bruce DePuyt, “when you have a storm like this…at rush hour…once traffic’s snarled, game over.” Klein added that “one car will clog an entire highway for miles.” That proved especially true once people’s cars were being strewn about area roadways like so many un-picked up toys.

Of course, those who abandoned their cars along the confines of the District’s snow emergency routes likely came back to their vehicles this morning to find a nice $100 ticket — if their car was there at all. (Hey, every little bit helps with that budget gap, right?) If you are missing a car today, here are some tips from Dr. Gridlock on how to get it back.