Results of Informal White Van Survey: While riding the bus and walking today, I was on the lookout for white vans of the type being talked about in the DC-area sniper case.

Official results:

• There are a lot of white vans, and quite a few with ladder racks.
• There are also lots of white Mitsubishi-style small commercial trucks like the composite photo shown in the press last week.
• Margin of error: +/- quite a few.

So while the cops say they have more eyewitnesses to Monday's shooting in Falls Church, I'd have to say that seeing a white van in the area is not much to hang your hat on. In a place with lots of traffic like the DC area, there's almost always a white van in the area. And as Lester Yesterday pointed out to me, the sniper could just wait until a white van drove into view before shooting.