Choosy Snowstorm Leads to Sporadically Icy Commute

@James. Yes. I've lived in cities that use salt. New York City, and Rochester, NY. All you really need to do is go through a car wash every now and then, and the salt's a non-issue. And sand is *not* the same. Really.

Oh, and in New York, they put plows on the front of garbage trucks and voila, instant snowplow.

Has anyone here clamoring for salt ever owned a car in a city that uses it? Sand is fine. It's the lack of plows that amuses my dark Sconnie heart.

I seem to recall from coverage back in '95 or whenever that huge snowstorm closed the city for 4 days that Seattle doesn't own many snowplows even compared to Portland or Vancouver.

I had probably the worst commute ever. I got funneled on to 45th unwillingy (Usually take 36th) and then onto I5. That took over an hour. Then 45 minutes on 520 out to Redmond, and then another hour to go the last mile.

I'd have stayed home or taken the bus if I had a choice today, but I didn't.

Has anyone actually done an analysis comparing the cost/environmental damage of salting against the cost/loss of life/environmental damage caused by all the accidents and idling traffic that could have been avoided by salting?

I wonder at what point we'd need to be like Chicago and have enough plows for the whole city...5 snow days? 10?

@Audrey

Our winters are trending colder and our summers are staying relatively normal..

Global slightly cooling is a growing problem.

Snow doesn't exist. It's all bull honky drudged up by the liberal media to take an extra day off of work. Columbus Day is too far away.

I rode my bike (slowly) across Capitol Hill. It was very crunchy out there. And a little slippery in spots. But doable!

We're going to get more of this kind of weather due to global warming. Invest now rather than later. Or you can wait, as Seattle is wont to do.

Audrey, you don't buy a fleet of salt trucks to keep them sitting in the garage 363 days of the year. As soon as the business lost due to snow and ice surpasses the cost of the equipment we'll get something to deal with it. Until then it's going to be like this.

Or, what Seth said

To be fair to the city--we get about one or two of these snowstorms a year. Sure, we could spend millions of dollars on a platoon of snowplows and sand trucks...but just for those two days? I think the current system of we all just give up and stay home when it snows a lot is fine.

capitol hill is a crunchy sheet of ice and snow. i think i woke about 500 people up this morning walking down Boylston cuz each step sounded like i was stepping on the largest sheet of bubble wrap ever.

I am sick of this town not being able to handle its weather. The fact that everything shuts down over a little ice and snow is inexcusable. Time for the city to do some actual inclement weather planning. That means salt and/or sand, people. Make it work!

Wallingford and the U District are covered in ice and I almost had to wear my hiking boots to get to the bus stop. Downtown: nothing.

Both Steve Pool AND Jeff Renner can bite my waffle cone. I bet those two are sipping mimosas right now in a hot tub atop Queen Anne.

The most annoying thing about it is that the city of Bellevue DID NOT SAND Bellevue way. WTF people?? It is a huge sheet of ice. We passed about 3 spin-outs and 1 fender-bender, so it took awhile to get to work. 520 was great thought, since most people decided to wait to drive in. :)

heres a good headline: "Half inch of melted snow cripples Seattle transportation system"

waiting for the bus to get to issaquah was very cold. buses are always iffy, but putting snow in the equation and you might as well stay home.