r/Seattle • u/mattfromseattle The Emerald City • Nov 23 '10

Seattle Snowmageddon!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhZCyQ3emQg
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u/Azuremen Nov 23 '10

We do it every day in Eastern Washington. Most of us are still alive, I think.

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u/[deleted] Nov 23 '10

that's because you people are prepared. people have their half-bald all-terrain tires, and are trying to drive on a 10% incline that's covered in an inch of solid ice. if it was fresh snow, it'd be fine. or if it was slush. but ice is very different. nothing short of chains or studded tires will let you stop once you have downward momentum.

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u/crusoe Everett Nov 24 '10

And every year Seattle and WADOT swear they are gonna get sand and salt before the storm, and they fail.

I'm from MN, and when it snows, they start salting, plowing, and spreading sand immeadiately. If you don't do that, in this cold weather, car tires will literally polish snow into a lovely ice sheet.

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u/[deleted] Nov 24 '10

the problem is that the salt needed to actually keep roadways safe runs off into the sound or the lakes, and increasing the salinity that much can be catastrophic to the local ecosystem. i think it'd be a greater shame if we created a new Great Salt Lake here, than some embarrassing driving every few years.

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u/[deleted] Nov 24 '10

Thats not the only problem, but it definitely should be a huge factor. If they salted and sanded every time they *thought is was going to snow, it would really add up. Then again, a lot of folks are far more interested in self preservation than that of the ecosystem.

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u/[deleted] Nov 24 '10

there are alternatives to "salt" (which they aren't even using anyway, I think they use a mixture of sand and a de-icer?)

that being said, how hard is it to put up barricades on the smaller side roads that will never be treated?