Comments

1

Maybe it's the Seattle natives who are shit snow drivers and cause problems for everyone else?Lots of people from the midwest and northeast here who have actual experience with it.

2

@1: No. Every year there's a major snowfall many, many idiots from colder places than here declare "Seattle drivers are wimps, scared of a lil' snow!" only to climb behind the wheel and go skidding sideways down Queen Anne or Capitol Hill like drunken otters, eventually coming to a rest against telephone poles or parked cars.

3

“In a last-ditch effort today, the prosecution tried to appeal to the Republicans' ‘sense of patriotism and decency.”

Yeah, sure.

Qoup Qlux Qlan serving as the jury in the trial of their Grand Wizard.

4

Disagree @1. I moved here from the midwest several decades ago. The big difference is that even though we routinely used to get feet of snow, most of the midwest is flat as a pancake. No matter how much snow or ice there was, there were hundreds of snowplows, and you could drive in it if you went slow and careful.

In Seattle, we don't have nearly the amount of snow removal equipment (which is ridiculously expensive to buy, and even more to maintain), And no matter how careful you are and how much snow experience you have, once you start to slide on an icy Seattle hill, nothing will help you until you crash into something at the bottom.

5

@4 Agreed. Moved to Seattle after living in NYS for most of my life (New England and New Jersey, too). I've driven through blizzards, lived in an upstate town where I went to college and the plowed snow was as high as the STOP signs, and never, not once was in an accident, not once with any adult driving me as a child or driving as an adult.

Anytime there was any cold precipitation in Seattle and would see people get in a car it was terrifying. That video on YouTube where the cars and then a bus and then a firetruck all slide down from 15th Ave. toward Broadway? I've seen shit like that live. Terrifying. The biggest problem is people have no fucking idea how to drive on roads that are icy or snowy. The second biggest problem is that the roads are not treated properly so they can be safely driven on. I've actually been walking down the street in Seattle and seen pedestrians have to jump out of the way as cars almost ran them over. And why is it that when some ass hat goes pinballing down an icy street in Seattle, hitting any number of cars or other things on their way down, when they get to the bottom they drive away? Um, you just got in x number of car accidents that you need to report and for which you are financially liable. WTF?!?!

Here in Oregon it is the same and it makes no sense since most of Oregon gets plenty of snow. We were in Portland ONCE (no choice, just moved here, had to see my doctor) when the streets were icy and it snowed and it was mind blowing how many accidents there were, how much damage there was everywhere, and how many vehicles were completely out of control. Oh and whose idea was it to build the state's biggest hospital on top of a fucking hill that you have to drive up a windy road on the edge of a cliff to get to????

I don't know about Seattle or WA state, but at least Portland and Oregon have gotten on board with using salt and other road treatments to make driving less of 50-50 chance of dying because people simply refuse not to do the smart thing and NOT DRIVE. My mother spent her entire life in the Northeast until we moved to Oregon when she retired. She still has the intelligence to not get in her car and try to drive here because OTHER PEOPLE are stupid and dangerous.

Driving in places where people have no experience dealing with winter weather is flat out insane. Look at the footage of the accident that just happened in Texas. Over 100 vehicles piled up and smashed to bits. It's truly amazing only 5 people died.

6

Man, Callista keeps getting more and more work done. I guess looking <40 (if one squints) is the only way she'll keep Newt from walking out on her too, even if it makes her face look like a warped Barbie doll.

@3: The final vote in the Senate impeachment trial will provide all the evidence we'll need for a generation to validate Vel-DuRay's axiom: Republicans are horrible people. He literally sicced a bloodthirsty mob on them, and they STILL won't vote to convict him. Party before patriotism with these people, quite literally unto death.

7

@6: Re: Callista. LMAO. What a girl will do to keep a scumbag around.

8

@6: I imagine that one could easily key a car with a lock of Callista's hair.

10

Yeah SEA drivers are just garbo. Midwest can get feet of snow over night and still all be expected to go to school and work the next day driving on an inch of solid ice just because they have snowplows all over the place.
More than once I've seen a bunch of people here abandon their cars on bridges and walk because it was windy or whatever...what? Don't even get me started on the overconfidence in Subaru AWD around here.

11

@5 - We need to STOP salting the fucking roads. somehow we managed to get by for decades without doing it. Then Greg Nickels almost gets fired after one big snowstorm and they're tossing salt all over if it even LOOKS like it might snow.

Just knock it off. It's killing fish and it's trashing our cars. I never put a muffler on a car in my life, and I had to do two with about 5 years after the salt started. Sand on the roads is fine and way more benign.

12

And xina, you are right - the smart thing is to just stay the fuck home for a couple of days. My guess is that would cost us far less than the accumulated damage from all the accidents.

14

@11 and @13 there is a movement to get away from using salt. There are alternatives.
I actually didn't think Seattle used salt at all but it turns out it does (they did not when I lived there - but I left at the end of 2007, so a long time ago now).

https://www.theurbanist.org/2019/02/06/seattles-salt-addiction/

https://nextcity.org/features/view/cities-are-cutting-the-salt-from-their-winter-road-diets

The point of the matter is that the roads need to be treated in order for them to be safe to drive on.

15

@5 - Texans, at least in north Texas, which is where Dallas-Ft. Worth is, should be somewhat used to sheet ice. The get two or three ice storms every winter, which essentially shut down the entire region.

@10 - AWD or 4WD anything isn't as good as having actual purpose-made snow tires; of course, laying out 700-800 bucks for tires that will only last 3-5 winters and will have to be changed out twice a year with your regular 3-season tires isn't worth it to people in areas that seldom see snow or ice.

And I still wouldn't drive even then with my Bridgestone Blizzak-clad AWD when it's icy, unless it was a dire emergency. Not even with chains.

16

sometimes whilst cruising our nation's highways and byways in one's $45K Luxury Liner with heated seats (on Toasty) nice soft music in the background (or am shock jocks) it can be quite challenging to always hafta Remember the Laws of Physics actually Apply to you (and to yours).

following too close?
'What' can Happen?
going too f fast?

it's AMERICA!
we Gotta RIGHT!
u commie

17

@13; 14- Seattle has been dumping salt around. A couple of years ago I came out of my office downtown and thought that the roads and sidewalks had iced up - in fact they had pre-emptively put so much salt out that it looked like ice. And xina's right that as of 2007 w had not used it. The big storm of 2008 got people all mad at the mayor so they started salting.

I don't know what the tonnage of salt that is washing into the streams is but believe it would be significant. It's all going to go in at once when we get the inevitable rain that melts the snow. Road salt is nasty shit. I rode my bike to work one semi-snowy day a few years back and literally by the time I got home after an hour's dire, the chain and rear cogs were covered with rust.

Agree that roads should be sanded or something; all I know is that the city got by OK until 2008 without salting.

18

"hour's ride." It was far from dire - actually kind of fun.

19

@1 Brent Gumbo: As a lifelong resident of Western Washington State, and a licensed driver of over 38 years experience, I strongly disagree, Brent. Is the snow on pavement surfaces in the Midwest as slick as it is here or drier and more powdery, like that in Eastern Washington and beyond where tire traction and reaction time are more reliable? Are driving surfaces east of Idaho hilly or flat? Thickly wooded and / or elevated with steep cliffs? How dense is the region's population? Do drivers tend to be careful or aggressive? Are traffic laws enforced or lenient? Are such laws observed and followed or brushed off ("It can't happen to me")? How much space is allowed between moving vehicles?
I just love the irony of all the smug idiots from elsewhere who have recently moved to the Puget Sound region, claiming to be expert drivers in the PNW. They laugh at those of us who know to be more cautious in snowy and icy weather. Then they can't believe it when their four wheel drive ends up in the body shop every winter.

@3 Original Andrew, @6 Knat, and @9 guesty: How sickening it truly is that RepubliKKKans are so hellbent on taking the rest of us down just to spitefully march in lockstep with Der Gropenfuhrer. Agreed with both of you, Catalina Vel-DuRay, kriistofarian, and others: RepubliKKKans are horrible people--and they're sore losers, too.

@4 Reverse Polarity, @5 & @14 xina, and @11 & @12 dvs99 for the WIN! Agreed, seconded, thirded and fourthed.. Bravo and amen.

20

@19: Correction: @3 Original Andrew. @6 Knat, and @9 guesty: Correction: Agreed wit the three (not just two) of you, Catalina Vel-DuRay, kristofarian, and others.

Everybody stay warm, healthy, safe and smart during Snowmageddon 2021.

21

Death to the GOP for caving to QAnon, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Proud Boys, and their fellow neofascist Trump-worshipping whackos!


Please wait...

Comments are closed.

Commenting on this item is available only to members of the site. You can sign in here or create an account here.


Add a comment
Preview

By posting this comment, you are agreeing to our Terms of Use.