Cities that screw up Inclement weather

[jackfaire]

It snowed today. One of my friends left work at 6 PM 12/14/16 at this rate she will arrive home 6 AM 12/15/16. She finally reached the freeway that will get her away from the city that was such a mess people have been stuck in traffic for over 5 hours.

Both me and my friend likened it to that episode of Doctor Who since it took her 3 hours to go 8 miles. I am still up as her relay in case she needs emergency services and her phone starts to die.

I get that drivers aren't familiar since we don't get snow every year but cities are supposed to be prepared for everything. You make a plan for everything so you don't have people spending half a day trying to leave your city to get home. Seriously this is messed up.

[HYHYBT]

Always keep a phone charger in the car.

[TheHuckster]

I get that drivers aren't familiar since we don't get snow every year but cities are supposed to be prepared for everything. You make a plan for everything so you don't have people spending half a day trying to leave your city to get home. Seriously this is messed up.

The problem is it takes a lot of equipment to be prepared. I live in a region that consistently gets snow in the winter, with at least 2-3 storms exceeding 2 feet, so we are prepared for it. Let's see what they do to prepare:

1.) Plows. The major roads and highways get state-owned plows, with a fleet in the hundreds for my metro area. These plows are not your typical Ford F150s, but huge behemoths that sweep the roads every hour. But what about the smaller side streets? They usually contract people to take care of those. Often times these contractors are just regular Joes who own pickup trucks for their plows, who are carpenters in the summer, and plow drivers in the winter. These guys have to invest a lot of money for these plows, but many winters are very profitable for them. It would be economically silly to make such an investment in regions that don't get nearly as much snow.

2.) Salt. Rock salt is another big investment, and to keep it from expiring, you have to store it in a very dry place, as moisture will spoil it after a year or so. So, if you want to be prepared, you have to keep enough salt to cover your entire metro region every year, and either keep it in a climate controlled place or let it go to waste. Either method is expensive. Usually the plows double as salt dispensers, so as they plow the roads from the front, out the back are the salt shakers.

3.) Traffic safety. People have short memories of how to drive in winter weather. Even where I live, where it happens every year, there's always more accidents on the first snowfall versus later in the season where people remembered how to drive. Times that by 10 in other regions where not only are people really not used to driving with ice and snow, but also have to deal with worse conditions due to #1 and #2, where the roads aren't properly plowed or deiced. This results in more accidents, and slower traffic.

Really, the most economic and safest thing to do in these less-snowy regions is to take the day off, and deal with it like you'd deal with a hurricane or other kind of severe weather day: advise people to stay off the roads, and declare a state of emergency if it's really bad.

[Greenday]

2.) Salt. Rock salt is another big investment, and to keep it from expiring, you have to store it in a very dry place, as moisture will spoil it after a year or so. So, if you want to be prepared, you have to keep enough salt to cover your entire metro region every year, and either keep it in a climate controlled place or let it go to waste. Either method is expensive. Usually the plows double as salt dispensers, so as they plow the roads from the front, out the back are the salt shakers.

Last night's snow cause a lot of problems in NJ. The past couple days it's been under 20F before windchill. It was below 15F at one point. And that was South Jersey. It was worse up north. It's just too cold for rock salt. With wind chill, rock salt does absolutely nothing of value.

[jackfaire]

The problem is it takes a lot of equipment to be prepared. I live in a region that consistently gets snow in the winter, with at least 2-3 storms exceeding 2 feet, so we are prepared for it. Let's see what they do to prepare:

Yeah I know that. The City HAD all of that. They were just shit at deploying any of it. The city is trying to say all of the drivers on the road is why they couldn't dispatch any of that equipment. Except the surrounding cities who have the same equipment and the same freeway system didn't have the same issue. They got their equipment out and cleared up the roads even with drivers on the road.

My friend once she passed out of that city's city limits was home quickly. It took her until Midnight from leaving work at 6 PM to leave that city and then she hit the next city and blasted through the rest of traffic getting home by one. That's the problem every surrounding city working with the same equipment commuters of their own and everything handled the weather just fine.

[TheHuckster]

Last night's snow cause a lot of problems in NJ. The past couple days it's been under 20F before windchill. It was below 15F at one point. And that was South Jersey. It was worse up north. It's just too cold for rock salt. With wind chill, rock salt does absolutely nothing of value.

Ok? Not sure what your point is.

Yeah I know that. The City HAD all of that. They were just shit at deploying any of it. The city is trying to say all of the drivers on the road is why they couldn't dispatch any of that equipment. Except the surrounding cities who have the same equipment and the same freeway system didn't have the same issue. They got their equipment out and cleared up the roads even with drivers on the road.

I stand corrected, then, if they had the tools. The "drivers on the road" excuse is really another word for "we waited too long to start working." After drivers start populating the unplowed roads, it will make the efforts far more difficult. You have to start plowing early and often to keep the roads clear, otherwise all the traffic jams that occur from the unplowed roads leaves you stymied.