Gee, what IS ice exactly?Having lived in MI for 17 years, I can understand the lack of experience in driving in snow/ice conditions out here in the Pacific NW, but I’m always surprised how many people do NOT know what “ice” is.    They HEAR that the roads are “icy”, but they seem to fail to understand that ice is slippery, slick, and wet.  (sigh)

Scary!It iced up a bit here in Portland. Must admit I don’t do any driving when there’s the slightest chance of ice. I just don my boots and take the train. I live on a hill, so I’m not about to drive.

YikesI remember a video from Seattle (I think) from a couple years ago showing similar traffic.
I saw something of the sort in the Research Triangle area two years ago.  It was before I moved to Durham so I was commuting from Raleigh to Chapel Hill. There was a storm that dumped 2+ inches (reports were as high as 6 in some places) on the region, beginning at the worst time with respect to the morning commute.  My employer was one of the few that didn’t even delay for it and since I was still in my probationary period (270 days) I didn’t feel I had many options.

ice is not the only issueEspecially when it is covered by 6 inches of fresh Utah powder.  Underneath it all we have a nice layer of black ice.  Tomorrow’s commute may be called off in the interest of personal and public safety.  You can’t even see the road, let alone the ice.
I’m actually snowed in and I live in the middle of Salt Lake City.  Talked with the mothership – who lives 50 miles east and 3000 feet higher and they have 18 inches of new snow today on top of the 18 inches from the weekend.
In utah, we get lots of folks with giant four wheel drive SUVs who are sure they can drive 80 miles an hour and stop on a dime no matter the road conditions.  It should be adventuresome.

Aah black ice.Seattle is paved with it, but we don’t have the powder hiding it.
Something that surprised me watching people today is that pedestrians also seem to think those hulking 4WDs can stop on a dime, and so they’ll cross the street right in front of them as if there is no more danger than in a video game.  Makes me cringe.
Seattle schools are called off for Wednesday, so kids are getting a super-long weekend.  That’s cool.

it’s great fun isn’t it?We have lots of schools closed tomorrow as well – so kids are happy.  I was just checking out the traffic cams – if I had to, I could not drive to my work right now – the roads haven’t been cleared at all.  
The giant 4wds scare me more than the little cars – people driving the little cars don’t feel invulnerable but lots of the folks driving the giant 4 wheel drives do feel invulnerable.  Watching them tear by me on the road always worries me – am I going to be swerving to avoid them in a few hundred yards when they spin out of control?  Yeah, i’d rather be late and in one piece.

be safe tomorrow!

Best in showThe bus was best. Did the fire engine come to help?
I can’t believe the buses aren’t chained up, and that the drivers are no more educated about how to drive than the average motorist.

Grrrr!And arrrrgh!  Over and over, I see those wheels locked solid, people obviously stomping on their brakes for all they’re worth, when what was needed was acceleration or some motion in the desired direction of travel.  Hell, even with the brakes locked and with steering alone, most of ‘em could’ve run up safely against a curb.
For all my father’s faults, one thing he did with all his kids was take us out when it was snowing, find a large, empty parking lot somewhere, and teach us all the different ways of recovering control of a sliding car.

My Third Seattle Winter……and the second one to have snow days and city-wide shut-downs. My first winter in Seattle was Snowpocalypse 2008. (We’re calling this one SnOMG or Snovember. )
In 2008, we had some buses nearly end up going over the edge of Capitol Hill’s dividing street onto I-5 below. The only reason they didn’t is because the third bus following them was waved aside by frantic pedestrians.
I got lucky because my workplace called snow days–a number of folks didn’t get that luxury, and one of my husband’s coworkers ended up with an eight hour bus ride. We had an “ice day” today since the roads still weren’t in much better condition. Kinda wondering if work is going to have us come in tomorrow. A single day work week (and with half the office out already travelling) seems a tad ridiculous.  

Agreed!The arrogance and bullying attitude of these drivers is astounding. I would be one of the few who would laugh heartily (after stopping to check if they’re okay!) in seeing a SUV behemoth in the ditch.
I have my own story below…

My ice storyI live in northwest Ohio and have been through many a drive during the winter (I’ll hit 51 in about nine days).
Back in March 2008, I was working the primary election when a nasty ice and snow storm hit the area. The ice was so bad, it took two pots of hot water from a Bunn coffeemaker to free up my front door and 15 minutes of running to get the ice off the windshield.
What was a head-scratcher was the fact that I wasn’t allowed to take the ballots from the precincts in the building (a total of four), but gave them to a guy who had a SUV to deliver them back to the Courthouse, about 15 miles away.
The fact was, I had to drive south, as I lived there! What made the BOE think the guy in the SUV wouldn’t have crashed on the icy and slushy interstate and I would?
I still got the extra pay for being the Delivery Presiding Judge, though!
I’m going to take a moment to ask the readers of PHB to look at becoming a poll worker. In Ohio, we have paid training before any election, and are paid fairly decently for spending about 15-16 hours serving the public. I consider the seven people I work with my friends, and I actually look forward to working an election.

That second video was taken a few blocks from my homeThe street is normally part of the “snow route” for the 43 bus; the city might need to reconsider. The scarey thing is that the bus did have chains and slid like that anyway.
I’m glad no one was hurt in this video; not everyone was so lucky.

Thanks for the good laugh LurleenGlad no one was hurt….

Ice + Hills = STAY HOMEThere’s hardly any comparison between driving on a nice crunchy layer of snow and slip sliding on a sheet of ice. Even walking is too much of an adventure.
I feel kinda bad that I laughed throughout these videos, but they were slow motion fun.

Seattle can not handle snowYou’d think a community surrounded by 10,000Ft + mountains would think snow is a usual thing, but it’s not. Seattle is a city on a hill, on sea level. They don’t have salt trucks, let alone a snow plow and the entire area turns into utter chaos with 1 inch of snow.
I lived in Michigan most my life and if there’s snow on the ground, the roads are salted and plowed by noon at most. The major roads they try to get by 6 am.
Your driveway on the other hand is a different matter.
I expected better from Seattle when I lived there for 4 years during my Navy stint, but they couldn’t handle it.
Looks like they still can’t.