Today is another icy day; commute carefully
A new record low overnight temperature was set this morning: 14F at Sea-Tac Airport. The bitter cold means that many streets are still quite slick today, and driving may still be hazardous. Take transit if you can. King County Metro says that buses are still on snow routes, but fewer routes will be cancelled. (Route 38 on McClellan, however, is one of them.) See the Transit Alerts Center for the latest information. Sound Transit’s alert page is here.
SDOT tweeted that “Snow routes in good condition due to overnight work. No significant problems in that network of streets.”
Seattle Public Schools and the University of Washington remain closed, as do many county offices. A list of closed county offices is here, and as usual, school closure information is here.
The Seattle Times (BHB news partner) has an interesting article on why Seattle can’t handle snow. It explains, among other things, why the anti-ice chemicals sprayed on major arterials in advance of the storm actually made things worse: the brine was diluted by the melting snow, making it ineffective against further snow, and then refroze into a slick sheet of ice.
Speaking of ice, there’s a lot of ice still on sidewalks, steps, and walkways. Please clear the ones you’re responsible for—falling on the ice can be really dangerous.
I love driving in the snow and occassionally on the ice.
I do too, Leo. I learned how to do this skillfully and i know
what my truck can and cannot do. I know my limitations. Though equipped with cables or studs, i try to protect the streets i drive on and if there is bare pavement, I will swap out tires or remove traction devices. There is something magical and fairy tale like when your out after the first snow. I’m like a kid again.
Having said that, I do think we shouldn’t be expecting the City to do everything for us and to spend a few hundred dollars in sand and traction devices for our own cars. Learn how to use them. this small investment will offset the clamor and demand that the City plow every street just to pander to our laziness. Buy snow tires to swap out.
I can’t, for the life of me, understand why we would want to burden the taxpayers with millions of dollars each year for a snowfall that is only occasional and only last several days.
I would prefer chains over studded tires. I have seen people driving with studs on after the snow has cleared simply because they were too lazy to switch them out.
It’s amazing how much salt is on the streets. It’s tracked everywhere and the insides of public buildings are covered with a layer of it. The environmental cost of that runoff is real, and in the long run not using it may have been something Greg Nickels was right about.