The city of Seattle does not use salt on the snowy/icy roads!!!

[AKA_Monet]

Originally Posted by VandalSquirrel

Is there not a snow route for plowing? Maybe that's something I'm taking for granted because there is a plan for when it is going to snow, and you know which roads will be cleared. Since I'm renting my landlord pays to have snow from our house removed, but we have sidewalk laws which the city isn't enforcing.

In King County, there is no snow routes for plowing. All routes that get plowed are the freeways that are governed by the State of Washington, which uses salt.

So streets like Mercer St. and West Lake Sammamish--don't get plowed. Even with 5 inches of ice with fresh powder snow. Now King County can say what it wants when the snow is only going to last 2-3 days and use alternatives as much as they want. But, when the State shuts down both I-90 and 520 freeways (another issue in and of itself), a whole bunch of people attempt to drive the by the top of Lake Washington into Seattle or take the tortuous trip on I-405 south into Seattle, which is treacherous and the only safest road to get into Seattle might be Elliot Bay Way--since the Alaskan Way Viaduct is in very poor shape...

And as some Seattlelites pride themselves, they can barely drive in the water, much less on ice.

This is NO ordinary situation.

As far as contracting the plowing out, that would have been nice, however, all the folks who were tapped did it for freeways/highways and highest bidder... Where I live, simple snow shovels were UNAVAILABLE by the 2nd snowstorm!

[VandalSquirrel]

Originally Posted by AKA_Monet

In King County, there is no snow routes for plowing. All routes that get plowed are the freeways that are governed by the State of Washington, which uses salt.

So streets like Mercer St. and West Lake Sammamish--don't get plowed. Even with 5 inches of ice with fresh powder snow. Now King County can say what it wants when the snow is only going to last 2-3 days and use alternatives as much as they want. But, when the State shuts down both I-90 and 520 freeways (another issue in and of itself), a whole bunch of people attempt to drive the by the top of Lake Washington into Seattle or take the tortuous trip on I-405 south into Seattle, which is treacherous and the only safest road to get into Seattle might be Elliot Bay Way--since the Alaskan Way Viaduct is in very poor shape...

And as some Seattlelites pride themselves, they can barely drive in the water, much less on ice.

This is NOT a ordinary situation.

Is the public transportation working? It would seem smart to make sure those routes were clear and to encourage people to use that (though are they really being smart?). I remember the storm a couple weeks ago, a city bus was just abandoned on the street in Spokane. Even the plows here have chains on, which I didn't need until the ice puddle formed at the bottom of my driveway.

I hope this crap is dealt with by MLK Jr. weekend. I'm planning to come over with two of my girls to go to the Lucy exhibit (and other stuff) and I'm not interested in scary Seattle drivers (plus we want to use public transpo, as much as possible).

[AKA_Monet]

Originally Posted by VandalSquirrel

Is the public transportation working? It would seem smart to make sure those routes were clear and to encourage people to use that (though are they really being smart?). I remember the storm a couple weeks ago, a city bus was just abandoned on the street in Spokane. Even the plows here have chains on, which I didn't need until the ice puddle formed at the bottom of my driveway.

I hope this crap is dealt with by MLK Jr. weekend. I'm planning to come over with two of my girls to go to the Lucy exhibit (and other stuff) and I'm not interested in scary Seattle drivers (plus we want to use public transpo, as much as possible).

LOL... Metro and Sound transit are VERY PO'ed about their latest treatment. Many of their buses AND their commuter trains were stuck in the 2nd snowstorm and ice. Many of the buses could not make their general routes in the downtown city center. Moreover if they did make it, they were extraordinarily late. Folks either were fed up and did not go into work.

My husband chose to drive, he has 4-wheel drive. The freeways were clear! It was tough getting to the freeways from the side streets due to the stupidity of King county and Seattle's Mayor's office.

That Mercer St.--is already a mess--called the Mercer mess, but it took 2 hours to move the less than 1 quarter of a mile distance. I used to drive that when I worked over there--it was bad when it was dry and in the rain--imagine when there is ALOT of snow and ice? Glad I don't do that anymore...


As far as MLK day--who knows? We are schedule for snow on 12/31 and a few days later. But it may be snow/rain showers and mostly in the foothills...

My husband and I are thinking there will be another snow shower in the Southern North Pole...

[PeppyGPhiB]

OK, OK, I've been out of town for the past 10 days, so I'm just responding to this now.

I'll have you know that we made several trips from Kenmore to Bellevue after the snow and were fine. The only time my Honda Civic got stuck was in my mom's neighborhood because it hadn't been plowed.

The state does NOT use salt on I-405 or I-5. It uses SAND and liquid de-icer, which follow in a truck behind the plowers. In the mountains they might use salt, but I know they also use sand. In addition to the hazards to our waterways, which you know we have lots of here, salt is also very corrosive and creates lots of damage to cars and roads. Anyway, all the salt in the world would not have helped us after this storm. We got 16 inches of snow here - the roads needed to be plowed, not salted! The biggest hazard on the roads in this storm was all of the snow being tossed around on the freeways that hadn't been plowed yet. It was the biggest snow storm in decades, and as you noted, we don't get that kind of weather here often enough to warrant spending big bucks on more plowers. So is it really that surprising that we weren't prepared to deal with it? All of us locals know that Seattle is filled with hills akin to San Francisco - four wheel drives, salt, sand and chains are great, but it would take a miracle for most to get up our hills. Most of us just stayed put and worked from home if we could. I was happy the power stayed on!

Anyway, don't you live in Redmond? I work in Seattle, but live on the Eastside just like you and therefore that's what I cared the most about. Mayor Nickels is a joke and I hope the city votes him out this year, but in the end they're the ones that have to live with him. If you're unhappy with the roads in Redmond, blame Microsoft.

[AKA_Monet]

Originally Posted by PeppyGPhiB

OK, OK, I've been out of town for the past 10 days, so I'm just responding to this now.

I'll have you know that we made several trips from Kenmore to Bellevue after the snow and were fine. The only time my Honda Civic got stuck was in my mom's neighborhood because it hadn't been plowed.

The state does NOT use salt on I-405 or I-5. It uses SAND and liquid de-icer, which follow in a truck behind the plowers. In the mountains they might use salt, but I know they also use sand. In addition to the hazards to our waterways, which you know we have lots of here, salt is also very corrosive and creates lots of damage to cars and roads. Anyway, all the salt in the world would not have helped us after this storm. We got 16 inches of snow here - the roads needed to be plowed, not salted! The biggest hazard on the roads in this storm was all of the snow being tossed around on the freeways that hadn't been plowed yet. It was the biggest snow storm in decades, and as you noted, we don't get that kind of weather here often enough to warrant spending big bucks on more plowers. So is it really that surprising that we weren't prepared to deal with it? All of us locals know that Seattle is filled with hills akin to San Francisco - four wheel drives, salt, sand and chains are great, but it would take a miracle for most to get up our hills. Most of us just stayed put and worked from home if we could. I was happy the power stayed on!

Anyway, don't you live in Redmond? I work in Seattle, but live on the Eastside just like you and therefore that's what I cared the most about. Mayor Nickels is a joke and I hope the city votes him out this year, but in the end they're the ones that have to live with him. If you're unhappy with the roads in Redmond, blame Microsoft.

I was waiting for your take!!!

I didn't know they chose to NOT use salt on I-405 and I-5--did they use salt up in Everett that got hit pretty hard? IDK?

I didn't drive during the snow in Redmond. Too many looney tunes on the road. My husband ventured out later... But, he has 4WD, as do I but I can't drive in the mess, like he can.

What got me is the Mercer St. mess. I used to work over there. I am glad I don't work over there now. LOL...

Then Mayor Nickels says the handling of the roads and streets in Seattle was superior--like what happened during Hurricane Katrina... I think most people in various areas were prepared for 3-5 days of 2-3 inches of snow. Not a complete shutdown like we experienced. There were some dumbasses that will NEVER learn that driving 100 mph on ice uphill in a Smartcar, is not very bright... And we didn't hear about that many folks sticking generators in their houses this past year...

But when I saw the King 5 news catching the guy plowing the snow on various streets saying you have to request for your street to be cleared, that was when I started this thread...

Microsoft has issues... LOL... PM me... Some chit is about to go down, publicly about Microsoft... And yeah, it has to do with Bill and Melinda...