4 wheel drive doesn't mean crap if you don't have decent tires.

Haha.

4wd doesn't help you stop, and it's clearly no substitution for common sense.

4WD is great for going, not so great for stopping. A lesson learned far too late for many people.

[hehehhehehehe]

And it means even less if you're a fucking idiot who doesn't know how to drive when it's dry, let alone snowy and icy.

Drivers training a lot more extensive.

oops, there should be a "should be" in there.

Drivers training should be a lot more extensive.

They couldn't navigate super flat South Lake Union? Sad.

And now I'm worried some dumbass is going to crash into my car parked on the street. Shit!

Snow tires are the key. It doesn't matter what wheel drive you have. I have no problem in my aging 2WD pickup with snow tires and 150lbs. of sand in the back. Winter tires simply are designed differently, with softer rubber that holds to the road better. The siping (those slits in the tread) on the tire help it suck down to the road better, and the studs bite into the ice. Even if you have studless tires, it's good to change them when the snow passes because the softer rubber wears out more quickly than the harder rubber of standard all season tires. Also, all season tires have less rolling resistance so that you get better gas mileage.

This is so fucked up. I spent 40 years in either the Midwest or the East, where it snows. This is not rocket science. You send trucks out there with salt and/or plows, depending on the accumulations. Seattle doesn't do either one.

Fuck McGinn. He told everyone he'd salt the streets, but he's just another lying drunken jerkoff. There's no excuse.

Here in lovely Spokatropolis they park a camera crew at the bottom of our excuse for a hill when it's icy out and film the cars sliding into each other / the intersection / the lampposts. The drivers they interview invariably say "But I thought my 4-wheel drive would help me stop..."

Oh, for fuck's sake, Seattle. Get over it.

Okay, now I feel bad. @9 is right - in IC, they are quite faithful about plowing and sanding. I stand corrected, Seattle.

Look, folks, this is sooooooooo simple. You put the goddamn salt trucks and/or plows on the street. Honest to God, that's how you do it. You don't devise a cute software program, or compose a song, or dream up a political theory. It's about trucks on the street AND NOTHING ELSE.

McGinn owes his election to public dissatisfaction with his predecessor's poor response to the Christmas storm two years ago. And now he does the same goddamn thing. I'm telling ya, if the man gets re-elected then this city deserves every bad thing it gets.

p.s.: I voted for this jerkoff. Damn it.

@13 - you gave yourself away with your first post. 'I spent 40 years in either the Midwest or the East, where it snows.' If the Twin Cities didn't have a massive fleet of snow trucks, it would shut down for months every year. However, it doesn't snow very often in Seattle, therefore we don't keep so many snow trucks. Maybe a few more would be handy, but when you have hundreds of miles of road - of *hilly* road - that ices over once every two years, sometimes you just have to give in to the weather.

Uh, I saw at least 4 city plows spreading salt/sand today; Jake, you might want to check your facts.

@Riya, hate to be pedantic (not really but I feel virtuous saying so), but what that car lost is the bumper. Fenders are the body panels that have cutouts for the wheel wells. They used to be really obvious in old cars and they're really almost completely blended into the rest of the body now, but that's the nomenclature.

No matter what car you drive, if you start sliding, put it in neutral.

That's common knowledge though, right?

In seattle it usually snows just at the verge of freezing overnight -- recipe for ice.

Hey, talk to anyone from Iowa, or anywhere with a real winter: if it snows you send out the plows, but if it ices up people stay the fuck home.

idiots who run the schools here think it's the other way around, they don't close down unless there's standing snow.

I'm sorry, back to blaming mcginn for the weather.

@14, if you have two brain cells, I'm going to suggest rubbing them together. There is no such thing as a "snow truck." In those other places, they attach salt dispensers and plows to garbage trucks, which have chains on the tires.

Yeah, bunky, it's really that simple. Honest. Gomer Pyle can do it, and in the Midwest and East that's what happens. What, you thought these people were Ph.D.s? Not exactly.

Oh, and as for the hills: Try employing your third brain cell to connect with your eyes. That will enable you to look around and see that a lot of Seattle isn't terribly hilly. Of COURSE there'll be steep streets that are closed. Any idiot knows that.

But the flatter grades don't have to be covered in ice. Not unless you've got a drunkard for a mayor and a citizenry too stupid or provincial to understand one of the simplest topics on the planet.

Honest to God, no shit, it's a numbers game and nothing else. You put salt dispensers and/or plows on garbage trucks and send 'em out there. How fuckin' hard is it, anyway? Sheesh.

@17 no no if you start sliding turn the wheel and hit the gas. Everyone knows that!

I saw at least 4 city plows spreading salt/sand today; Jake, you might want to check your facts.

Wow, you saw FOUR! Let's give you a gold star! Trust me, in other places you'd have seen 40 of them.

I'm sorry, back to blaming mcginn for the weather.

No one is blaming that pathetic drunkard for the weather. I am blaming him for his administration's sorry-ass response to it.

@19 - You know all these cool plows and salt doohickies cost money, yeah? How much higher should we set our taxes so your street doesn't get icy a night or two every other year?

Or maybe if our mayor wasn't a drunk he'd be out there tossing salt on I-5 himself. What a hero, right?

Me, I'd rather spend money on fixin' potholes.

I saw 4 in a 5-mile radius of my house. I'm not going to do the math for you.

Me, I'd rather spend money on fixin' potholes.

Well they don't do that either.

I saw 4 in a 5-mile radius of my house. I'm not going to do the math for you.

If there were that density of trucks throughout the city, then Seattle wouldn't be at a standstill. So, either you're making shit up or it was a fluke, or those trucks moved elsewhere. Who knows, maybe the drivers were on their way to party hardy with McGin, the one-term joker.

@19 If the service were that easy to provide, and worth the cost, you'd better believe there'd be a million Gomers out there beating down the mayor's door with private contracts to plow the streets.

Boulder, where I currently live, and St. Paul, where I lived before moving to the mountain states, both have snow trucks - dedicated purpose heavy plows. Maybe Podunk, IA can be serviced by a ragtag group of half-purposed trucks; a major city can't, necessarily. Now take Chicago Fan's advice and chill the fuck out.

Now take Chicago Fan's advice and chill the fuck out.

Ah yes, a typical hipster Seattle druggie who doesn't give a shit about anything but scoring some primo weed.

Maybe Podunk, IA can be serviced by a ragtag group of half-purposed trucks; a major city can't, necessarily.

Best snow removal I've ever seen is in Boston, which measures it by the foot. They use garbage trucks. Of course, that place isn't full of stoners like you.

Just saw the first plower/sander of the day go by on N. 46th.

If you're trying to get from the U-Dist to Ballard, plan on walking from Phinney. The 44 is stopping right at the crest of the hill. Haven't seen a U-dist bound 44 from Ballard in well over an hour.

FWD, 4WD, AWD, whatever. You still gotta stop and turn, yuppie scum. Even ABS or Total-Traction-Control doesn't help when there is NO traction, or anywhere on a hill. It's a really good thing there are no hills in Seattle, right?

But the flatter grades don't have to be covered in ice. Not unless you've got a drunkard for a mayor and a citizenry too stupid or provincial to understand one of the simplest topics on the planet.

@19: I love you.

This isn't about the roads, is it Jake?

Shoulda bought Blizzaks!

#27 - Boston most certainly IS full of stoners. There's a lot of good reasons to love Boston.