Follow Up
[ QUOTE ]
problem is that down there you guys don't have the equipment to deal with it -
here we have enough salt and snowplows to take us to the next budget crunch - (we never can buy enough for the whole winter cause it crosses two stupid fiscal years) - but the thing is we HAVE the means to clear the roads so folks can get to work.
sheeeitt - a bunch of neophytes in Austin driving on slick roads - I'd stay home too just to avoid getting hit.
RB
[/ QUOTE ]
Overnight, there was a bit of ice and freezing rain, especially on the northeast side of town, right where I live. Most of the schools in town shut down. UT shut down. Most businesses opened at 10am.
I left about 9:15, and the roads were not too bad, a few spots of ice here and there. I took one backroad, and saw a car that went off the side into a ditch. I had to try to stop on an icy stretch downhill before turning onto a busy road. That was the biggest trouble by far. The main roads were surprisingly worse than the residential roads. There was occasional icy patches, and everyone was driving 10 mph (and the occasional idiot goint 50). Took me 35 minutes where it normally takes me 10. I then got onto an even more major road (not quite a highway, but close to it), and noticed one stretch with 10 cars off the side of the road (right after a turn), including one upside down. The road was slightly slick, but as long as you didn't slam the breaks or rev the engine, you were fine. Overall, it took about 1.5 hours where it normally takes 20 minutes. The road crews poured sand on intersections, which seemed to have washed off in the spots it needed most. I didn't see salt anywhere.
The conditions were definitely not good, but nowhere in the top 10 worse conditions I've driven on. Using a slight amount of caution, and avoiding doing stupid things seems to get you through it. I have heard reports that I-35 is closed in several parts due to multi-car accidents. I find it hard to believe this happened because of anything other than driver stupidity.
|