Going to chime in with everyone else on this one.
The reasoning is pretty obvious and the same that everyone’s stated – we don’t have snowplows because in the last ten years I’ve lived in Austin it’s never snowed enough to plow and the snow tends to melt away after not very long (I think there was one instance sometime in the last decade where snow, actual snow, lasted for a week or two after it originally fell). We’re about as likely to have a 14-degree Christmas as we are to have an 80-degree one, and usually the day lands somewhere in the fifties.
Don’t ask me why, but our streets are appallingly slick in the rain and people are appallingly stupid on them. Half the population drives in a blind panic (reasonable; they know what’s out there) while the rest just drive blind, merrily tooling their way down 183 at 80 in a Chevy Half-Ton before crashing into the back of a Geo Metro, turning it into a Geo Meteor. Once, back in college when I drove an old '87 Bronco 2, I attempted to stop at the intersection of 29th Street and Guadalupe (within the university district for y’all playing at home) and skidded straight through that oddly bent intersection straight into the parking lot of Ruby’s Barbecue and perfectly between the white lines of one of the few empty parking spots. I didn’t leave until I prised my fingers from the steering wheel.
When the Great Ice Storm Mark I happened in February 2003, I was living in East Austin and working perhaps half an hour or so’s drive north. My job sent an automatic message out that the office was not going to be open that day so we might as well stay home – fine and good, but not having known how dangerous this morning was going to be, we had not stocked up on milk and other perishables and there were six people in the house. Hence followed the Amazing HEB Trek – amazing not because the ten minute drive took an hour and a half one way, but because the car and its passengers suffered no injuries. We had a swell time, even if we were sliding here and there like a drunk walking on marbles. It was foolhardy, but we got our milk.
Time passed. I left that job, left another job, and ended up temping at actually quite a nice company at the end of 2004 – December, I believe. We had another and rather unseasonable ice storm. Most of the road to work looked like this – for those who know the area, 183/Lake Creek to 35/290. Elevated highways the entire way. And while we weren’t REQUIRED to go in to work, the office was going to be open. Work needed to be done. And I’d only had the temp assignment for about a week. Of course, nobody would hold it against me if I didn’t come in…
It took me about an hour and a half. My supervisor did not bother, but she did send us all an email that she really appreciated our coming in and did anyone want to work late? :dubious:
I think we do have the occasional truck o’ sand. Driving on sanded icy streets, I can certainly see why northerners would snicker at us – it only takes double the time to get anywhere.