WhyNot I think you’re my new hero 
Sincerely,
OhFace
Why, because she’s assuming other places don’t have the same problems Chicago has, and therefore dismisses their input? I have the utmost respect for WhyNot, but Chicago is most certainly not the only place in the world with those conditions in the middle of December.
Interview of a fellow who jumped into his own back seat (at 24 minutes in): http://videos.streetfire.net/video/Top-Gear-Season-4-Episode_187866.htm (then at 27:30 he talks about sawing off his frostbitten fingers).
BTW, it is snowing like an MFer in Chicago right now and has been for the past 10 hours. It took me 45 minutes to drive the 6 miles from work to my home this PM. I never got my car out of 2nd gear because the roads were a complete mess. That is all.
It took me 4 hours to get from Chinatown to Northfield, normally a half hour trip.
Ha! Two hours from Carol Stream to Elgin, somewhere around 15 miles. Thank god I burned some new CD’s in antcipation so I had something to keep my mind occupied.
I looooove Metra. Same commute: 15 minutes walking, 26 on the train, and another 5 walking. OK, the walking may have taken a couple of minutes longer because I am paranoid about slipping, but still, I love public transportation.
So we can’t judge a situation unless we’ve personally been in it before?
In this instance, no, you can’t judge unless you’ve personally been in it before.
That’s laughable.
Anyway, up here at the top of the lake chain, your snow has been put to good. Yes, the schools in the region had to close for a day, and our road connecting us to the eastern half of the country was shut down, but all in all it was a nice little storm giving us a good base for skiing,which I very much appreciate.
BTW, just for shits and giggles, I tried for hang time from 50mph last night – went for about 36 seconds (counting one-thousand . . .) while standing on the ABS brakes. Not what I would call particularly slippery conditions, given that there were some irregularities in the polished surface.
Bottom line: the more a driver knows of a hazard, the more the driver is responsible for driving in a manner that mitigates the hazard. If you know that the bridge is out, you drive accordingly.
Well the same applies when you know the municipality does not salt or sand it’s snow/ice polished roads. You must drive accordingly.
Yes, the roads in Chicago are truly shitty during and following a storm. I have driven there in a winter storm, and for most of my life I have lived in various communites on the Great Lakes, so I quite understand exactly what you are facing.
That being said, when you know what the conditions are, and still crash into something, you are primarily at fault, for it was you, and no one else who made the error in judgment to drive in a manner that led to the crash.
I do not say this to try to waive of the City of Chicago’s pathetic winter road maintenance, but the fact remains that if one knows of the level of maintanance, then one is responsible for driving accordingly. A driver must drive for the conditions, regardless of whether the conditions could have been significantly improved by a municipality.
Or put it another way, had I crashed last night larking about seeing how long I would take to stop, would I be able to blame my municipality? Of course not.
Bullshit. Yes you can. Unless you can tell me how my situation is significantly different from Chicago’s, then you’re wrong.
I was out larking about last night seeing how long it would take me to stop. Good times! Stupid traction control works too well; had to turn it off. We got about 8" yesterday, but I’ll admit it was a very dry snow this time.
Tomorrow I’m driving about 500 km along the north shore of Superior. Some of it only snow covered, but most of it snow packed. Should be a good drive unless transports start sliding backwards on the steeper hills, or some fool drives too fast and crashes into a rock cut or another vehicle.
You can be as careful as possible and all it takes is some asshat in an SUV or truck cutting you off or riding on the shoulder to screw you up and cause an accident.
And for the record: 36 miles took me 3.75 hours last night.
Ha! Took me the same amount of time, too. On the BUS! In fact, I was in a car with someone a couple hours previously, and was REALLY happy to get out of the car and take the Red Line back to work. The roads were scary, even though I trusted the driver I was with, the others are all wild cards and were doing dumb stuff out there.
Going home later, I stopped and got a lovely hot chocolate after getting off the bus. I stood at a busy intersection in my winter gear and awesome snow boots, sipping chocolate and feeling comfortable and smug while watching all the suckas trying to drive. Then I walked the rest of the way home.
It was a good night.
Public transit doesn’t always work.
I observed this watching folks walk up the Bow Trail hill after the bus gave up. I suspect the driver said something along the lines of “we’re not making it up here - you want to chance it on your own, go for it”
Fortunately, it wasn’t too cold yet.
Everyone be careful tomorrow too. We have to brace ourselves for an ice storm now! I think it’s another good day to leave work early!
I once had a city bus in Sudbury stuck in my drive. It slid backward down the hill on our street, and partly spun out, ramming its back end up the hill of my drive (think two intersecting hills). I ended up hosting about 40 passengers for a few hours (they all needed to phone home and many needed to pee), until another bus made it to the bottom of the street where they could walk to it.
They are calling for 10-12 inches of heavy, wet snow, beginning this evening and ending tomorrow morning. My morning commute is gonna be a blast!
Maybe if you leave now…