Seattle Stupidity

Seattle has chosen to let nature determine when the police will respond to emergencies. The City has, in its infinite wisdom, opted to not throw salt down on the roads in the hilly city and will allow the "snow-packed" roads persist until warmer weather ensues.

To hear the city's spin, Seattle's road crews are making "great progress" in clearing the ice-caked streets.

But it turns out "plowed streets" in Seattle actually means "snow-packed," as in there's snow and ice left on major arterials by design.

"We're trying to create a hard-packed surface," said Alex Wiggins, chief of staff for the Seattle Department of Transportation. "It doesn't look like anything you'd find in Chicago or New York."

The city's approach means crews clear the roads enough for all-wheel and four-wheel-drive vehicles, or those with front-wheel drive cars as long as they are using chains, Wiggins said.

The icy streets are the result of Seattle's refusal to use salt, an effective ice-buster used by the state Department of Transportation and cities accustomed to dealing with heavy winter snows.

"If we were using salt, you'd see patches of bare road because salt is very effective," Wiggins said. "We decided not to utilize salt because it's not a healthy addition to Puget Sound."

By ruling out salt and some of the chemicals routinely used by snowbound cities, Seattle has embraced a less-effective strategy for clearing roads, namely sand sprinkled on top of snowpack along major arterials, and a chemical de-icer that is effective when temperatures are below 32 degrees.

Seattle also equips its plows with rubber-edged blades. That minimizes the damage to roads and manhole covers, but it doesn't scrape off the ice, Wiggins said.

That leaves many drivers, including Seattle police, pretty much on their own until nature does to the snow what the sand can't: melt it.

The city's patrol cars are rear-wheel drive. And even with tire chains, officers are avoiding hills and responding on foot, according to a West Precinct officer.

Snow packed roads? You mean ice-packed.

Police have rear wheel drive vehicles and can't navigate in some areas of the city because they simply don't have the traction up and down the hills. If you don't have one of those dreaded four wheel drive vehicles aka SUVs, you're out of luck.

Why did Seattle do this instead of doing what practically every other major city in the US does? They don't want the salt to get into the Puget Sound.

That's right. The possibility of salt runoff into Puget Sound - a salty body of water connected with the Pacific Ocean (itself salty) trumps common sense.

It means that if you're in a life-threatening situation, you're at the mercy of law enforcement of possibly being incapable of navigating to your location or delaying in getting to your location. It means that the incidence of car accidents are going to be higher.

Most importantly to the eco-nuts, it means that the evil SUV reigns supreme. How exactly does that work?

Then again, it's Seattle. Stupid.