NE governors closing roads

[corco]

People like this are the reason for the bans...and for every one of you, there's at least 25 like her.

This is exactly the reason- for every person who actually knows how to drive in snow, there are ten that don't.

The takeaway message is that even if you are the best snow driver ever, the roads will become effectively closed anyway by people driving themselves into the ditch/other cars. Closing them ahead of time just saves a ton in taxpayer dollars.  Anybody who looks at some of the traffic cam pictures from some of the roads that weren't closed in New England during that storm can't argue that society gained anything from those roads being open.

The argument that people will stay home unless they know what they are doing...the hitch is that most people think they know what they are doing. If you ask people if they're a good driver, just about everybody will say "yeah, I'm a good driver"- people who admit that they are not do exist, but they are far outweighed by those who say they are but are not.

[J N Winkler]

Kansas has been getting dumped on recently.  My 13-minute commute to work took 40 minutes today; I arrived 15 minutes late, and I was the first one here.  My boss took a half hour just to get out of his alley.  I would have made it pretty much on time, except that they closed down I-135–while I was on it.

It sounds like you were making this trip shortly after the three-hour period starting at 3 AM when snow was falling at a rate of two inches an hour.  Snowfall was comparatively light the rest of the day, except for several hours in the middle of this afternoon when about three additional inches of snow fell.  The Wichita Eagle reports that the present snowstorm, at fourteen inches in all, is the second heaviest on record, exceeded only by the fifteen-incher of January 17-18, 1962.

In spite of continuous snow-clearing operations by both KDOT and the City of Wichita, most of the freeway mileage in Wichita and vicinity is still snow-packed.  I have the feeds for all 28 of KDOT's RWIS cameras for Wichita displayed on a single HTML page, and at the moment I am able to see lane stripes in just three of the 28 feeds.  In none of the three am I able to see lane striping across the full cross-section.  The only length of freeway in town that is visible in the RWIS feeds and has any areas of bare pavement outside of wheel tracks is a length of Kellogg (US 54) from the I-135 turban east to Woodlawn.

Statewide, KDOT has closed I-70 from Salina to Colby (first from Salina to Hays due to a shortage of tow trucks, and then from Hays to Colby), and US 54 from Pratt to Minneola due to whiteout conditions.  National Guard troops have been sent out in Humvees along the closed lengths to retrieve stranded motorists.  No further snow is expected to fall, but temperatures are expected to drop into the teens or single digits.

[NE2]

Why would you think of leaving work in the first place if the conditions were so poor that the government banned travel?

What are you supposed to do, sleep in your car?  You're not being realistic here.  You're being a nanny statist.

Same thing you do if you're trapped in town without a car. You do us all a favor and FUCK OFF!

[roadman]

the hitch is that most people think they know what they are doing. If you ask people if they're a good driver, just about everybody will say "yeah, I'm a good driver"- people who admit that they are not do exist, but they are far outweighed by those who say they are but are not.

As a non-roadgeek friend of mine likes to say -  "Over ninety percent of the drivers on the road consider themselves to be above average.  Unfortunately, about seventy-five percent of those people are wrong."

[kkt]

Most states out here don't want their roads getting chewed up by studs or chains.

They'd rather have their guard rails knocked down by cars slamming into them?

[djsinco]

They can charge back the guardrails, but not the pavement!

[kphoger]

Kansas has been getting dumped on recently.  My 13-minute commute to work took 40 minutes today; I arrived 15 minutes late, and I was the first one here.  My boss took a half hour just to get out of his alley.  I would have made it pretty much on time, except that they closed down I-135–while I was on it.

It sounds like you were making this trip shortly after the three-hour period starting at 3 AM when snow was falling at a rate of two inches an hour.  Snowfall was comparatively light the rest of the day, except for several hours in the middle of this afternoon when about three additional inches of snow fell. 

The snow that my undercarriage accumulated from dragging the snow then froze and knocked a wheel out of balance; I kept the van in the warehouse for a few hours yesterday, and that relieved the problem; I have it in there right now as well, to try and melt what didn't melt yesterday.  It's cold enought, though, that none of it really melts when the car is just sitting outside.

the hitch is that most people think they know what they are doing. If you ask people if they're a good driver, just about everybody will say "yeah, I'm a good driver"- people who admit that they are not do exist, but they are far outweighed by those who say they are but are not.

As a non-roadgeek friend of mine likes to say -  "Over ninety percent of the drivers on the road consider themselves to be above average.  Unfortunately, about seventy-five percent of those people are wrong."

I've found that nearly everybody says they're a decent driver, but there are plenty of people–especially ladies, it seems–who will freely admit they're no good at driving in winter weather, even describing themselves with terms like "˜terrible', "˜no good', or "˜worthless'.  It seems to me, though, that knowing they're poor winter drivers doesn't actually keep them from driving in it.

They can charge back the guardrails, but not the pavement!

Really?  I think, on the Mexican toll roads (all roads?), in the case of an accident, they actually charge the driver a certain dollar amount (peso amount?) per kilometer of damaged pavement.

[djsinco]

Really?  I think, on the Mexican toll roads (all roads?), in the case of an accident, they actually charge the driver a certain dollar amount (peso amount?) per kilometer of damaged pavement.

I have seen it done. In my experience, Texas has often billed insurance for pavement damage, or costs to repair any infrastructure due to an accident. One memorable event was a chemical tanker that lost it in one of the Dallas area 4-levels on ice. It caught fire and the state billed for reconstruction costs, and an additional fine for loss of use of the road for several days.

Fixed quote for you. -Connor

[InterstateNG]

Why would you think of leaving work in the first place if the conditions were so poor that the government banned travel?

What are you supposed to do, sleep in your car?  You're not being realistic here.  You're being a nanny statist.

You sleep in the office.  I have provisions set up in my office for that very reason.

Nanny statist?  You'll notice nowhere did I endorse the government's position on the matter.  All I'm suggesting is have a little personal responsibility and common sense.

Maybe some reading comprehension as well in this case, but that seems to be a lost cause.