NE governors closing roads

[vdeane]

Clarkson never closes, be it snow, ice, or zombie apocalypse.  Though I did have one class cancelled during Nemo since the professor was driving a rental car and being extra careful.  A student tried to get his professor to cancel a test due to the storm; never mind that he was already in the room where the test would happen when he sent the email! 

[bugo]

The ban was correct.  If you need to get home, well, no you don't.  You can stay in a hotel.  If you needed to get home that badly, then you should've left earlier.

What if you don't have money for a motel?  What if there are no motels where you are?

[kphoger]

The ban was correct.  If you need to get home, well, no you don't.  You can stay in a hotel.  If you needed to get home that badly, then you should've left earlier.

What if you don't have money for a motel?  What if there are no motels where you are?

...then you should've left earlier.

[agentsteel53]

What if you don't have money for a motel?  What if there are no motels where you are?

...then you should've left earlier.

or at all.  don't live outside of your means. 

[NE2]

Or find a homeless shelter.

[cu2010]

Clarkson never closes, be it snow, ice, or zombie apocalypse.  Though I did have one class cancelled during Nemo since the professor was driving a rental car and being extra careful.  A student tried to get his professor to cancel a test due to the storm; never mind that he was already in the room where the test would happen when he sent the email! 

It did in 2006. True story.

[kphoger]

Or find a homeless shelter.

...or beg lodging from someone.  I've done it before, in the south suburbs of Chicago.

[djsinco]

Or this:

couchsurfing.org

[InterstateNG]

If people are so skint they don't have the ability to leave a charge of 60 bucks to sit on a credit card for a little while, they probably have a history of poor decision-making.

[empirestate]

The ban was correct.  If you need to get home, well, no you don't.  You can stay in a hotel.  If you needed to get home that badly, then you should've left earlier.

What if you don't have money for a motel?  What if there are no motels where you are?

In one case I slept on a church pew.

That, however, wasn't because I had no money, but because every hotel room in town was booked for the same reason. This was due to what should have been a closure of I-70 east of Denver (it was closed periodically around that time, just not when I happened by, but I made my own choice to get off the road). The only town for scores of miles around was Limon, CO, so there I camped.

And I had planned ahead; I knew I was crossing the Rockies in November, so I carefully checked forecasts and road reports. There was no trouble across the mountains, and the DOT was warning merely of possible "icy spots" beyond Denver. What I found, instead, was an unannounced hockey rink for fifty miles...

[NE2]

If people are so skint they don't have the ability to leave a charge of 60 bucks to sit on a credit card for a little while, they probably have a history of poor decision-making.

You know where it ends, yo, it usually depends on where you start.

[vdeane]

If people are so skint they don't have the ability to leave a charge of 60 bucks to sit on a credit card for a little while, they probably have a history of poor decision-making.

In my case it's because I'm a second semester senior with no job lined up yet.  Clarkson rescinded my work study this year for some reason, so I have a much lower income than normal coupled with larger expenses.  I'll probably be much less strict with money after I find a job and settled in to wherever I'll be and actually know home much spending money I'll actually have, though I also have some personal matters to attend to ASAP once I get a job that will take up a decent chunk of money at first (basically life changes that I've had to put on hold due to being in the middle of nowhere on a tight budget).

Clarkson never closes, be it snow, ice, or zombie apocalypse.  Though I did have one class cancelled during Nemo since the professor was driving a rental car and being extra careful.  A student tried to get his professor to cancel a test due to the storm; never mind that he was already in the room where the test would happen when he sent the email! 

It did in 2006. True story.

Check out this prank email that got sent out:

There has been a report of a tornado on campus. Emergency personnel have been notified and are responding to campus. 


If you are on campus, please seek shelter immediately. Do not approach or negotiate with the tornado until tornado personnel have given the all clear. Watch your e-mail or the University Web home page, or call <snip> for updates. If you are in immediate danger, need assistance in shelter-building, or need to report an item that has been swept away, please call Campus Safety & Security at <snip>. 


UPDATE: For students currently on break, you will be notified via email or text alert when it safe to return to campus. UNTIL THEN, PLEASE DO NOT ATTEMPT TO COME ON CAMPUS. Also, please bring your own alcohol back. All reserves here have been depleted. Duffs, Eben's and others have been destroyed by the storm.

[bugo]

The ban was correct.  If you need to get home, well, no you don't.  You can stay in a hotel.  If you needed to get home that badly, then you should've left earlier.

What if you don't have money for a motel?  What if there are no motels where you are?

...then you should've left earlier.

What if you didn't get off work until 9pm and couldn't leave earlier?

[InterstateNG]

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

[Crazy Volvo Guy]

I despise the idea, seeing how I keep my cars equipped to handle the snow in the winter and LOVE to be out in it, and since I get paid by the mile, I hate the idea at work too.

I can't think of a time travel has /ever/ been banned in New Hampshire, and we had just as bad of storms there as any other New England state.  If we didn't need to do it, nobody else in the region does, either.  I can see it out west, where there are vast expanses of absolutely nothing for hundreds of miles; but this is the east coast.

Sorry - people telling me I shouldn't drive in the snow "for my own good", when I know perfectly well how to drive in it just irks me. (I have been in exactly one accident during a snowstorm - and no, it wasn't my fault.  I got T-boned while waiting to turn left at a T on the outside of a left sweeper.  17 year old girl was driving too fast for conditions in an old car w/o ABS.  She started sliding, panicked, locked up the brakes, slid straight into me.)  I think it boils down to the fact that it makes these governors feel good that they're doing something to increase public safety decrease state liability.

[Crazy Volvo Guy]

See, right there is a key difference between Wyoming and New England: people in New England have no concept of adding something to their tires for better traction. Nobody owns tire chains, and nobody would know how to put them on if they had them. The only vehicles you ever see sporting chains are maintenance trucks and sometimes buses. People in their cars either get enough traction with just their bare tires or they slip and slide.

I can think of very few places studded tires (or chains, for that matter) are even allowed east of I-35.  Most states out here don't want their roads getting chewed up by studs or chains.

[kphoger]

I can think of very few places studded tires (or chains, for that matter) are even allowed east of I-35.  Most states out here don't want their roads getting chewed up by studs or chains.

Let's see.... Did I leave out any states that are east of I-35?
Actually, I see very few places studded tires are not allowed.

Alabama:  Rubber studs allowed, metal studs allowed only in bad weather (duh!)
Arkansas:  Studs allowed Nov. 15 to April 15
Connecticut:  Studs allowed Nov. 15 to April 30
Delaware:  Studs allowed Oct. 15 to April 15
District of Columbia:  Studs allowed Oct. 15 to March 15
Florida:  Rubber studs allowed, metal studs prohibited
Georgia:  Studs prohibited, except in snow and ice (duh!)
Illinois:  Studs prohibited, with exceptions for rural residents and mail carriers Nov. 15 to April 1
Indiana:  Studs allowed Oct. 1 to May 1, and the rest of the year if retracted (duh!)
Iowa:  Studs allowed Nov. 1 to April 1
Kansas:  Studs allowed Nov. 1 to April 15
Kentucky:  Studs allowed
Louisiana:  Rubber studs allowed, metal studs prohibited
Maine:  Studs allowed Oct. 2 to April 30, and the rest of the year if retracted (duh!)
Maryland:  Studs allowed only in five counties, Nov. 1 to March 31
Massachusetts:  Studs allowed Nov. 2 to April 30, "unless otherwise authorized by registrar" (?)
Michigan:  Rubber studs allowed, metal studs prohibited
Minnesota:  Studs prohibited, with exceptions for non-residents and mail carriers
Mississippi:  Studs prohibited
Missouri:  Studs allowed Nov. 2 to March 31
New Hampshire:  Studs allowed
New Jersey:  Studs allowed Nov. 15 to April 1
New York:  Studs allowed Oct. 16 to April 30
North Carolina:  Studs allowed
Ohio:  Studs allowed Nov. 1 to April 15, and the rest of the year if retracted (duh!)
Oklahoma:  Studs allowed Nov. 1 to April 1
Pennsylvania:  Studs allowed Nov. 1 to April 15
Rhode Island:  Studs allowed Nov. 15 to April 1
South Carolina:  Studs allowed only if less than 1/16 inch when compressed
Tennessee:  Studs allowed Oct. 1 to April 15
Texas:  Rubber studs allowed, metal studs prohibited
Vermont:  Studs allowed
Virginia:  Studs allowed Oct. 15 to April 15
West Virginia:  Studs allowed Nov. 1 to April 15
Wisconsin:  Studs prohibited, with several exceptions

(Source:  AAA Digest of Motor Laws)

[djsinco]

I can think of very few places studded tires (or chains, for that matter) are even allowed east of I-35.  Most states out here don't want their roads getting chewed up by studs or chains.

Let's see.... Did I leave out any states that are east of I-35?
Actually, I see very few places studded tires are not allowed.

Alabama:  Rubber studs allowed, metal studs allowed only in bad weather (duh!)
Arkansas:  Studs allowed Nov. 15 to April 15
Connecticut:  Studs allowed Nov. 15 to April 30
Delaware:  Studs allowed Oct. 15 to April 15
District of Columbia:  Studs allowed Oct. 15 to March 15
Florida:  Rubber studs allowed, metal studs prohibited
Georgia:  Studs prohibited, except in snow and ice (duh!)
Illinois:  Studs prohibited, with exceptions for rural residents and mail carriers Nov. 15 to April 1
Indiana:  Studs allowed Oct. 1 to May 1, and the rest of the year if retracted (duh!)
Iowa:  Studs allowed Nov. 1 to April 1
Kansas:  Studs allowed Nov. 1 to April 15
Kentucky:  Studs allowed
Louisiana:  Rubber studs allowed, metal studs prohibited
Maine:  Studs allowed Oct. 2 to April 30, and the rest of the year if retracted (duh!)
Maryland:  Studs allowed only in five counties, Nov. 1 to March 31
Massachusetts:  Studs allowed Nov. 2 to April 30, "unless otherwise authorized by registrar" (?)
Michigan:  Rubber studs allowed, metal studs prohibited
Minnesota:  Studs prohibited, with exceptions for non-residents and mail carriers
Mississippi:  Studs prohibited
Missouri:  Studs allowed Nov. 2 to March 31
New Hampshire:  Studs allowed
New Jersey:  Studs allowed Nov. 15 to April 1
New York:  Studs allowed Oct. 16 to April 30
North Carolina:  Studs allowed
Ohio:  Studs allowed Nov. 1 to April 15, and the rest of the year if retracted (duh!)
Oklahoma:  Studs allowed Nov. 1 to April 1
Pennsylvania:  Studs allowed Nov. 1 to April 15
Rhode Island:  Studs allowed Nov. 15 to April 1
South Carolina:  Studs allowed only if less than 1/16 inch when compressed
Tennessee:  Studs allowed Oct. 1 to April 15
Texas:  Rubber studs allowed, metal studs prohibited
Vermont:  Studs allowed
Virginia:  Studs allowed Oct. 15 to April 15
West Virginia:  Studs allowed Nov. 1 to April 15
Wisconsin:  Studs prohibited, with several exceptions

(Source:  AAA Digest of Motor Laws)

To add my state to your list, even though we are west of I-35: Studded tires can be used year round in Colorado.

[corco]

I don't know of any state besides maybe Hawaii west of I-35 that bans studs...or I sure hope there aren't because I've driven in every state west of I-35 besides Hawaii, Alaska, and North Dakota with studs on.

[kphoger]

I don't know of any state besides maybe Hawaii west of I-35 that bans studs...

Nice try.  I'm not making another list. 

[Alps]

But I'm a stud year round.

[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.  Fortunately, I was at at the I-235/K-96 exit and could take an alternate route–which got hairy when the flatbed wrecker in front of me got stuck at a light, and then when the pickup in front of me couldn't make it up a railroad overpass on Broadway. . . I just drove on the left side of Broadway instead for a little while.  By 9:00 this morning, our crew in Kansas City already had four stuck work trucks and one wrecked, and the rest of their work for the day has all been rescheduled.  Omaha is supposed to get hit this afternoon; with their hills, we'll see how that goes.

The owner of the company told me, "˜You did great, getting here in that minivan.'  Are you kidding?  Other than ground clearance issues (my battery connections got wet two blocks from my house), I'd much rather have a heavy front-wheel drive minivan than some RWD pickup in this stuff.  All in all, I really didn't worry about getting stuck except when I was behind vehicles that were getting stuck.

Here are two pictures from my trip to work, on the Canal Route northbound:

Above 9th Street.  Between Kellogg and about 21st Street, there were basically two lanes through the snow.


Approaching the K-96 exit.  From about 21st Street to I-235/K-254, the usable portion of the highway narrowed to about one lane (out of three or four).  At the I-235/K-254 interchange, traffic was at a total standstill; apprently there was a wreck and they closed the highway.  One of our techs was stuck waiting in traffic there for an hour on his way to work.


I tried to take a picture of some tire tracks through deeper snow, but I started to lose traction (as did the car in front of me), so I couldn't hold my hands steady enough for a decent picture.

[SidS1045]

Sorry - people telling me I shouldn't drive in the snow "for my own good", when I know perfectly well how to drive in it just irks me.

People like you aren't why the bans are imposed.

(I have been in exactly one accident during a snowstorm - and no, it wasn't my fault.  I got T-boned while waiting to turn left at a T on the outside of a left sweeper.  17 year old girl was driving too fast for conditions in an old car w/o ABS.  She started sliding, panicked, locked up the brakes, slid straight into me.)

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

[bugo]

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.

[bugo]

The roads are fine here.  They were slushy in spots yesterday, but now they're just wet.