Thursday, February 19, 2009

CM vs WW Part 2: Snow Driving

This is Brenda again with another observation about the difference between Central Maine (CM) and the area where I grew up, Western Washington (WW). Everyone has seen the news videos of Seattle drivers sliding around and crashing into each other after a minor snowfall. I have had to defend my fellow WW'ers to many Mainers who wonder "What is wrong with those drivers?"  Here are four answers:
1. Population. There are many, many, more people on the roads in WW than in CM. When you have hundreds of thousands of cars in a small area, there are a lot more opportunities to get in a wreck.
2. Terrain. WW (especially Seattle) has a lot more hills than CM.
3. Type of Car. The proportion of four-wheel drive vehicles, or even front-wheel drive vehicles on the road in WW is much smaller than in CM.
4. And the biggest reason:  Road preparation. The photo below shows a typical plow/sander truck in CM.
Our town in CM has 8 of these trucks, and a population of 8,000 people, which means we have one truck for every 1,000 people. The city of Seattle has a population of approximately 600,000 and 27 of these trucks, which is a ratio of one truck for every 22,200 people. This means that when all those people in WW get in their rear-wheel drive cars and hit the hills after the snowstorm, the roads have usually not been plowed or sanded.

So that takes care of the roads, what about all the individual driveways? In CM the photo below is a common sight: a regular pickup truck with a plow mounted on it. If your driveway has any length at all, chances are that in CM you either have one of these trucks or you have the guy who owns it on speed dial.Snowblowers are another common sight. People put them on their tractor or riding lawnmower, or they just use walk-behind ones. These can clear a driveway pretty fast!And finally, there is the old-fashioned way to deal with snow:  Shovel it!


4 comments:

  1. Seattle's plows also have rubber edges so they don't damage/rip up curbs, manhole covers, etc. So their scraping ability is not great.

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  2. Very educational. Thanks!

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  3. I liked this post. It reminds me of the Arctic Blast we had over Christmas. I couldn't believe that the roads were left piled high with snow for a week. That would never happen in CO (where I lived before here). I often wondered that week how many snowplows this area has (if any).

    P.S. Can't believe regular people have snowplows attached to their trucks!

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  4. We could have used a few more plows this winter in WW.... You have got me laughing!!!

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