Figured some folks would find this amusing:

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Coming from Michigan there's an initial reaction to mock the greater Seattle area for shutting down as soon as snowflakes start falling, but once you see how steep some of the hills are combined with the freezing of the water once the sun goes down, you quickly see why it doesn't take much to shut down this area.

Hopefully folks are staying inside today, or at least avoiding driving around the steeper areas. :)

Does it not snow that much in Seattle? It seems like none of them know how to drive on ice/snow (Edit: the very first SUV in the video did it right, once your wheels lock up, ease back on the brake). Locking up your brakes is the worst thing possible on snow and ice. At least the fire truck actually had chains...

I grew up in Colorado and that's one thing I actually miss was driving in snow. It can be fun sometimes. Granted I also grew up in a very low population town, and we had plenty of space to screw around :)

I find it amusing how horrible some of these people are at driving in snow. Slamming on your brakes or spinning your tires is the last thing you want to do. LOL the second car didn't even turn his wheel, just 360'd down the road.

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Original post by ChurchSkiz Slamming on your brakes or spinning your tires is the last thing you want to do.

But it's so much fun!

haha coming from a place where icey roads are very common this is amazingly funny. I always heard about how things are cancelled right away in that region and I now know why, people don't know how to drive!

Was there freezing rain with the snow?

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Original post by l jsym l haha coming from a place where icey roads are very common this is amazingly funny. I always heard about how things are cancelled right away in that region and I now know why, people don't know how to drive!

I grew up in Minnesota, about 45 minutes south of the Canadian border, so I know a thing or two about snow myself. In Minnesota, where its all flat, highways and freeways seldom even slow down during even much worse conditions than we've had here in Seattle the past days.

The drivers certainly play their part -- cocky idiots who don't seem to understand their porche/audi/benz isn't any better at driving in the snow than the rest of the population's vehicles, the soccer moms who don't realize their oversized, 4-wheel-drive SUV doesn't give them license to do 65mph on hill and/or taking a curve, the immigrants who are often new to driving period, let alone in the snow and ice, who either skid out or drive 20mph on the freeway (which causes a danger for the rest of us.) -- but its a great deal to do with the hills too.

Personally, I drove across the 520 bridge from north Seattle to downtown Kirkland this morning and didn't have any troubles -- no chains or tire studs either. Made the speed limit most of the way too, which was way better than typical morning traffic [grin]. On the way back I saw that someone had skidded out entering the on-ramp I took who had ended up nose-down in a ditch with their rear tires 3 feet off the ground, but that's the only fallout I've seen with my own eyes.

I've gotten into hairy situations on hills here once or twice, but I've always been able to drive out of them with some patience and common sense.

They've got my sympathies, though after living in Canada for 3 years now (and growing up in California) it's mighty tempting to be smug. Here in Saskatchewan most everything's flat but that doesn't stop the odd vehicular ballet. Scariest thing I've seen so far driving is watching an SUV right in front of me do 3 360' turns before hitting the sidewall of a bridge.

I wouldn't want to try my granny driving ice survival techniques on steep hills, that's for sure!

To be fair, driving on dry winter snow and driving on ice are very different things. The Portland/Vancouver/Seattle corridor doesn't get dry snow. It's almost always rain that freezes on contact or that freezes over night. It then turns into a skating rink. Even chains don't help much.

In Minnesota it's (mostly) dry snow -- the trouble there is that there's so much of it for so long that it gets compacted over time and becomes, essentially, ice, as it melts from de-icer, gets driven over and freezes again over and over. The plows help, but you actually can't get rid of the very lowest layer without tearing into the road surface. They will usually plow and follow afterwards with sand/gravel (which also isn't the greatest for paved roads) when conditions are really bad -- but its a hassle to clean up and tends to collect oil, emissions, dirt and grime so there's not much to do with it afterwards but pile it up somewhere out of site.