Tuesday, December 05, 2006
Storm Challenge
Wink: A clear conscience is usually the sign of a bad memory.
Snow storms bring challenges for drivers. One of the biggest challenges is dealing with snow plow operators mistakes. We have moved into an era where contractors are hired to do most street snow removal. I am sorry, but most of these people do not know how to plow snow. Often dump truck drivers or gardeners in summer, suddenly they are snow plow operators to keep our streets safe. This can apply to government operators as well, where experience was given early retirement, and new supervisors and plow drivers lack guidance.
I know how to plow snow, been there done that. Somebody please, teach these accident creating situation elves how to plow snow.
* They plow snow into the intersections instead of away from them. There is a technique for doing intersections. Does anyone know it?
* When they approach an intersection, they swing wide to get around the corner. This results in the right hand lane reducing to four feet wide twenty feet from the intersection. Nothing like surprising drivers when their lane suddenly disappears. Check our intersections, four to six feet of lane space are lost at every one.
* Plows are cutting across curves from lane to lane. Stay in one lane will you. Nothing worse than driving around a curve, especially if it has parallel lanes and all of a sudden you go from bare pavement to ice because the salt truck cut across the lanes.
* Supervisors tell plow operators to go up and down the middle of the street during storms. What's with that? It is more practical to stay to one side of the street. That way snow may accumulate on the part just plowed, but when you do the other side the opposite side will be partially clear. By plowing the middle only, you are creating two windrows about two feet high or more that you have to move later anyway. Plus these rows of snow block driveways and intersections that you can't get through unless you have a 4x4.
* Can anyone tell me why salt is used when it is snowing hard? Snow tires get their traction from the snow. Using salt creates a layer of ice under the snow causing loss of traction, and it becomes very rough like a road full of pot holes. This can cause others to lose control. On top of that, if it keeps snowing, and you keep plowing, you plow most of the salt off anyway. Just in case you are wondering, salt doesn't work below zero degrees C.
* Plow operators pile snow high at every intersection, especially in residential areas. Due to the fact they don't know how to plow intersections properly, they often try to 'bulldoze' snow towards the curb to get rid of it. This blocks vision of car drivers who are sitting much lower. This is often a sidewalk area, where our taxes are used to pay other smaller plows to punch a hole through this higher piled snow which wasn't there in the first place. This also plugs the storm drains which are usually located here, pushing the snow into the drains, which then freezes and is almost impossible to clear completely.
Its going to be a fun winter.
This work by NSCAVE is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License
Snow storms bring challenges for drivers. One of the biggest challenges is dealing with snow plow operators mistakes. We have moved into an era where contractors are hired to do most street snow removal. I am sorry, but most of these people do not know how to plow snow. Often dump truck drivers or gardeners in summer, suddenly they are snow plow operators to keep our streets safe. This can apply to government operators as well, where experience was given early retirement, and new supervisors and plow drivers lack guidance.
I know how to plow snow, been there done that. Somebody please, teach these accident creating situation elves how to plow snow.
* They plow snow into the intersections instead of away from them. There is a technique for doing intersections. Does anyone know it?
* When they approach an intersection, they swing wide to get around the corner. This results in the right hand lane reducing to four feet wide twenty feet from the intersection. Nothing like surprising drivers when their lane suddenly disappears. Check our intersections, four to six feet of lane space are lost at every one.
* Plows are cutting across curves from lane to lane. Stay in one lane will you. Nothing worse than driving around a curve, especially if it has parallel lanes and all of a sudden you go from bare pavement to ice because the salt truck cut across the lanes.
* Supervisors tell plow operators to go up and down the middle of the street during storms. What's with that? It is more practical to stay to one side of the street. That way snow may accumulate on the part just plowed, but when you do the other side the opposite side will be partially clear. By plowing the middle only, you are creating two windrows about two feet high or more that you have to move later anyway. Plus these rows of snow block driveways and intersections that you can't get through unless you have a 4x4.
* Can anyone tell me why salt is used when it is snowing hard? Snow tires get their traction from the snow. Using salt creates a layer of ice under the snow causing loss of traction, and it becomes very rough like a road full of pot holes. This can cause others to lose control. On top of that, if it keeps snowing, and you keep plowing, you plow most of the salt off anyway. Just in case you are wondering, salt doesn't work below zero degrees C.
* Plow operators pile snow high at every intersection, especially in residential areas. Due to the fact they don't know how to plow intersections properly, they often try to 'bulldoze' snow towards the curb to get rid of it. This blocks vision of car drivers who are sitting much lower. This is often a sidewalk area, where our taxes are used to pay other smaller plows to punch a hole through this higher piled snow which wasn't there in the first place. This also plugs the storm drains which are usually located here, pushing the snow into the drains, which then freezes and is almost impossible to clear completely.
Its going to be a fun winter.
This work by NSCAVE is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License
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