SNOWPOCALYPSE!!!

[etrain16]

Well that is disturbing. I've driven on black ice at night in Idaho at 50+mph and didn't recognize I was until the car wiggled a bit, and I pulled over the physically touch the road and found is slippery as heck. I had a fresh set of Blizzaks though.

It may have been shear fear on their part - hard to say. I've seen plenty of snow-capable 4WD/AWD vehicles in ditches and abandoned on the road - most likely due to drivers that can't use the 'best' tool for the job, properly.

 

[Captain O]

While I don't disagree, that is an interesting statement considering the way the media uses to emotion the herd the masses sheeople into certain behavior patterns. I just never heard/read anyone who's been there, say/admit that.

This time of year, John Q Public is especially vulnerable. All that's required is a sentimental message, wrapped in a "cloyingly saccharine tone" and everyone swallows it with a grin.

This is why I am extremely careful about what "causes" I agree to support. Growing up in the 1960's I watched the general public get sucked in by the Left. Both the youth of this nation and the seniors are especially vulnerable.

I am so skeptical, that I am seen as hateful. I just look at everything with a "jaded nonchalance".

 

[The Heretic]

Just watching those cars/SUV's pinball off each other makes me cringe. At what point do these people see this taking place and say to themselves "I think I will stay home", or call a taxi or better yet Uber.

You have to get home to stay home.

And Uber is just a bunch of people in their own cars driving around picking up paying rides - they don't necessarily drive any better than anybody else.

From what I have seen every day, driving 2 hours a day, 5 days a week, I trust my own driving more than I trust other people's driving.

I did see some people doing okay in the snow - I was pleasantly surprised at the numbers - but I am pretty sure all of those people had either AWD or studs/chains. There is only so much you can do when the snow is packed and icy from people driving on it.

I was worried about my stopping power because AWD doesn't help you stop any better than anybody else, but the brand new tires with siping did pretty well in combination with the ABS - only a few times did I feel the ABS kick in (you really know it when it does).

The traction control kicked in a few times too on corners when I got careless and went too fast. Overall, I was pretty pleased with how I could get around with the car. I am definitely going to get my daughter a good AWD car (she is driving my old 325ci - which does poorly in the snow).

 

[SA Shooter]

I decided to telecommute today. No use spending 3 hours getting to work, then 3 or more getting back home.

I have no problems getting around with my rig.



The only thing that really slows me down are the other motorists.

If that was your Prius I climbed over last night I apologize for the dents...

 

[Medic!]

Wrecks come in many forms. And it's not hard to see them coming.
Never has been.

It's the guy changing his own clutch without knowing how to work on cars.
And ending up with a hand full of extra nuts and bolts. And a few gears ground off his transmission!

Or the dude that modifies his gun with a dremel tool. When he's never even taken apart and cleaned a gun.
Then he posts a request for ''Anyone selling a cheep receiver''.

You know from the start he hasn't got a clue. But he forges ahead!
Much to your amusement.

Then. A week later? He's doing it again!

I'm not saying you can't learn from your mistakes. We almost all do.
But first you need to see the wreck you set yourself up for.

 

[Mikej]

Things I saw today.

A guy poor out a water bottle so he could pee in the bottle. Girl hitting a pipe. Girl in tank top climb on roof to take selfie. Guy in tank top scraping windshield with a CD. Countless car accidents. The best for last, some guy managed to catch his car on fire in the middle of a snow storm

This ^^ is the best, wish I'd tuned in to the conversation yesterday.

I'm glad Wifey had the day off, course she walks across the street to work. And I'm done with work for the most part until late January. We got out early today to get THE Tree and decorate, watch the snow come in sideways and all the dire news of "Snowpocalypse II, until I was ready to puke from all the morons that shouldn't be on the roads when they are DRY, let alone when there's ice and dark! I have to say though it did take 5 minutes to go the ten blocks to acupuncture instead of the usual 2 minutes at 3:00 PM!

 

[Member 34319]

Made it back to Hillsboro. Took 3 hours from basically the Oregon boarder on I5 to corn pass. Exhausted and tired. Saw lots of cars on the side of the roads. Including some trucks which made me smile.

Shouldn't be driving too much today. So I'll hopefully get home done time today.

I want to thank any first responders out there for putting up with the stupidity of these drivers!

 

[nwslopoke]

Decided to skip Cornelius pass for logie trail. Powering right up the hill in my new jeep going around all the abandoned cars. I rounded the corner and there is a Jeep Rubicon half over the edge of the cliff next to the road with only one wheel holding it from falling. Driver had already left.

I did not have a smug look after that. Still took 3 hours to get home.

I had thought about that before but thought if you got stuck there for whatever reason you'd be screwed. At least if you're stuck on the pass you can call Uber.

 

[mkwerx]

Oy. Had to work in that crap. Did not get much done - I was stupid and accepted a tire change on Skyline before the dandruff flakes turned to real snow. Things were fine. I have a 2wd F150. Made it up without chains fine. Made it down Skyline to Barnes/Miller fine - but the unending sea of non-moving traffic wound up doing me in. About an 1/8th of a mile past the QFC headed west (it took a solid 2 hours to go from Skyline/Burnside to Barnes/Miller) the ice and snow had accumulated to a point my truck lost traction. Not wanting to slide into the abandoned F150 beside me, I attempted to chain up (sorry for any of you who may have had to go around, but I was trying NOT to have a wreck) - one of my damnedable made in china quick fit type chains Les Schwab sold me (not their brand, it was Diamondback or some such) broke while I was installing it. I ghettoed the thing on with a rubber band, but it was too loose to give me good traction, and I got far enough to pass the truck to my right before gravity helped me to the curb.

I was up there for about 3 hours - hiked to Pizza Schmizza and QFC for extra provisions, then back to the truck. When I slid into the curb, there were maybe 4 other vehicles up there. When I got back that had doubled. At one point in a 150' long stretch I counted 14 vehicles not including my own - a good 10 of which were flat out abandoned. I was pinned in to a point because of a guy who slid in right behind me, then I watched two cars hit the curb in front of me.

I watched the show for a while as a tow truck (I use that word loosely - it was a pickup, with a towing company magnetic logo on one door, using a chain/strap to pull people out, not a winch) came along and yarded folks who had stayed with their car out. I didn't even ask him for help because 1.) I wasn't about to pay someone who seemed to be dubiously operating and 2.) the Blazer and the Accord on either end of me were abandoned, and one of them had to move to get me out where I was.

So I watched another 4 cars pile up into the abandoned cars. I was on the phone with one of my biz partners trying to come up with a plan to get me unstuck (hey bring me some new chains and more rubbers for 'em) when I heard BANG - looked over and saw a dude with a really nice 2 door Bimmer plowed into the back of a Hyundai SUV. Then he started sliding. An expletive uttered by me, my partner freaked out over it and asked what was going on, and I told him our truck was about to get hit. And it did. But it was a soft blow - thankfully. Bimmer slid sideways into my driver door (I had the forethought before, that when I was sitting in the truck with the heater going, to sit in the pax seat, not driver seat, but at that moment, as I said earlier I was standing outside enjoying the show and cooling off a bit - the heater in my truck works reeeeally well)

I managed to get BMW guy back on the road after getting his info. The nudge he gave my truck, along with some jockeying I did to try to help get him off of my truck - gave me jsut enough room to squeeze out from between the Blazer and the S10, despite my loose chain. I waited a while longer to let traffic die off, then I managed to get to the bottom of the hill by St V's where my partner met me with new rubber bands - he couldn't find chains to fit my truck (shocker).

I have to go back out in a bit - first stop is going to be Les Schwab for new chains, and an extra set.

I. Hate. Snow. And ice. And Portland's traffic.

Driving home at 10PM last night, 26 east was a cluster due to a wreck near Cedar Hills - it was backed up all the way to 185th. West bound was a ghost town - there were maybe 5 other cars with me spread out over about a one mile stretch. It was nice.

Thank god it's (my) Friday

 

[The Heretic]

Besides the other drivers and detours/crashes, one problem I had for a while, especially when starting out, was the ice/snow on the windshield and rear window. Rear window wasn't too bad - I just kept turning on the defroster and the wiper is intermittent - but the windshield wipers, especially one, kept icing up and lifting the blade to make make it ineffective.

I had to run the heater on high heat with only the windshield vents open to get the snow/ice to melt enough, and that would make the inside of the car very hot and stuffy, so I cracked open a couple of windows, which of course let a bit of snow drip in. A bit annoying.

 

[jbett98]

Just to brighten up the day a little bit, here is a little humor that involves four old Texas ladies involved in a car wreck.

 

[Kruel J]

Well, I lived in The Denver area prior to moving back to OR. Driving in the snow was a daily occurrence roughly 4 months out of the year. NOBODY calls in due to snow and you don't see abandoned vehicles. Why? Because CDOT does an AMAZING job keeping the roads clean and clear. Unlike ODOT.

 

[Hawaiian]

I work from home most days, so I stayed home safe and warm. My son drives a rice cooker so he took my rig, 4runner with Goodyear Duratrac snow tires, to work yesterday for a 2 -10 shift. He works close by so took side streets and was fine. Now, no one should go out and drive in this if they don't have to. So, my wife had a hair appointment today at 4. Yep, for her, that was important enough to take my 4runner and go get her hair done. I was thinking of how stupid that was, but I kept my mouth shut and now she is back home safe making dinner.

 

[Bushman]

It is all the people - not just from Calif.

I just don't want to deal with all the idiots who either drive too fast, too slow, brake too hard, stomp on the gas too hard and sit there and spin - and all the people getting into a big traffic jam.

If there were half the people on the roads it wouldn't be so bad, I would maybe actually enjoy getting out and about in the snow, but it is boring and frustrating sitting in a traffic jam. I remember one time the snow hit in Seattle and it took me six hours to get home. Once I got off the highway and onto the back roads then I could make progress.

It took me 6 hrs to get home during thath uge storm in 2006~2007. Had to thaw my door lock on the car with a lighter the last employee out of the closed grocery store (it closed due to storm) gave me. If it wasn't for that never would have got home. almost slept in safeway lot on way home when one chain broke but kept going around all the abandoned cars, sliding cars, etc. Cars ledt in middle of intersections.

 

[The Heretic]

I will say one thing that is a problem with my X1; the wheel wells are smallish. I have noticed after driving into town today with a lot of slush, is that the snow packs into the wheel well - thrown up by the tires. Eventually it gets so packed in there that the snow is rubbing against the tire. I had to take a stick and push the snow out of there several times.

Not a big deal during the day as the snow was still slushy so it was fairly easy to remove, but left over night, or in colder temps, I bet it will freeze solid enough that it would be difficult to remove without taking the wheel off and working at it with a hammer.

Not a huge deal here on the west side of the mountains, as it doesn't get that cold here that often, and it usually doesn't stay that cold for very long - but anywhere else where it can snow and snow and snow and stay cold for months - it could be a problem.

I would guess that it isn't just my car that does this - I've seen other cars with the same buildup. I just never paid that much attention to it as it didn't happen that often to me.

 

[bsa1917hunter]

I guess we shouldn't be too surprised about the results this kind of weather has on the traffic. We rarely get these events, so most folks simply don't have the experience. The only ones around here with experience are likely to be transplants from snow states or those that do a lot of skiing - that's where I learned to drive in the snow - up and down Mt Hood for years - often with old rear wheel drive cars.

I left early for work today - I've got some customer meetings that can't wait, and because they're with hospitals, there is exactly zero chance of them being cancelled due to weather. So, I dumped the company Focus and took the Suzuki XL-7 in today. That's my snow car - 4WD and no chains (though I do carry chains) and I got off the hill in Oregon City down to SE PDX with little issues. I have to say that Suzuki is a really nice car in snow - handles really well, great visibility to see the morons driving around me. I hit a few slick spots here and there, but mostly packed snow. Just took things slow and deliberate, no sudden lane changes or sharp turns and it all went well, just about 15 minutes later than normal.

I saw a lot of abandoned vehicles on the roads, especially on hills and on-ramps. And I was surprised to see how much traffic there was on the roads at 4:30am - must have been all the folks that wanted to get in early and avoid the later rush hour mess.

I hope, really hope, the folks with no experience in this stuff just stay home today and let the rest of us do our jobs and go home.

I hear that. I learned to drive in the snow in northern Nevada. It used to snow like a sob there. I remember it dumping a foot and a half in 2 hours before. People who live in the gorge think they know what wind is, boy they have never seen wind like where I grew up. I've seen it gust so badly there that it ripped roofs right off of houses. Peoples porches were ripped right off their houses and landed in their next door neighbors yards. I don't mind the snow. Here's a picture from a few years ago when I was at my folks house during Christmas. This was only after a few hours of snowing. Blizzard like conditions of course:



I ended up buying studded snow tires for my escape today, not because I need them for my commute, but so I don't get a damn ticket from the OSP when driving from The Dalles to my Job in Portland..... I see a lot of idiots who don't know how to drive in the white stuff on I-84. Most times, I wish people like that would just stay off the roads.

 

[Camelfilter]

I will say one thing that is a problem with my X1; the wheel wells are smallish. I have noticed after driving into town today with a lot of slush, is that the snow packs into the wheel well - thrown up by the tires. Eventually it gets so packed in there that the snow is rubbing against the tire. I had to take a stick and push the snow out of there several times.

Not a big deal during the day as the snow was still slushy so it was fairly easy to remove, but left over night, or in colder temps, I bet it will freeze solid enough that it would be difficult to remove without taking the wheel off and working at it with a hammer.

Not a huge deal here on the west side of the mountains, as it doesn't get that cold here that often, and it usually doesn't stay that cold for very long - but anywhere else where it can snow and snow and snow and stay cold for months - it could be a problem.

I would guess that it isn't just my car that does this - I've seen other cars with the same buildup. I just never paid that much attention to it as it didn't happen that often to me.

WD40 sprayed liberally in the wheel wells really helps.

Back east I'd give the wheel wells a spray about once a week or if no storms every other week/monthly.

I buy WD40 by the gallon and use a hand spray bottle, like a windex type bottle. About half to 3/4 of the spray bottle for all 4 wheel wells. Just a few minutes is all, for all 4 combined.

WD40 is also super handy if you enjoy detailing your vehicles, especially for the wheel wells & engine compartments.

 

[3MTA3]

Well, I lived in The Denver area prior to moving back to OR. Driving in the snow was a daily occurrence roughly 4 months out of the year. NOBODY calls in due to snow and you don't see abandoned vehicles. Why? Because CDOT does an AMAZING job keeping the roads clean and clear. Unlike ODOT.

It's one of many factors that makes it harder to drive in snowy conditions her than in snow country. Because snow/ice doesn't happen as often ODOT can't justify the amount of vehicles and staff as if it were an all winter issue. Here are a few other factors:

• Use of environmentally friendly de-icers that aren't worth a crap due to local politics. The first night of the snow storm the de-icers used in my area actually made it worse by first melting the snow, then as it lost effectiveness gave a nice glassy slick surface.
• Just like it's hard for ODOT to cost justify a huge fleet of trucks and drivers for a once or twice a year event, most drivers find it hard to lay out an extra $600 to $800 for snow tires.
• People in large metro areas tend to be less self reliant and more dependent on the available resources. When those resources get overwhelmed they don't have the personal resources to make up for it.
  
• Elevation differences - the city I live in has over 500 feet of elevation from the lowest to the highest spot, and that's not uncommon in this area. Outside of ski areas, every place I lived in snow country was pretty level compared to here and far less challenging.
  
• The normal pattern is for snow to melt for a few hours each day then refreeze during the evening rush hour. In snow country the snow stays frozen and compacts into an icy mass that actually gets a "tooth" on it so doesn't get icy slick.
• I lived and drove in snow country for seven years, and the pattern was always the same: First snowfall was a mess that resulted in every crap car riding on bald tires either getting totalled or in the repair shop for the next six weeks. The roads were cleared pretty quickly (unlike here), and since everyone drove on ice for at least two to three months they had snow tires and chains. Six weeks after the first snow, all the crappy drivers got their cars back from the shop and it got a bit harder to get around again.

What I'm getting at is that is that we aren't as bad as driving in snow as the rest of the country thinks. Anybody who want to laugh at us can take my old commute of descending 500' on slick ice to cover a bridge at near seal level, also slick, then going over another 350' hill and eventually arrive at my former office again at 500'. I can tell you that even with the right gear it was dicey, and I was very surprised at how easy it was to drive the same vehicle and snow tires in snow country.

 

[308]

I was waiting for the turn signal and this guy in front of me to kept trying to get his street tire clad Camry up into the 7-11 parking lot this morning...kept rocking back and forth trying to do the same fail over and over. Finally laid on the horn and told him to stoppit! He looked shocked, backed out and took off the other way. I figure if you can't get into the 7-11 for your morning coffee and hotdog, you are probably just going to cause problems for others down the road.

 

[Ura-Ki]

SO, I just gotta ask, What the heck is up with the MAX light rail?!?!?!?! I was talking with my Brother who lives up in Beaverton area, and he says it took him darn near 5 hours to get from the gate way area to the Beaverton transit center, and another 1 1/2 hour from there to home!!!!! When I was stationed in Europe, all the trains ran just fine when there was snow and ice, and many places were far worse then PDX! WTF is up with all that, I see PDX spending bizzilians on more useless MAX construction, and yet they cannot seem to ever get the darn thing run! Even in summer, the darn thing is always breaking down, and winter just makes every thing worse! How long has PDX had that dumbazz light rail now???? and you would think they would have learned by now how to make it work!

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