What would you do?

[planedick]

Here's the scenerio, you're driving down the freeway, it's snowing a little and the road is sloppy and slushy. The traffic stops and after about an hour you hear on the radio that the Highway Patrol has stopped traffic and will not let it continue until the conditions improve. About an hour later your car is covered in snow and it's obvious that even if allowed to move, now it's not possible as the car is buried and the road is covered in about 6" of snow. You are not prepared for this, no warm clothes, not much gas, no food etc. The sad fact is that you're going to sit there for 16 hours before the HP lets anyone move again.

I'm from the Northeast and closing the road because of snow is unheard of. It don't matter if there is 10' of snow, you want to go somewhere, just go. They are better prepared to deal with it there, but they have snowplows here too. Closing the road with traffic on it is dissaster because it allows the snow to pile up and because of the cars it can't be cleared. It would be much better to plow the snow and apply a little sand and salt and allow everone to go about their business.

I saw the news people interview people on the road who said they had been waiting for 16 hours.

YOUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK

[madmax-im]

Thats effing stupid...what they should have done is closed the road to any new traffic and let the existing traffic get off at the nearest exit.What would I do...hard to say...especially if your stuck in a "parking lot"...if at all possible I'd leave the car and walk to the nearest shelter and hang....but thats a tough call especially if you dont have the right clothing.

[Dsxs11]

I'm from Michigan I keep driving hell 6 inches I don't even put it in 4 wheel drive. I find what they did in CA dangerous to say the least.
When I lived in Arizona we got 4 inches of snow I was the ONLY car on the road. 69 Mustang 429 4 speed when AHP pulled me over I showed my Michigan license and he told me to have a nice day.

[planedick]

Strange...

Here in sunny So Cal we were snowbound. There was hardly a highway open in or out of the area. All highways were blocked by the CHP. Only could go south to San Diego.

[prometheus578]

"It's called blizzard."

And the snow plows can't keep up....

what they should have done is closed the road to any new traffic and let the existing traffic get off at the nearest exit.

Not letting them off the highway... there's a good chance that the road, and the exits up ahead were snow blocked, so no reason to let anyone go further.
I'm sure the cops did the right thing considering the circumstances.

Twenty years ago, while trying to get back to Ft McCoy, Wisconsin after spending Thanksgiving(Christmas?) at the in-laws in the Chicago area, the Wisconsin Highway Patrol decided to close access to the interstate.
Of course, I was already on it.
Just me and a very pregnant wife... driving an old Illinois State Police car we had bought at auction.
Late at night, snow blind conditions... I couldn't take any exits as I really couldn't tell where they were anyway, but could make out the general path of the highway, so kept on driving.
No one on the road but me... plowing through snow drifts that would sometimes lift the car offa the road. (almost came to a complete stop several times)
Finally made it home. Cruiser got hung up in a drift about a block from our house. Had to shovel it out the next day. (And shovel a path for it to get to the driveway.)

Sometimes, the cops know what they're doing.

Every winter, I place a plastic wrapped package in the trunk of my son's vehicles, (heavy coat, gloves, hat, blanket, pop tarts, etc) along with a shovel.

[trbig]

Every winter, I place a plastic wrapped package in the trunk of my son's vehicles, (heavy coat, gloves, hat, blanket, pop tarts, etc) along with a shovel.

And every year, his son gets a reciept from the Salvation Army for $500 worth of clothing and tool donations.. even though that's where Pro bought them from in the first place!


Tod

[madmax-im]

Here in sunny So Cal we were snowbound. There was hardly a highway open in or out of the area. All highways were blocked by the CHP. Only could go south to San Diego.

Well then your options are rather limited...either you sit it out or you walk...

[trbig]

And.....

Sometimes, the cops know what they're doing.

If you made it all the way home without crashing... pretty much ANYBODY could have, couldn't they?

[prometheus578]

TRBIG...
I attributed it to the skills I learned at the "James Bond School of Driving"...
and the fact that I was piloting, what we lovingly referred to as a
"Dodge 440 Magnum Police Interceptor Special".

Elwood Blues: "It's got a cop motor, a 440 cubic inch plant, it's got cop tires, cop suspensions, cop shocks. It's a model made before catalytic converters so it'll run good on regular gas..."
Same car.

[trbig]

I attributed it to the skills I learned at the "James Bond School of Driving"...

Ohhhh... So that would answer the ejector seat-like dismount off of an XS motorcycle?



Tod

[CatatonicBug]

I had not heard of any of this happening. However, I grew up in CA, and we had plenty of snowplows. Except there, they called them mudplows. That's how they deal with the landslides along PCH. There weren't a lot of them, but they were there. The CalTrans crews are plenty aware of how to deal with snow. The Donner Pass crews plow tons of snow each winter, and deal with stupid, un-prepared drivers the whole time. The problem is the individual decision-makers who panic and tell the ground-crew to close the highways.

Last week, here in St. Louis, we got a bit of ice on the road overnight. My wife is a teacher, and her district decided not to open until 2 hours later than normal. We later found out that her district was the ONLY one that did that. All others went on as normal. The Superindendant was the one who made that call because he's from TX and has never seen a snowflake in his life. He couldn't figure out how to drive in the stuff, so he made the decision that messed up the morning for hundreds of people. Looks like people like him are the ones who took the reigns in CA and shut down highways in the snowstorm.

[Bigfoot]

I can see shutting down the highways if you don't have the equipment to deal with it, but not letting people get off of the highway first is insane. I have been stuck when they closed I80 a couple times in Wyoming. They block off the freeway to not allow people the enter, and they force the cars off at the exits. If I was one of those on the freeway, I would keep going, on the shoulder if needed to the nearest exit. What are they going to do, give you a ticket?

[Pat Kelly]

I'm glad my truck (18-wheeler) has food and water to last me a week or more (I haul food so there is theoretically a lifetime supply of food). I have TV/DVD, satellite radio, warm, snuggly blankets, and an auxillary heater that runs off my diesel tanks (could last for weeks).
I was almost caught in the winter festivities yesterday in So Cal. Radio said CHP was escorting vehicles over the grapevine (I-5). I-15 and hwy 14 were closed. I-5 was closed just before I got there so I had to go around on I-101. Made the drive home about 1 1/2 hour longer.
Heading to Las Vegas on Sunday, back home Mon, turn-around to San Diego Tue for deliveries on Wed then back home for Christmas.

[tarzan]

Our whole city is pretty much closed down today here in Spoakne.We have had about 2 feet or more snow in 24 hours.There are a lot of streets closed off.Unless you have four wheel drive or chains you arent supposed to go out.People have abandond cars al over the place, it is a mess.However if it were only 4-6 inches it would be business as usual here,except there would still be a lot of idiots running into each other.
And here I was wanting to ride th XS one more time this year.

[DGXSER]

Here in the midwest, well northern midwest, we get it all ice, snow, mostly just a few inches and when we get 6 or more they do close schools and tell you to only drive if emergency. I have never not gone out when I wanted to and I never received a ticket. I certainly never heard of or seen the highway closed down as in you can not dive off or get off and go another route to where you want to go.

We certainyl have plenty of plows and experience with snow and ice, but not near like the northern folks. I do miss my old Toyota Tcoma 4WD with the TRD package. You could not get that truck stuck if you tried in my opinion. Now I have a F150 crew cab 2WD, it sucks in anything more than rain.