Driving in Portland Metro Area in the Arctic Freeze '08

You all are probably tired of me posting about snow. How many days of snow have we had now? I've lost track. I went out today and took a couple pictures. This is why so many businesses are shut down. What you see on the normally busy 2-lane road is compacted snow and ice - maybe 4-6 inches deep. Along with the hazard of ice, people not knowing how to drive in snow/ice, is the big hazard of manholes. The manholes have been piling up ice like a volcano - sometimes one feet high. So cars have been dodging the manholes in addition to trying to stay on the road. It is pretty crazy here.

Below is a 4-lane street. This road is notorious for traffic. Thank God it is not now. Again, it's hard to see, but what we're dealing with is tire ruts in the road. The ruts could be 6 inches deep. Trying to change lanes can be very dangerous. The ruts in the road when crossing a major intersection is another big challenge. I counted an average of two cars getting through on one green light because it took so long to maneuver the ruts. There are simply not enough plows to clean this mess up. We won't even talk about neighborhood roads. It's amazing to see how many people have just hunkered down and are riding this thing out. There is a median - can you see it? Neither can many other people - quite a few people have driven up on the median without knowing it was there until too late. This can really wreak havoc on drivers who are unaware of the topography of the area. Another popular site is downed mailboxes - "oops, was that a curb I just hit?".

The mall tonight had stores closed at 8 pm. Crazy - on the eve before Christmas Eve! Oh, another weird thing - not too many stores have shoveled their sidewalks. I think we need to learn some snow etiquette here!

They are expecting more snow on Christmas Eve. We will have a white Christmas!

PS - When they sell snow shovels here, they are typically plastic. Go figure!