Brainless In Seattle

You just can't make this stuff up:

To hear the city's spin, Seattle's road crews are making "great progress" in clearing the ice-caked streets.

But it turns out "plowed streets" in Seattle actually means "snow-packed," as in there's snow and ice left on major arterials by design.

"We're trying to create a hard-packed surface," said Alex Wiggins, chief of staff for the Seattle Department of Transportation. "It doesn't look like anything you'd find in Chicago or New York."

You mean like actual cleared pavement, Mr. Wiggins?

As you read this next section of the article, keep in mind that this is coming from Seattle, one of the most liberal cities in one of the most liberal states in the country:

The city's approach means crews clear the roads enough for all-wheel and four-wheel-drive vehicles, or those with front-wheel drive cars as long as they are using chains, Wiggins said.

What strikes you as odd about that?  Hm...liberals...4-wheel drive vehicles...trucks and SUVs?...hmmm...

Yep, Seattle actually has a policy of clearing roads only enough to allow passage from the very same hated and eeeeeevil SUVs that liberals are always trying to get rid of!  Brilliant move, libs.

Now, you may be wondering why this is an issue at all...

The icy streets are the result of Seattle's refusal to use salt, an effective ice-buster used by the state Department of Transportation and cities accustomed to dealing with heavy winter snows.

"If we were using salt, you'd see patches of bare road because salt is very effective," Wiggins said. "We decided not to utilize salt because it's not a healthy addition to Puget Sound."

By ruling out salt and some of the chemicals routinely used by snowbound cities, Seattle has embraced a less-effective strategy for clearing roads, namely sand sprinkled on top of snowpack along major arterials, and a chemical de-icer that is effective when temperatures are below 32 degrees.

Seattle also equips its plows with rubber blades. That minimizes the damage to roads and manhole covers, but it doesn't scrape off the ice, Wiggins said.

That leaves many drivers, including Seattle police, pretty much on their own until nature does to the snow what the sand can't: melt it.

The city's patrol cars are rear-wheel drive. And even with tire chains, officers are avoiding hills and responding on foot, according to a West Precinct officer.

Sand happens to be cheaper, but it has its own problems:

Many cities are moving away from sand because it clogs the sewers, runs into waterways, creates air pollution and costs more to clean up.

"We never use sand," said Ann Williams, spokeswoman for Denver's Department of Public Works. "Sand causes dust, and there's also water-quality issues where it goes into streets and into our rivers."

Instead, it sprays an "anti-icing" agent on dry roads before the snow falls and then a combination of chemicals to melt the ice.

And, of course, there's this little bit of Seattle (ahem) competence to examine:

Between Thursday and Monday, the city spread about 6,000 tons of sand on 1,531 miles of streets it considers major arterials.

The tonnage, sprinkled atop the packed snow, amounts to 1.4 pounds of sand per linear foot of roadway, an amount one expert said might be too little to provide effective traction.

"Hmmm. Six thousand tons of sand for that length of road doesn't seem like it's enough," said Diane Spector, a water-resources planner for Wenck Associates, which evaluated snow and ice clearance for nine cities in the Midwest.

Okay, so let's review.  Seattle has deliberately declined to use an effective road treatment plan that is well-accepted by other major cities around the country.  Instead, in an attempt to prevent road salt from getting out into Puget Sound -- which, by the way, is a salt water estuary that also connects to the Pacific Ocean, another body of salt water -- Seattle is spreading sand.  This reduces water quality, creates more air pollution, and is more expensive to clean up, but it's okay because they're spreading it too thinly to be effective, anyway.  The net result is that they are intentionally letting their roads remain covered in snow and ice, preventing vital civic services like the police from moving about freely, and also requiring those dreaded SUVs to be used more frequently.

This is a terrific example of how stupid environmentalism supercedes logic and reason, and leads to direct and completely avoidable danger to people.  It would be funny, if real people weren't at risk.  Michelle Malkin points out the specific danger in this case:

"Sunday was full of car crashes, even after several pleas from State Patrol and local police to stay off the roads.

The State Patrol responded to 157 collisions Sunday in King County. …

Between noon and midnight on Saturday, the State Patrol responded to 246 collisions … in King County." "Snow: Sunday Traffic accidents by the numbers"

Way to go liberals!  Now, just imagine what they'll do with control of the economy, the military, and the whole country...

There's my two cents.