A question about Oregon and Washington bumper cars:

[hedgehog]

I saw several videos last winter featuring cars sliding down hills out of control, randomly hitting parked cars. What was the official reaction to this? Did the police department or public works ever get around to closing off certain streets when they became unpassable, or did they just leave everyone to find out too late about the ice?

[moriah]

1. I dunno about Washington and Oregon, but here's a great one from Arkansas last year....

[HopeHoops]

2. In the Boston area we called that "commuting".

[moriah]

3. I thought Bostonians knew how to drive better than that on snow.

[HopeHoops]

4. Yeah, the natives do - but there are a lot of imports.

[rrneck]

15. In Tennessee we call it "bored".

"Here, hold my beer".

[Suich]

5. They try to close them down.

There's a lot of dumb drivers around here when it snows!

[HuckleB]

7. My amazement is just how bad they are when it rains!

[HuckleB]

6. I'm not sure about last winter.

It was quite mild.

[Suich]

8. Remember this?

[pokerfan]

10. Counterbalance

Yeah, that's the Queen Anne Counterbalance and it's often closed when the roads get bad. They just hadn't gotten around to it yet. I was surprised that the Metro attempted it.

[HuckleB]

13. We didn't have anything in Oregon last year.

Heck, we really have nothing today, either.

[Suich]

14. Lucky you!

We had 2-3 inches but it's kind of melting. The bad stuff is supposed to hit Tuesday night.

[hunter]

9. I saw a slow motion icy street accident once.

My work was near a street on a hill. People would turn onto the street near the top and loose control. I came out when I heard the first crash of metal and breaking glass.

Most drivers were able to recover, but then a car started to spin, hit one of the cars parked along along the street and pulled it out into traffic. Slow motion destruction commenced as more drivers turned down the street and hit the other moving cars, some with drivers, some without.

It was amazing!

I felt worst for the drivers who had parked their cars there in the morning before the streets became slippery.

[nolabear]

11. Seattle reporting:

Snow is a real pain here because much of Seattle is very hilly, and the temp often hovers just below freezing during the day and quite cold at night. It's a perfect recipe for ice beneath the snow on the road. I live right where those buses slid around a couple of years back.

Yes, they do close off a lot of the small streets but it can get wild.

[marlakay]

12. Most everyone around here has snow tires

I am in a mountain town, but we still see people every year slide into a ditch, it's impossible to get rid of the ice on the streets. They put dirt out but it doesn't last.