wsdot snoqualmie rant

Well when we left for night skiing it was during a brief window of open freeway that then slammed shut for 5 hours. There goes my ticket to the epic storm party. US2 closed too. Everyone saw this storm way out, WSP needs to be posted at the bottom of the hill checking equipment. And I mean checking, not just sitting there cruising the laptop.

And FFS "Chains Required except AWD" should mean NO SEMIS. I'm sorry but your just going to jacknife and screw it up yourself, your employer, your truck, and the rest of us so just wait it out. This should be the law.

Noticed Stevens has been closed pretty much every morning the past week for avy control, yet not once has it been closed for crashes. It's twistier, but perhaps the narrower highway and overall more threatening feeling to that highway causes people to not try to Jeff Gordon across it like on Snoqualmie? Or does the higher elevation make for better driving conditions, e.g. packed snow instead of ice, slush and standing water?

Actually, WSP manually metered traffic headed up the pass from the West at Scenic on both Sunday and Monday mornings. Fewer cars equates to fewer issues and one stuck car doesn't propagate. Similar to what's done in Colorado for I-70 through the Eisenhower Tunnel and Vail Pass, just with people instead of traffic lights and signage.

I-90 sees much more traffic than US-2 during the winter due to its capacity, lower elevation and preferred route for trucks. I've always personally felt that I-90 closed more often than US-2 due to poor driving, but when there's n times more traffic funneling through the corridor, a traffic-halting incident that has an x% probability of happening, you should expect an increase in the likelihood of such an incident occurring. I also attribute the fact that I-90 climbs above 1000' 16 miles before reaching the summit vs. US-2 which breaks 1000' 13 miles before the summit meaning drivers are at a higher elevation for a longer distance where they're potentially subjected to winter conditions when climbing the pass (for completeness, I-90 breaks the 2k mark ~4 miles from its summit, US-2 ~6 - so when Hwy 2 starts climbing, it does so more steeply).

Everyone saw this storm way out, WSP needs to be posted at the bottom of the hill checking equipment.  And I mean checking, not just sitting there cruising the laptop.

When they opened the pass mid-day Monday, we were in the big wave coming through shortly after. They definitely had a trooper posted and checking at that point. In fact, he waved over the low slung Honda just in front of us that had no chains on. Maybe I've just hit it at odd times but it has been a very long time since I've driven up there during "chains required" conditions w/o seeing a trooper actively checking and forking boneheads off to the side. I assume the challenge comes when conditions change quickly and folks are already well up toward the pass as it turns to slick snot, and these folks don't have the awareness or common sense or whatever to just pull over and chain up at that point before they spin out (I assume I'm not the only one here who keeps evaluating how it's going WRT traction when driving on snow/slush/ice hopefully before having an "incident"). If they were enforcing chains even when they're not yet needed we'd be having a different whining thread, I think  .

As this just skipped to page 2 let me clarify. If X=more and y=less then X-Y= less than X. I'm pretty good at algebra because I took it twice. Skier who got through is a grat idea though. We should make stickers. <X = Chair2POW

What about when Y = 0? Or when X < 0 and Y < 0 (e.g. X = -4, Y = -6)?

As a resident of Hyak and I am driving in the snow mess ALOT, the biggest problem I see to the snow roads is the truckers. They use ALL lanes when driving up hill which causes the cars/4x4's to have to swerve in and out of them making driving more dangerous and causing some of the spinouts.
Yesterday after the 7hr closure the DOT/WSP opened the road to require traction tires only then they open all lanes causing a mad rush up the mtn. Many of the 2wd cars were not doing well on the upper section which made me question, "are they trying for more spinouts?".
The re-opening of the highway should be to 2 lanes MAX like they used to do where they would sit in the middle lane and the 2 outer lanes would go as they inspected the vehicles for chains and so forth to throttle the traffic flow. BTW, 7 hr closure for what? We only received 7" of snow between 5am and 10pm and we needed a 7 hr closure? Sure we had 13" total for 24hr period, but the daytime we only had 7" fall. Anyway, enough of my rant.

Slightly off topic, but as a Mainer, we never needed chains. I have no idea why,but now that I am out here, I have an audi a4 that won't even fit chains. The clearance between the tire and suspension is too small to fit my index finger between. I have the Stock wheels and good tires. Being awd, do I have to addy chains even though they would be for show only? Ive never had a problem with traction, although I drive ultra conservatively in any adverse weather...