There's a lot going on here - some cultural, some physical.
Physical first. Seattle has two things that make for very bad driving in snow/icy weather. Lots of hills (more than San Franciso - really - and some as steep or more so) and lots of bridges (somewhere around 250). You really can't get much of anywhere in Seattle without taking a bridge or driving up or down a hill. Usually on a little tiny road. With cars parked on at least one side.
This is what accounts for all the people who get the day off due to snow promptly heading out to the mountains to go skiing. I-90 is a big freeway with generous lanes, smooth curves and easy grades, frequently scrapped & sanded - all the things 90% of Seattle streets are not.
Furthermore since Seattle rarely gets much snow, it's really not worth it for the city to maintain a fleet of snow-removal equipment such as any major city back east would. (If this year is the same as most - we've now had our snow for the year.) So it can take a while after a major storm for the streets to clear. The most recent that comes to mind was ten years ago, and I had no choice about going into work. By the time I was headed home, there were still no buses on Eastlake but there was still lots of unplowed snow.
And that's the cultural bit of it. For us, snow is exciting! Fun! A break from the routiine - and maybe a day or two off work. Something to talk about with everyone.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Seattle and Snow
Date: 2008-12-18 06:21 am (UTC)Physical first. Seattle has two things that make for very bad driving in snow/icy weather. Lots of hills (more than San Franciso - really - and some as steep or more so) and lots of bridges (somewhere around 250). You really can't get much of anywhere in Seattle without taking a bridge or driving up or down a hill. Usually on a little tiny road. With cars parked on at least one side.
This is what accounts for all the people who get the day off due to snow promptly heading out to the mountains to go skiing. I-90 is a big freeway with generous lanes, smooth curves and easy grades, frequently scrapped & sanded - all the things 90% of Seattle streets are not.
Furthermore since Seattle rarely gets much snow, it's really not worth it for the city to maintain a fleet of snow-removal equipment such as any major city back east would. (If this year is the same as most - we've now had our snow for the year.) So it can take a while after a major storm for the streets to clear. The most recent that comes to mind was ten years ago, and I had no choice about going into work. By the time I was headed home, there were still no buses on Eastlake but there was still lots of unplowed snow.
And that's the cultural bit of it. For us, snow is exciting! Fun! A break from the routiine - and maybe a day or two off work. Something to talk about with everyone.