Terrible scene. Atlanta snow then instant ice rink.

Bobzilla wrote:

93EXCivic wrote: Why would you spend a bunch of money on a ton of trucks that get used once a year? I don't know Atlanta's situation but Birmingham, which got hit about as bad, just came out of bankruptcy. I seriously doubt it makes sense to buy equipment rather then just shut down the city for that one time a year it happens. It is like buying winter tires or tire chains down here. It makes no sense for the one time a year you need them.

Again, because it appears you missed it, we're not talking about specific vehicles. Any truck they use for road maintenance now just needs a plow and/or spreader mounted in to be used. This doesn't require buying a ton of vehicles that are specific to snow/ice removal. Merely some removable equipment added to trucks ALREADY IN USE. Typical (gov't) cost is $10-15k per unit to make them double duty. Considering they likely pay upwards of $50-60k PER TRUCK (minimum, more if the gov't is as corrupt as everyone says), adding $10k in equipment to make them useful for 12 months of the year seems like the logical thought here.

$10-$15k for how many trucks to cover a town that big? That is still a lot of money for something that isn't going to be used but once a year.

Anyway it seems Atlanta had them just didn't use it.

It's not that much money spread out over 20 years because most of that equipment is reused on at least 2 trucks. That would mean that each winter, for the next 20 years, it would cost the city/county $500-$750 per unit. WE're not talking $10k each for a one time use. This is a 20 year item. When you actually sit down and run the numbers like this, it's absolutely idiotic to NOT have it.

If that's a "lot of money" out of a city budget for someplace like Atlanta, they have much much much larger issues.

aussiesmg wrote: Who is to blame when 10,000 children spend the night in a school bus

That's a lot of children in just one bus.

According to this: http://www.atlantaga.gov/modules/showdocument.aspx?documentid=8625 The proposed 2014 budget for fleet maintenance is $27.5M. Their supplies fund is over $28M. I think they could find $100k to equip 10 more trucks with the necessary equipment. Hell,, their budget for this coming year is $95.8M. We'retalking about spending 1 tenth of 1% of their budget to update 10 more trucks.

That's not a lot of money.

In case anyone's curious on exactly how long it took to go to absolute E36 M3, AJC has a time-lapse from Google Maps traffic info. http://www.ajc.com/videos/news/timel...-story/vCPg6b/

fixed:

http://www.ajc.com/videos/news/timelapse-atlanta-traffic-maps-tell-the-story/vCPg6b/

In reply to wbjones:

Bad link.

Interesting article on the subject: http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/01/atlanta-snow-storm-102839.html#.UurA4P0gE8M

It raises a big point: "Atlanta" is more than just the city of Atlanta, meaning lots of different government agencies. I actually lived inside the city limits. My friend lived down the street; she was in a different county.

In reply to Bobzilla: Try this one: http://www.ajc.com/videos/news/timelapse-atlanta-traffic-maps-tell-the-story/vCPg6b/

If only we did things like they do up North. Everything would be better.

Signed, Metro Atlanta transplant originally from Rochester, NY

I've been giggling about you poor bastards all day. I feel guilty doing it, but I've been thinking of all the donks sliding around and running into each other.

Don't feel bad, there's been alot of pileups on the highways here in MI too. We've been driving on ice all week. It's been so cold the salt wont melt the ice. Hell, today was the first day of school for the week for most schools. I haven't been out this afternoon, but it was supposed to get warm enough today that the salt would begin working. Just in time for the next storm to come along.

In reply to Datsun1500:

Ice is the same as rain. mmmk.

In Raleigh, we got 3 inches. The first guy to get stuck on our road was from New York. I wonder why he didn't just stay home?

Seriously though, snow is just an excuse for people up north to make fun of us. And you know what? We don't give a rat's ass. Go ahead, call us stupid, call us morons for getting stuck in traffic trying to pick our children up from school. It doesn't make a snowball's difference in hell.

Datsun1500 wrote:

lnlogauge wrote: In reply to Datsun1500: Ice is the same as rain. mmmk.

Yes, because most people can drive with both on the road. It was snow. Not much snow at that.

Really? as someone from not atlanta, you know this how? I think everyone around here is convinced you are wrong.

http://cdn.theatlantic.com/static/infocus/snow012914/s_s04_RTX17ZXW.jpg

It rained all morning. After the snow came, the temperatures dropped to 15 degrees.

I can honestly say that after living in Florida for the past 4 years, I would do terrible if somehow it snowed tomorrow here. If you are not used to driving in the white stuff then you obviously won't be as experienced as someone who does frequently. I lived in Omaha for 8 years and I grew up in rural Idaho. Snow became more of a nuisance than a life threatening issue. But again, that was because I had plenty of experience (not willingly haha).

Now that I found out that I'm moving back to Idaho in September, I would be lying if I said I was completely confident in my winter driving skills.

Being in the military means that people from far reaches of the country (even the world) get stationed in places they would not ever visit. I remember very distinctly watching a guy trying to get his older Mustang GT across an intersection after it had snowed. I was driving my now ex's V6 Mustang which had decent all seasons (I know, I know...) on. I pulled up next to him as I had to turn right. He rolled the window down and yelled "How do you drive in this stuff!?". He was from Florida and had never even seen snow. I laughed, turned right and continued on my merry way.

Datsun1500 wrote:

lnlogauge wrote: In reply to Datsun1500: Ice is the same as rain. mmmk.

Yes, because most people can drive with both on the road. It was snow. Not much snow at that.

It started as snow and then turned to slush and then ice as the temperature dropped in a very big way, all in the time span of a couple hours. That happened while hundreds of thousands of drivers all converged on the main thoroughfares heading out of town. And comparing Atlanta drivers to "most people" is far too generous.

In all fairness to the different perspectives brought by people who were exposed to this by media coverage, the realities are, well, different.

In just a few months they will have choking humidity and exhausting heat. Nature is crazy!

David S. Wallens wrote: Interesting article on the subject: http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/01/atlanta-snow-storm-102839.html#.UurA4P0gE8M It raises a big point: "Atlanta" is more than just the city of Atlanta, meaning lots of different government agencies. I actually lived inside the city limits. My friend lived down the street; she was in a different county.

From that article:

Distinguishing between the city proper and the metro region is no semantic quibble. The city itself, population just over a half million, represents only a fraction of the metro’s 6 million residents. Kasim Reed, mayor of Atlanta, is the face you see on CNN and the guy called out by Al Roker, but he’s only one of more than 60 mayors of the towns and cities that make up the Atlanta region, which, depending on whose metric you use consists of 10, 15, or 28 counties (each with their own executive officers).

I think that points out where a lot of the problem lays. The entire state of Maryland only has 24 counties or county-equivalents(Baltimore City). I live in the largest land area county in MD. We have 3 municipalities in the county that handle their own snow removal, the rest is done by the county or state. The school system is a county-wide system. Sure makes it easier to coordinate stuff.

In reply to Hal:

the atlanta metro area also covers parts of 3 states depending on certain metrics.

I wouldn't say that all of Georgia is so scattered, though. When I lived in Athens, the city and county governments merged. I wrote some news articles about it. Basically, it was done to conserve energies: one police department vs. two, one water department vs. two, etc.

Adding to the mess, sounds like the state of Georgia is responsible for the interstates while the local municipalities handle the secondary roads. Getting around Atlanta without I-75, I-85, I-285 or I-20 isn't exactly easy.

Still, they need to fix things--mostly, I think, on the communication side of things.

N Sperlo wrote:

fidelity101 wrote: Spun out is my guess.

I was thinking that but he is dead center in that lane. HOPEFULLY he spun out.

As many drunk head on collisions that have happened here in the last couple of years it wouldn't surprised me if he was just E36 M3 faced driving the wrong way. It's like motherberking Russia around here lately.

But seriously, I work in the Alpharetta/John's Creek(north Atlanta) and live in Cumming(a little further north) and got home pretty reasonably. Took me about an hour and a half instead of the usual half hour. I was pretty pissed of because it was just snow. Apparently EVERYONE left work at the same time EVERYWHERE(this is the southern panic). Luckily, I was on the outskirts of the gridlock and made it home reasonably. Today, I found out two of my coworkers were stuck for over 16 hours and slept in their cars on the interstates Tuesday night. I am from the south and have very little experience driving in snow but it's not that difficult, but the mass exodus caused the big problem, not just 2" of snow. Just like a fire code in a building is there because there is only so many people that can fit through an exit per second, there is only so much the road systems can handle, and that is not the entire city going home when they see snow. Then the ice came, how the berk are you going to de-ice roads when every road has vehicles on it? Your not, that's how.

The tires, driver experience, where the person grew up really didn't matter at 2pm on Tuesday. If it did OTR truckers wouldn't have been stuck on the interstates. I am sure it wasn't just the dumb southern redneck truck drivers that could get up hills covered in ice.

Hal wrote: I think that points out where a lot of the problem lays. The entire state of Maryland only has 24 counties or county-equivalents(Baltimore City). I live in the largest land area county in MD. We have 3 municipalities in the county that handle their own snow removal, the rest is done by the county or state. The school system is a county-wide system. Sure makes it easier to coordinate stuff.

Yeah, Georgia is second only to Texas in the state with the most counties. In those counties, there are cities popping almost yearly. Johns's Creek, where I work, has only been around for a few years. Since living in Georgia most of my jobs have been in different counties from where I lived. Hell, one job I drove through 4 counties in 25 miles one way.

Luckily, where I live now is a pretty good ways from Atlanta so the county was on top of their E36 M3 pretty quickly since they only had to work with GDOT and not other counties or cities.

N Sperlo wrote:

Bobzilla wrote: Just came across this and HAD to share:

Why does the fast lane vehicle look like it is going the wrong direction?

My guess is he was thinking outside the box and figuring out how to get home in less than 24 hours. Looks like he is doing it right, he's in the lane with the most traction, with the least traffic, even if he is going the wrong way. I bet all the people on the "right" side of the road were all jelly.

Heard on the radio this morning that some people returning to their cars were finding them vandalized. Radios etc. stolen. Wasn't ATL though, different area.

EastCoastMojo wrote:

N Sperlo wrote:

Bobzilla wrote: Just came across this and HAD to share:

Why does the fast lane vehicle look like it is going the wrong direction?

My guess is he was thinking outside the box and figuring out how to get home in less than 24 hours. Looks like he is doing it right, he's in the lane with the most traction, with the least traffic, even if he is going the wrong way. I bet all the people on the "right" side of the road were all jelly.

Not everyone lives outside the Perimeter, too. When I lived in Atlanta, I worked in Brookhaven and lived in Virginia-Highland. The reverse commute was sweet.

It's been 34 years since I lived in GA, but it seems "county pride" is important there as well. We moved around a lot and every time we moved into a different county, my parents had to get new license plates for the cars. Each plate has the issuing county on it. From the occasional GA car I see up here, it appears to still be that way.

I remember Fulton County goes pretty deep into Atlanta. For those old enough, you may remember the Braves used to play in Fulton County Stadium.