WTF Atlanta?

[Seahawk]

Originally Posted by speeder

It seems to me that I was moving across the lanes towards the left lane when I hit black ice and we spun 720 degrees @ 60 mph. There was absolutely nothing to do but enjoy the ride. Thankfully to god, there was no other traffic and we did not bounce off the guardrail.

When we stopped spinning, I turned towards them in the back seat and apologized profusely but I could have been telling them I did it on purpose for all they understood me.

The young father just nodded and I got the car pointed south and continued to their destination without anymore drama. They're probably still telling that story 33 years later.

Black ice is no joke.

Good stuff.

My one and only Triple Salchow in a car was in Massachusetts.

Freshman year in college. I was having a fling with a gal I had met in Charleston the past summer. She went to school at Williams.

We decided that since I got out a few days ahead for Christmas break, I would fly into Albany, make myself useful for a few days with my best friend from HS, who went to Union College in Schenectady, NY, and then we'd all drive on to South Carolina in her car, a VW Type 3 Squareback.

My second day there, big storm. I had driven her car to Union College to stay with Mike at his fraternity (this was the 1970's and Williams dorms were not, uh, integrated.

All goes well until I exit route 7, if I recall a long off ramp. At the bottom of the ramp I am carrying way to much speed as I hit the black ice attempting a right hand turn.

Nice 360 across the intersection, a 360 into the entrance to a restaurant and the final 360 in the parking lot. Over 1000 degrees of spin without hitting a single thing or damaging the car.

The drive to Williams was driven with a bit more care

[matt711]

You also have to remember that Atlanta has grown around a bunch of small towns that maintain their own governments. It's not just Atlanta, it's also Decatur, Dunwoody, Peachtree Corners etc.. Several counties are included in the Atlanta metro area. Probably not even possible to coordinate with all those seperate entities on the fly. This will probably result in the development of a plan for future events. It doesnt excuse them from not having a plan to begin with though.

[speeder]

Well, I can't claim to know anything much about Atlanta. I was there once in my life, in 1977, and I really liked it. Pretty place.

[mattdavis11]

It becomes quite a bit more complicated in metropolitan areas. Coordination between county offices, city offices, school districts that overlap both, and state offices has to take place. DFW has a pretty good model.

Just because it's nice on the roads in your area, doesn't mean the bus driver or teacher can get out of their driveway.

[speeder]

Just make sure to wash that salt off of those nice southern cars right away. Don't skimp with the power washer on the wheel wells and underside. It will eat that car or truck like flesh-eating bacteria.

[gacook]

I work on an Army base in Arizona. If we get 1 inch of snow, they close the base, primarily because there is no infrastructure to handle snow/ice removal like there is in the North, and because people drive like complete idiots and freak out when there's white stuff on the ground. Usually happens 2-3 times per winter (we're in the mountains...kinda). This year, we've had a ridiculously warm winter (almost 80 yesterday), so no free snow days

[johnco]

it snows maybe one day every 20 yrs or so down here.. accidents do happen when no one has experience driving in those conditions

[Baz]

Finally some are taking responsibility.

My guess is their public relations staff told them they had to do it....or they wouldn't have.

Bunch of weasels if you ask me.....

[mattdavis11]

Back in early 2012, late Feb early March, I forget which, we had several inches of sleet come down overnight. Boss called for a 9 am arrival for all employees. I left at 8 for 4 mile drive and put the company car in the ditch within 1 mile. Gravity took the prius right off the roadway. Getting out of the ditch was easier than driving on the road, come to think of it, it was a hellava offroader.

We had a chat about the liabilities involved and called it a day.

[MBAtarga]

Those in the Atlanta area for many years probably recall SnowJam '82. That time, the weather forecast called for the possibility of a little snow - no accumulation, etc. Well, it dropped buckets - about 4 or 5" in total. It trapped people downtown and all around the metro area. Everyone was blaming the state and local govt officials then as well. Just the next year, the forecasters called for the possibility of a little snow. Well -this time, they weren't going to be caught off guard - the government closed all offices, schools were cancelled, etc. Guess what? No snow! It hit the fan again -this time for over-reacting. This was affectionately called SnowSham!

[A930Rocket]

I was in ATL back then. What a fiasco that was.

You put millions of people on the road at the same time during snow and/or ice and you're going to have a cluster****. Atlanta has always been like that and it's going to get worse as it grows.

Maybe they'll stop the blame game and learn from it?

Those in the Atlanta area for many years probably recall SnowJam '82. That time, the weather forecast called for the possibility of a little snow - no accumulation, etc. Well, it dropped buckets - about 4 or 5" in total. It trapped people downtown and all around the metro area. Everyone was blaming the state and local govt officials then as well. Just the next year, the forecasters called for the possibility of a little snow. Well -this time, they weren't going to be caught off guard - the government closed all offices, schools were cancelled, etc. Guess what? No snow! It hit the fan again -this time for over-reacting. This was affectionately called SnowSham!

[matt711]

They closed down Fort Bragg and all the surrounding schools yesterday. Didnt open post until 11:00 today. Schools are still shut down.

[Aragorn]

Will all that snow in Atlanta help kill the Kudzu?

[GH85Carrera]

Even a nuclear bomb will not kill kudzu.

[Baz]

Photo taken this morning after these cars were abandoned yesterday.....

[MBAtarga]

This is an interesting 1st person story that was crossposted from Jalopnik. It gives a pretty good indication of how bad the roads were.

How One Driver Survived Atlanta's Winter Hellscape

[t6dpilot]

Well, I just returned from ATL working a trade show with colleagues. It was the worst situation that I have ever witnessed - EVER! Much worse than the big blizzard that hit Chicago a couple of years ago. What made it bad for us was that we stayed 20 miles north of town to keep our hotel bills reasonable. That made us part of the Atlanta commuter traffic. In my opinion, it was the expressway cluster*** that made this situation so bad. Being seasoned upper midwesterners, we got off the highway after seeing how bad it was. Thank God for Google Maps and GPS. We had a speedy 3 hour commmute to our hotel near the intersection of 285 and 75 in Vinings. Hell of a lot better than everyone else out there.

It was not ice that fell, but the problem was that the 2 or 3 inches of snow quickly became ice pack on the roads. The previous day was warm so the ground retained heat for the beginning of the storm. That caused the snow to melt, which is typical of the south. Heck, I figured there might just be a dusting on the grass and everything else would melt. Wrong! The temperature steadily dropped quickly and the wet snow/slush turned into ice. And with the heavy traffic on the expressways, they packed the snow into more ice making the sitation really bad. The secondary roads were not a whole lot better, but there were less vehicles and you still had some regular snow for traction. Pick your way carefully and it should be OK.

Having an AWD or FWD car was key. RWD and you were toast. The hills were the main issue combined with slippery condition incompetence. If you just kept moving and managed your energy, you could get up and down the hills. Use the snow covered areas to gain lost traction. What was funny (actually sad) was that a lot of drivers pressed the gas when the wheels started to spin. Can't get anywhere, spin the wheels more. I saw so much tire smoke it was ridiculous. When we finally got back on the road Wednesday, you saw a ton of wheel spin marks where they would go forward for a few feet then sideways for 15 feet. Everybody was doing it and I think even the FWD cars were having difficulty. Stopping on a hill or just before was the kiss of death for many.

Our hotel was a refugee camp with people sleeping all over the lobby, in the parking lot in their cars, and on the street in their cars. 285N just outside our window was stopped all night and into the late morning. We headed back downtown at 11:00 and found the roads OK, but icy. We planned on retracing our previous path and found that the secondary roads had become choked with abandonded and stuck cars on the hills. Went past a couple and then got block by one near the entrance to 75S. Decided to chance it and get on 75. It was wide open going south, but at a standstill going north. We were one of only a handful of cars going south to the city. We felt just like the penultimate scene from The Walking Dead. Just add snow and abandoned cars. Should have stopped and gotten a photo...

[recycled sixtie]

Is this the end of the world coming Atlanta style? Perhaps you need snow tires in winter so you can be better prepared?
G
Note the ugly salt and road crud. New Pirelli snow tires really help with traction....

[willtel]

I made it in my RWD BMW but it was hairy. I turned onto a hill about 20 minutes into my commute trying to avoid traffic and it was almost my undoing. I spun about 2\3rds of the way up and slid backwards. I turned the traction control off and it walked down into a little concrete culvert that ran next to the road like a curb. Keeping it in that grove and spinning was just enough to pull me into the fresher snow and get some traction. Not bad for a stupid southerner.


IMG_1353 by willtel, on Flickr

[speeder]

Snow tires.