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March 12, 2009

Road Salt!!

Editor

I’m phobic of salt. It’s what did this to my Escort GT. It’s part of the reason I left the Northeast. It’s right up there on my list of top enemies of cars, which includes such offenders as scrappage programs and trees. Up until this winter, temperate Seattle was a salt-free paradise where you could run your project car year-round. But after the most recent dump of snow (West Coasters become confused and irrational in the presence of snow), there was a holy outcry from the safety-minded over the issue of the city’s refusal to salt its roads. A few scientists piped up that salt does not hurt the environment, as city bureaucrats outdatedly feared, and it was a done deal: salt on the roads during storms from now on. But these streaks Rob noticed today on his Volvo represented the first actual physical evidence I’d witnessed of this new scourge. Hits a little close to home, I guess.

How’s your town: salt trap, or salt-free?

Permalink:

Posted at 1:56 pm in Jen Dunnaway, salt, Volvo, Winter

Comments

lejourinator
Mar 18, 2009 at 4:46 pm

goin salt free one district at a time!

GlamismanTJ
Mar 14, 2009 at 11:30 am

Here in Phoenix, Arizona I don’t think I need to say much about the use of salt. If I ever see significant snow here, I gonna asume that the movie “The Day After Tomarrow” is real.

I_Drive_TOYOTA
Mar 13, 2009 at 1:53 pm

oh well, sucks for you

gold94corolla
Mar 13, 2009 at 7:59 am

Yep, salt trap in Maryland for sure…. rust all over! At least it washes away when it rains unlike gravel or sand.

John-Gelnett
Mar 13, 2009 at 7:00 am

Here in Tennessee there isn’t much snow so it isn’t a problem. But I was born and raised in Pennsylvania and like some of the earlier posts said the amount of salt is hell on a vehicle. I was up there a few weeks ago and when I came back I washed my Sport Trac for hours to get the damn salt off.

Blackcompany
Mar 13, 2009 at 5:23 am

That certainly explains why all those idiots in Seattle wreck every time it snows. I hate salt too but that’s why its called a winter beater cheaper than paying for all the cars you guys smash up because you think snow means to apply the accelerator more vigorously.

DJs-zj360
Mar 13, 2009 at 4:56 am

Salt, cinders, gravel, or whatever else there is, we’ve got it all here in PA. It might be good for traction if they throw it down right (rarity that ever happens), but it for damn sure isn’t good for anything else!

fortyfordsedan
Mar 12, 2009 at 10:45 pm

We get gravel, which Im not sure is better, or worse. The cars get a ton of rock chips, cracked windshields, and everyone looks like they have been offroading pretty much all winter. In my first car I was driving and my own tires threw a rock that hit my own windshield and cracked it. I think for the most part when winter comes, if you live in a state that gets snow, your best bet is to leave the project car in the garage till the street sweepers get a chance to get rid of the salt or gravel left on the roads in the spring.

camarofreak30721
Mar 12, 2009 at 9:40 pm

I’m in the northwestern corner of GA so we hardly ever see snow. If we get just a dusting they don’t salt the roads, maybe the bridges. If there is anything more than 3-4 inches they’ll sling salt. Not to mention the whole damn area closes down and people freak out cause they can’t drive in the rain much less anything else.

enzo354
Mar 12, 2009 at 9:31 pm

Gravel all the way to town. Our town is pretty much salt free but the highways then turn to salt traps, and the salt forms into salty slush.

___nes___
Mar 12, 2009 at 6:43 pm

My town is salt, snow, rain, bad weather free!!! Love Southern California!!! I rolled to school with my windows down and I was wearing a shirt. How many people can say that at this time of the year?

FordRulesAll
Mar 12, 2009 at 5:34 pm

Salt trap, the whole freakin area. The weather has been so unpredicatble, it’s crazy. It seems to make my ride fade, lots of washing when it gets warmer out.

LunacyGiant
Mar 12, 2009 at 5:34 pm

PA=SALT!! and lots of it, and its the nasty liquid stuff too

Killersharq
Mar 12, 2009 at 4:46 pm

Salt trap…

NobiZero
Mar 12, 2009 at 3:50 pm

Damn salt spreader truck drove by me 2 months ago and threw a huge rock of salt at my car and cracked the windshield. Since it was dark, and he was going in the opposite direction, I couldn’t catch a license plate. I hate them with an undying passion.

audiobahnv8sho
Mar 12, 2009 at 3:46 pm

This is why my cars hibernate in the winter until mid April or later.

IH-international
Mar 12, 2009 at 3:17 pm

heck we have warehouses made just to hold road salt here in lacrosse wisconsin

dilandau2004
Mar 12, 2009 at 3:11 pm

Looks like the only good thing about Arkansucks is that it doesn’t really snow that much here. That means only rare salt trucks or sand trucks.

Coolpacer
Mar 12, 2009 at 2:59 pm

That’s why I moved to SoCal. No salt for miles.

cknarf
Mar 12, 2009 at 2:47 pm

SALT TRAP!

DaveyBoyo
Mar 12, 2009 at 2:46 pm

Hello from Southern Ontario!

Hahaha. You already know what you’re gonna read next, don’t you? HOLY SALT, BATMAN! Salt to us is like rice at an Asian wedding. It’s thrown everywhere with little regard for the digestive tracts of pidgeons, or our poor automobiles:(

Thankfully, there is hope – http://www.krown.com/#default

This was the first year I’ve taken my truck in, and it cost me $150, but from everything I’ve heard (they have a rock-solid reputation around here) it’s more than worth it.

bick66
Mar 12, 2009 at 2:21 pm

OMG! Yet another way that Greg Nickels it going to mess up this city!!! I can’t stand that guy! Well, so much for our salt free haven here in the NW. Maybe it’s time to move south….. Having had salt free roads is a big part of why we’ve been able to have so many of our classic cars survive. What sad new this is.

1lowscort
Mar 12, 2009 at 2:08 pm

We are salt free here in Montana! Salt is terrible, I would rather have the gravel and constantly cracked windshields like we have here in Montana.