I was really surprised at the plows when I first moved to Buffalo NY. They are massive- they have two person crews (the 2nd person just moves the side blade) and they travel in packs- for the major roads, there will be 3 or even 4. One for each lane, and the one that trails behind for the "cleanup" and salt. I live on a 2 lane road, but it's a important North/South road, so these 4 packs go up and down my road in single file all night. It was such a change from Louisville, KY where I think they had 4 plows *total*. People in the northeast always laugh when they hear about 3" closing some southern city, but I would like to see how well we would do if we had only a handful of plows. (and the reason I like Buffalo so much is that we don't even have AC in our house! can't get away with that in Louisville!)
I want a plow for one thing; so I can bury the people in the Chicago area who complain that the plows don't get quickly enough to side streets or, sweet jeebus, alleys. For pete's sake, people, main arteries get priority.
I do love the comments to that article, which basically are "you don't seriously think that Philly is going to spend money on that stuff?!?!?" Which, of course, the writer doesn't think that. He's just having a serious case of plow envy in the aftermath of a yet another bad winter storm. I mean, I was very impressed by the show of snow-plowing prowess my last winter in Chicago, when I stepped outside the day after a massive, massive snowstorm to find State Street devoid of snow, but full of mobilized equipment, putting proof to the truism that snow-clearance is absolutely key to a Chicago mayor's job security. But I didn't actually expect that DC or Georgia would invest in that much snow removal equipment. That said. many an Atlanta, bedding down on the floor of a Kroger last winter, probably had major plow envy.
I was really surprised at the plows when I first moved to Buffalo NY. They are massive- they have two person crews (the 2nd person just moves the side blade) and they travel in packs- for the major roads, there will be 3 or even 4. One for each lane, and the one that trails behind for the "cleanup" and salt. I live on a 2 lane road, but it's a important North/South road, so these 4 packs go up and down my road in single file all night.
ReplyDeleteIt was such a change from Louisville, KY where I think they had 4 plows *total*. People in the northeast always laugh when they hear about 3" closing some southern city, but I would like to see how well we would do if we had only a handful of plows. (and the reason I like Buffalo so much is that we don't even have AC in our house! can't get away with that in Louisville!)
I want a plow for one thing; so I can bury the people in the Chicago area who complain that the plows don't get quickly enough to side streets or, sweet jeebus, alleys. For pete's sake, people, main arteries get priority.
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile...
ReplyDeleteI do love the comments to that article, which basically are "you don't seriously think that Philly is going to spend money on that stuff?!?!?" Which, of course, the writer doesn't think that. He's just having a serious case of plow envy in the aftermath of a yet another bad winter storm. I mean, I was very impressed by the show of snow-plowing prowess my last winter in Chicago, when I stepped outside the day after a massive, massive snowstorm to find State Street devoid of snow, but full of mobilized equipment, putting proof to the truism that snow-clearance is absolutely key to a Chicago mayor's job security. But I didn't actually expect that DC or Georgia would invest in that much snow removal equipment. That said. many an Atlanta, bedding down on the floor of a Kroger last winter, probably had major plow envy.
ReplyDelete