Wisconsin allowed studded tires for a while in the 1960's and early
70's. They made my light-in-the-ass Firebird much more drivable here in
our winters, but they were quickly outlawed when it was seen how much
road damage they caused. I'm surprised Washington doesn't just do the same.
-p
On 9/1/2011 4:50 AM, Joseph McAllister wrote:
You live in the north, where winter freezes the rainwater that seeps
into the patches when it's warmer. Breaks 'em up over time. When I've
lived in similar climes, Boston and New York, men with dripping
buckets of warm tar attempt to seal all the cracks and edges of new
patches every spring. Seattle's way is to first, lay two new inches
of blacktop from intersection to intersection where the streets are
bad. After two of those layover, before the third the grind the old
blacktop down to a level where the curbs are exposed enough so two
more series of blacktop overlays can fit still leaving the curb
protruding.
Second, Seattle has some of the best blacktop patching crews I've
ever seen. They leave a repair smooth, heavily hand edged 4 to 6
inches wide, slightly bulged so that a week after it's repaired, the
traffic has compacted the patch to be level with the rest of the
road. They respond to a called in report of a pothole within 24
hours, immediately if it looks like a suspension buster. You see
their dump trucks with several yards of cold patching blacktop all
over the place, mostly at night.
Having driven heavy buses I've paid attention to the experimentation
that the state has done over the years when studying roads. We have
one brown macadam highway that is closed by snow every winter for 3
to 5 months. It has very little truck traffic when it is open. A
repaving has only been done twice in 70 years, though occasionally a
rock slide will take out or damage a 100 yards or more. This state
allows studded tires from Nov 1st to April 30. but this road never
sees them. However, the concrete Federal highways lose from 1/8 to
3/4 of an inch every year in the tracks of the cars in the two left
lanes. The two right lanes get busted up by the trucks, or made into
dips between the two edges of a panel so your car gets to doing a
roller coaster thing if your shocks are not in good condition. Cracks
are rarely patched. When it rains, the water fills the depressions
worn by the studded tires, making it much more likely to aquaplane,
at least to throw water up in the air causing the cars ahead of you
to disappear in the sheets of water.
I hate studded tires. It would cost less to have skid pad training in
drivers ed in the schools or private firms to teach these morons to
drive in the snow and ice than it is costing the state and the feds
to repair the roads laid down by the Eisenhower edict 60 years ago.
It's called tender touch on the pedals, easily learned!
Joseph McAllister [email protected]
I couldn't remember most of what I know today if it weren't for
others sharing their knowledge of my past on the Internet. Thank
you…
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Being old doesn't seem so old now that I'm old.
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