“back in my day” (k12 in the 1970s-80s) we rarely got snow days. sure, it snowed. a lot. buses might roll into school a little late some days, but it took a big blizzard for them to call-off school. we had mud days in the spring more often, as many of the rural county roads in our very large (~ 100 miles across) district were narrow or windy dirt or gravel roads.
My school district didn’t even have busses. The rule was that if the superintendent could get to school, then there was going to be school that day. We joked that the guy must drive a half-track with how rarely we got snow days. I remember walking to school one day in a full-on blizzard with a bottle of Mountain Dew stuffed into my enormous winter coat pocket, and when I got there it had a distinct layer of frozen slush on top. Good times. Built character.
Really depends on the region. It snows infrequently where I am and we just don’t bother with the infrastructure to deal with the rare snow dump. There are few plows, most people don’t have tire chains, we mostly just hunker down until it melts off.
It’s also a lot worse to drive on when it’s near freezing. Snow with a bit of water in it can be way slippier than even slush, and almost as bad as ice. Near freezing is also the conditions that can leave you with black ice in the mornings or late evenings if the snow melts enough during the day, or where ever else the water’s coming from.
Mix in the fact that people in regions where it snows rarely royally suck at driving in adverse conditions, and it kinda’ actually makes sense even beyond not having plows for cities to more readily shut down over snow in such areas.
There is a similar discussion currently where I live.
Yes you can pay for a shit ton of plows that don’t do anything most of the years.
Or you accept a shitty 2 weeks every 15 years.
“But it snowed a lot when I was young™”
Yes and the city, people and nature were prepared.
But if it only snows significantly every 5 years. Branches will break and people forgett how snow. It’s mot the same!
“back in my day” (k12 in the 1970s-80s) we rarely got snow days. sure, it snowed. a lot. buses might roll into school a little late some days, but it took a big blizzard for them to call-off school. we had mud days in the spring more often, as many of the rural county roads in our very large (~ 100 miles across) district were narrow or windy dirt or gravel roads.
You grow up in the northeast?
My school district didn’t even have busses. The rule was that if the superintendent could get to school, then there was going to be school that day. We joked that the guy must drive a half-track with how rarely we got snow days. I remember walking to school one day in a full-on blizzard with a bottle of Mountain Dew stuffed into my enormous winter coat pocket, and when I got there it had a distinct layer of frozen slush on top. Good times. Built character.
Uphill both ways?
Really depends on the region. It snows infrequently where I am and we just don’t bother with the infrastructure to deal with the rare snow dump. There are few plows, most people don’t have tire chains, we mostly just hunker down until it melts off.
It’s also a lot worse to drive on when it’s near freezing. Snow with a bit of water in it can be way slippier than even slush, and almost as bad as ice. Near freezing is also the conditions that can leave you with black ice in the mornings or late evenings if the snow melts enough during the day, or where ever else the water’s coming from.
Mix in the fact that people in regions where it snows rarely royally suck at driving in adverse conditions, and it kinda’ actually makes sense even beyond not having plows for cities to more readily shut down over snow in such areas.
This is exactly the point.
There is a similar discussion currently where I live.
Yes you can pay for a shit ton of plows that don’t do anything most of the years.
Or you accept a shitty 2 weeks every 15 years.
“But it snowed a lot when I was young™”
Yes and the city, people and nature were prepared. But if it only snows significantly every 5 years. Branches will break and people forgett how snow. It’s mot the same!
Yeah, I’ve only ever had one day where the school were close because of snow, and that was because most teachers and students were snowed in.
Yes I grew up in a small town in Sweden, how did you know?