Have you ever noticed that your town sucks at snow removal?
Now, some of you are probably thinking to yourself, “whoa, wait a minute, this guy
doesn’t know where I live, how did he manage to make that spot on observation?”
On the other hand, others of you are thinking “actually it doesn’t snow at all where
I live,” and to you I say a very sincere shut up, this video isn’t about you.
Anyways, the reason I nailed this observation for some of you is that, spoiler alert, pretty
much everywhere sucks at snow removal.
Or put another way: snow removal is actually a lot harder than it might seem.
Let’s start with the basics, because even those aren’t as basic as you might imagine.
The most popular vehicle for plowing snow, the snowplow, is the backbone of most cities’
operations, whether you’re strolling through New York City or Vail, Colorado.
Generally, they’re assigned specific routes, beginning with the most crucial roadways that
connect to hospitals, emergency services, and schools, and plow back-and-forth until
they’re devoid of snow—because most snow plows don’t reach the blacktop on first
pass, to prevent the scooper from colliding with any debris or potholes, which could damage
the plow.
And they always move snow to the right side of a road at this angle, unless you’re in
a few of those fictional non-America places, so they don’t block one-way intersections
and disperse the snow to the right shoulder, which ensures that drivers know where the
road ends in whiteout conditions, and makes sure that huge snow drifts don’t pile up.
But they can only travel between 25 to 35 miles per hour, or 40 to 55 kilometers per
hour—increasing snowplow speeds beyond these limits doesn’t actually increase the rate
at which snow is removed; it only increases the rate at which pedestrians’ lives are
removed.
And while this setup might seem “dumb” or “not very rock n’ roll” to the untrained
eye, it’s actually the best solution to snow route planning engineered over decades.
Specifically, this slow-and-steady method ensures that the most important routes to
drivers in a storm are the safest first, which is why all those news anchors tell you not
to go outside in a blizzard unless it’s absolutely necessary.
In New York City, this setup means snowplows have to make several passes on 19,000 miles,
or 30,000 kilometers of roadways—three quarters of the Earth’s circumference—after a snowstorm,
which takes days.
In fact, the city spent $12 million per fallen inch of snow plowed in 2020 alone.
In mountain towns like Vail, Colorado, snow plows also have to consider the added challenge
of elevation.
Vail Pass, one of Interstate 70’s hairiest stretches, boasts a 3.8 percent grade, which
means that the slow plows—which is the mean nickname I just came up with for snow plows—have
to go even slower.
And to make matters even more complicated, the altitude in towns like Vail make it more
likely that snow and ice re-freeze overnight, which means plows run 24/7 until a storm passes.
But that’s just snowplows.
Much like British food, snow removal can be significantly aided by adding lots of salt.
Most cities use salt to lower the freezing point of water, which prevents ice from forming
in the first place, or breaks it up depending on when you apply it.
According to Vox, 26 states dumped 17 million tons of salt on the roads in 2013.
For scale, 17 million tons of salt is roughly the sodium content of one and a half servings
of Guy Fieri’s Trashcan Nachos.
To make a roadway drivable, multiple trucks’ worth of salt have to be applied.
But as Guy Fieri’s trashcan nachos teach us, too much salt has drawbacks.
Using insane amounts of salt corrodes cars and bridges, and when massive quantities of
salt enter the ecosystem, they can kill a lot of living things and get into our water
supply.
Plus, our salt supply is running out, which means both large cities and remote mountain
towns won’t be able to depend on their tried-and-true ice breaker for much longer.
To lower the labor and resource costs of snow removal in their pedestrian villages, Vail,
Colorado actually invested in heated streets for Vail Village and Lionshead, which actually
works out as better for the environment, and tried applying beet juice to the other roads,
which isn’t as effective, but is biodegradable and has the added benefit of making it look
like someone bled all over the snow.
Given the inherent limitations of snow plows and salt, some cities have tried to innovate,
which has led to some… well, let’s call them interesting solutions.
Because of how many streets it has to plow and how much snow can accumulate, New York
City invested in giant hot tubs jerry-rigged to dump trucks.
Instead of letting the local children have a magical winter morning sledding in the streets,
the city brings out industrial-size melters that can turn 240 gallons or 900 liters of
snow per minute into slightly less magical water, which then gets sent to one of the
city’s not at all magical wastewater treatment plants.
Surprisingly, this is the best solution to get rid of snowdrifts and doesn’t require
the hot tubs to be at hot tub-level temperatures: the snow will melt in water with a temperature
of 40 degrees Fahrenheit, or about 5 degrees celsius.
But this entire process of plowing, salting, and hauling doesn’t even cover sidewalks
or driveways, because in most towns or cities, they require tenants, landlords, and residents
to clear ice and snow from them, which is great for ambulance chasers, but not great
for everyone else.
The good news is, if you break your ribs walking to work, you can sue your neighbor!
So, uh, in conclusion, to get rid of snow, cities have to plow roads with giant, expensive
snow plows that can only drive very slowly, or they can cover the roads in corrosive salt
that is also running out, or they can attach a giant hot tub to a dump truck and see where
the day takes them.
And while it often doesn’t work very well, just remember it’s all done with the noble
intention of robbing you of a snow day.
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