1 00:00:00,340 --> 00:00:02,770 Have you ever noticed that your town sucks at snow removal? 2 00:00:02,770 --> 00:00:06,370 Now, some of you are probably thinking to yourself, “whoa, wait a minute, this guy 3 00:00:06,370 --> 00:00:09,710 doesn’t know where I live, how did he manage to make that spot on observation?” 4 00:00:09,710 --> 00:00:13,170 On the other hand, others of you are thinking “actually it doesn’t snow at all where 5 00:00:13,170 --> 00:00:17,510 I live,” and to you I say a very sincere shut up, this video isn’t about you. 6 00:00:17,510 --> 00:00:21,699 Anyways, the reason I nailed this observation for some of you is that, spoiler alert, pretty 7 00:00:21,699 --> 00:00:23,700 much everywhere sucks at snow removal. 8 00:00:23,700 --> 00:00:27,720 Or put another way: snow removal is actually a lot harder than it might seem. 9 00:00:27,720 --> 00:00:31,840 Let’s start with the basics, because even those aren’t as basic as you might imagine. 10 00:00:31,840 --> 00:00:36,370 The most popular vehicle for plowing snow, the snowplow, is the backbone of most cities’ 11 00:00:36,370 --> 00:00:39,399 operations, whether you’re strolling through New York City or Vail, Colorado. 12 00:00:39,399 --> 00:00:43,039 Generally, they’re assigned specific routes, beginning with the most crucial roadways that 13 00:00:43,039 --> 00:00:47,180 connect to hospitals, emergency services, and schools, and plow back-and-forth until 14 00:00:47,180 --> 00:00:51,030 they’re devoid of snow—because most snow plows don’t reach the blacktop on first 15 00:00:51,030 --> 00:00:54,840 pass, to prevent the scooper from colliding with any debris or potholes, which could damage 16 00:00:54,840 --> 00:00:55,840 the plow. 17 00:00:55,840 --> 00:00:58,921 And they always move snow to the right side of a road at this angle, unless you’re in 18 00:00:58,921 --> 00:01:02,149 a few of those fictional non-America places, so they don’t block one-way intersections 19 00:01:02,149 --> 00:01:05,470 and disperse the snow to the right shoulder, which ensures that drivers know where the 20 00:01:05,470 --> 00:01:09,370 road ends in whiteout conditions, and makes sure that huge snow drifts don’t pile up. 21 00:01:09,370 --> 00:01:15,330 But they can only travel between 25 to 35 miles per hour, or 40 to 55 kilometers per 22 00:01:15,330 --> 00:01:18,520 hour—increasing snowplow speeds beyond these limits doesn’t actually increase the rate 23 00:01:18,520 --> 00:01:22,150 at which snow is removed; it only increases the rate at which pedestrians’ lives are 24 00:01:22,150 --> 00:01:23,150 removed. 25 00:01:23,150 --> 00:01:26,240 And while this setup might seem “dumb” or “not very rock n’ roll” to the untrained 26 00:01:26,240 --> 00:01:31,119 eye, it’s actually the best solution to snow route planning engineered over decades. 27 00:01:31,119 --> 00:01:35,170 Specifically, this slow-and-steady method ensures that the most important routes to 28 00:01:35,170 --> 00:01:39,130 drivers in a storm are the safest first, which is why all those news anchors tell you not 29 00:01:39,130 --> 00:01:42,220 to go outside in a blizzard unless it’s absolutely necessary. 30 00:01:42,220 --> 00:01:46,350 In New York City, this setup means snowplows have to make several passes on 19,000 miles, 31 00:01:46,350 --> 00:01:51,609 or 30,000 kilometers of roadways—three quarters of the Earth’s circumference—after a snowstorm, 32 00:01:51,609 --> 00:01:52,609 which takes days. 33 00:01:52,609 --> 00:01:58,310 In fact, the city spent $12 million per fallen inch of snow plowed in 2020 alone. 34 00:01:58,310 --> 00:02:02,770 In mountain towns like Vail, Colorado, snow plows also have to consider the added challenge 35 00:02:02,770 --> 00:02:03,810 of elevation. 36 00:02:03,810 --> 00:02:08,539 Vail Pass, one of Interstate 70’s hairiest stretches, boasts a 3.8 percent grade, which 37 00:02:08,539 --> 00:02:12,750 means that the slow plows—which is the mean nickname I just came up with for snow plows—have 38 00:02:12,750 --> 00:02:14,010 to go even slower. 39 00:02:14,010 --> 00:02:18,540 And to make matters even more complicated, the altitude in towns like Vail make it more 40 00:02:18,540 --> 00:02:24,340 likely that snow and ice re-freeze overnight, which means plows run 24/7 until a storm passes. 41 00:02:24,340 --> 00:02:26,629 But that’s just snowplows. 42 00:02:26,629 --> 00:02:32,420 Much like British food, snow removal can be significantly aided by adding lots of salt. 43 00:02:32,420 --> 00:02:35,970 Most cities use salt to lower the freezing point of water, which prevents ice from forming 44 00:02:35,970 --> 00:02:39,120 in the first place, or breaks it up depending on when you apply it. 45 00:02:39,120 --> 00:02:44,260 According to Vox, 26 states dumped 17 million tons of salt on the roads in 2013. 46 00:02:44,260 --> 00:02:49,670 For scale, 17 million tons of salt is roughly the sodium content of one and a half servings 47 00:02:49,670 --> 00:02:51,700 of Guy Fieri’s Trashcan Nachos. 48 00:02:51,700 --> 00:02:55,519 To make a roadway drivable, multiple trucks’ worth of salt have to be applied. 49 00:02:55,519 --> 00:03:00,180 But as Guy Fieri’s trashcan nachos teach us, too much salt has drawbacks. 50 00:03:00,180 --> 00:03:04,269 Using insane amounts of salt corrodes cars and bridges, and when massive quantities of 51 00:03:04,269 --> 00:03:08,200 salt enter the ecosystem, they can kill a lot of living things and get into our water 52 00:03:08,200 --> 00:03:09,200 supply. 53 00:03:09,200 --> 00:03:12,890 Plus, our salt supply is running out, which means both large cities and remote mountain 54 00:03:12,890 --> 00:03:17,110 towns won’t be able to depend on their tried-and-true ice breaker for much longer. 55 00:03:17,110 --> 00:03:21,340 To lower the labor and resource costs of snow removal in their pedestrian villages, Vail, 56 00:03:21,340 --> 00:03:25,640 Colorado actually invested in heated streets for Vail Village and Lionshead, which actually 57 00:03:25,640 --> 00:03:29,480 works out as better for the environment, and tried applying beet juice to the other roads, 58 00:03:29,480 --> 00:03:33,640 which isn’t as effective, but is biodegradable and has the added benefit of making it look 59 00:03:33,640 --> 00:03:35,440 like someone bled all over the snow. 60 00:03:35,440 --> 00:03:39,480 Given the inherent limitations of snow plows and salt, some cities have tried to innovate, 61 00:03:39,480 --> 00:03:43,220 which has led to some… well, let’s call them interesting solutions. 62 00:03:43,220 --> 00:03:46,970 Because of how many streets it has to plow and how much snow can accumulate, New York 63 00:03:46,970 --> 00:03:50,390 City invested in giant hot tubs jerry-rigged to dump trucks. 64 00:03:50,390 --> 00:03:53,890 Instead of letting the local children have a magical winter morning sledding in the streets, 65 00:03:53,890 --> 00:03:58,750 the city brings out industrial-size melters that can turn 240 gallons or 900 liters of 66 00:03:58,750 --> 00:04:03,530 snow per minute into slightly less magical water, which then gets sent to one of the 67 00:04:03,530 --> 00:04:06,100 city’s not at all magical wastewater treatment plants. 68 00:04:06,100 --> 00:04:09,830 Surprisingly, this is the best solution to get rid of snowdrifts and doesn’t require 69 00:04:09,830 --> 00:04:13,470 the hot tubs to be at hot tub-level temperatures: the snow will melt in water with a temperature 70 00:04:13,470 --> 00:04:16,760 of 40 degrees Fahrenheit, or about 5 degrees celsius. 71 00:04:16,760 --> 00:04:20,609 But this entire process of plowing, salting, and hauling doesn’t even cover sidewalks 72 00:04:20,609 --> 00:04:25,040 or driveways, because in most towns or cities, they require tenants, landlords, and residents 73 00:04:25,040 --> 00:04:29,200 to clear ice and snow from them, which is great for ambulance chasers, but not great 74 00:04:29,200 --> 00:04:30,200 for everyone else. 75 00:04:30,200 --> 00:04:33,740 The good news is, if you break your ribs walking to work, you can sue your neighbor! 76 00:04:33,740 --> 00:04:38,860 So, uh, in conclusion, to get rid of snow, cities have to plow roads with giant, expensive 77 00:04:38,860 --> 00:04:42,430 snow plows that can only drive very slowly, or they can cover the roads in corrosive salt 78 00:04:42,430 --> 00:04:46,590 that is also running out, or they can attach a giant hot tub to a dump truck and see where 79 00:04:46,590 --> 00:04:47,590 the day takes them. 80 00:04:47,590 --> 00:04:50,860 And while it often doesn’t work very well, just remember it’s all done with the noble 81 00:04:50,860 --> 00:04:53,130 intention of robbing you of a snow day. 82 00:04:53,130 --> 00:04:57,610 Whether you’re reading the weather forecast, or the opinion section, or the current happenings 83 00:04:57,610 --> 00:05:01,160 of Harry and Meghan, you probably read a lot of online articles. 84 00:05:01,160 --> 00:05:06,169 It can be easy to become inundated with information from a range of sources, without a reliable 85 00:05:06,169 --> 00:05:08,900 way to compare how these outlets are covering different topics. 86 00:05:08,900 --> 00:05:12,920 But with Ground News, the world’s first news comparison platform, you can sort through 87 00:05:12,920 --> 00:05:16,720 the white noise and compare news coverage side-by-side, all without designing your own 88 00:05:16,720 --> 00:05:19,200 social media platform or AI bot. 89 00:05:19,200 --> 00:05:23,509 Ground News was designed by a former NASA engineer and sorts through 30,000 news articles 90 00:05:23,509 --> 00:05:26,880 every single day, which means you can see exactly who’s covering the most important 91 00:05:26,880 --> 00:05:29,500 stories to you, and how they’re covering that story. 92 00:05:29,500 --> 00:05:33,830 And with features like Compare Coverage, Bias Distribution, and Blindspot Feed, you can 93 00:05:33,830 --> 00:05:38,750 see how media outlets shape and produce stories, based on their sources’ biases and the outlet’s 94 00:05:38,750 --> 00:05:41,590 political skew—as well as where their stories might be lacking. 95 00:05:41,590 --> 00:05:45,260 Personally, I really enjoy reading stories on Ground News, like this one discussing the 96 00:05:45,260 --> 00:05:48,730 US hitting the debt limit since it’s a highly politicized topic so it’s useful to look 97 00:05:48,730 --> 00:05:52,780 at how the story’s sources lean, how the news outlet itself is funded, and how factual 98 00:05:52,780 --> 00:05:56,160 the article is, all in an easy-to-use, intuitive reading experience. 99 00:05:56,160 --> 00:06:00,500 You can also customize your news feed by toggling between international and local coverage, 100 00:06:00,500 --> 00:06:04,110 reading recommended coverage, and calculating your own media bias based on the articles 101 00:06:04,110 --> 00:06:05,110 you read. 102 00:06:05,110 --> 00:06:08,720 To try out ground news, just click the button on-screen or head to ground.news/halfasinteresting.