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The question isn't really how Oregon stacks up; it's how Portland and the Willamette Valley deal with snow and ice. Transportation agencies and citizens living in the 'normal' snow zone in the Cascades as well as east of the Cascades handle snow and ice with the same aplomb as those who live in other parts of the country. It is generally only Portland and the Willamette Valley that seemingly become paralyzed with relatively small amounts of snow or freezing rain. However, in the 30 years I've lived in Oregon (including 12 in the Portland and Eugene areas), snowfall and freezing rain events in the Willamette Valley and Metro area have been relatively rare. That doesn't mean they might not occur every year or every other year; by rare I mean that there may only be one such event a winter and its effects persist for only a day or two.

Snow plow blades and sanding equipment are expensive items to buy for what may only be a few days of use every year, and that doesn't include the number of trucks needed beyond the normal needs of a transportation agency to mount them on for major snow removal operations. While local contractors with the right kind of trucks could be contracted to assist in operations, somebody still has to pay for all that extra expense to make roads passable so some semblance of normal life can continue for those few brief inclement days through the whole winter.

Dare a wild-eyed liberal like me say it, but there is an element of personal responsibility involved in this issue. Buy snow tires. Buy chains. Tell your friends to buy them. Insist that the school districts install automatic chains systems on their school buses or hire a temporary workforce to install conventional chains on their school buses. East of the Cascades, including here in Southcentral Oregon where we received about a foot of new snow yesterday, it is not solely the responsibility of state, county, and municipal road departments to make sure you can go where you want to when you want to. Why should it be solely their responsibility when the Portland Metro area gets a couple of inches of snow?

posted 4 years, 5 months ago
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