City’s Snow Response: B; State’s Response: D

Seattle’s 2008 snow storm took the city by surprise. Well, the city council president and the mayor, anyway, who were both out of town at the time at the time the snow hit. The ensuing chaos, in which the city’s department of transportation failed to plow and salt major arterials, led to the election downfall of then-Mayor Greg Nickels. Nickels was oft quoted by the press and his critics as having given the slovenly DOT a B grade for their snow response effort, when everyone felt the DOT failed miserably.

The 2010 snow storm, on the other hand, couldn’t be termed a surprise by anyone. Except maybe the Washington State Department of Transportation, which posted their entire road crew on snow plow duty and left not a single person available to open the northbound express lanes on I-5 on Monday night. This led to the single worst traffic commute in modern Seattle history.

The state DOT gave one excuse for why this “happened.” Apparently, the express lanes and their entrance ramps rank at the bottom of the snow plow list of priorities. But, hey, at 3 pm, they could have devoted one snow plow, or one truck of sand, or one salt sprayer, or even just one guy to open the damn gates and let us take our chances! Instead, people sat for hours in a parking lot on northbound I-5 literally inching their way home. The bus I rode from downtown to the NE 45th Street exit in the University District took over two hours. Unforgiveable. Especially when you’re seeing only two to three inches of snow.

And, just like in 2008, Metro Transit gets a barely passing grade. Again. At least this time, Metro chained up buses in preparation for the snow. But did they train drivers how to navigate slippery streets and find alternative, less hilly routes? No. Did they make it easy to find information on their websites on bus reroutes? No. In fact, the website offers a place for you to sign up for email or a twitter feed of storm-related updates about “your bus routes.” Which completely ignores the fact that many impoverished and elderly Metro riders don’t carry a cell phone that can receive text messages. Also, who’s going to stand around in 20 degree weather with a cell phone in their mitten-less hands? It also shows how clueless Metro officials are about how people use the bus system. No one rides only one route, okay? How hard is it to post updates on a blog right on the home page of their website?

Fortunately, this snow storm came in the week leading up to the Thanksgiving Holiday, which means many people decided to take an early holiday and stay home for a couple of days. The weather forecasters tell us we could be in for more snow. Hopefully, the state DOT and Metro will have implemented a few changes before that happens.