niks blog

I have been living in Iowa for over one and a half years and I am still amazed at how eccentric Iowans can be. To express my gratitude to Iowans for keeping me entertained, I am starting a new series of posts called “Zany Iowa.”

The purpose behind Zany Iowa posts is to highlight ‘zany’ observations I have made about Iowa and its residents. I may live in Iowa, but I have lived in Chicago for the majority of my life. And trust me, I am still considered ‘one of them folks’ by many Iowans since I cannot seem to understand their rural way of life.

Unsalted Roads

In Chicago, many resources are spent every year to ensure that all roads in the city and suburbs are salted, plowed, and drivable as soon as a major snowstorm hits or is about to hit. What really surprises me about Iowa is how little focus they have on keeping the roads plowed and salted.

Salt does not melt snow

I know that salt does not melt snow. If you did not know that, consult a chemistry teacher or read Wikipedia. Ok, so maybe it melts the snow a little bit. The fact is that salt simply lowers the “freezing” point for water and allows ice to form a bit later when the temperatures are cooler.

Sand doesn’t help the issue

Conventional wisdom in Iowa proclaims that by spreading sand over the snow, vehicles will have traction. That sounds good and it actually works, to a certain extent. However, all that does is create a thick-ass layer of snow and ice on which sand rests on top. Essentially, you have vehicles slipping and sliding because Iowans are too cheap to spread salt and plow the roads.

Plowing?

For some reason, Iowa transportation department is unable to successfully plow the roads even a few days after a snowstorm. The residential neighborhood I live still has compacted snow/ice on the roads and never does a snow plow truck come by. Even the main roads aren’t plowed properly and a four-lane highway actually becomes a three lane highway with drivers driving as if its a four-lane highway.

One More Thing…

Here’s the kicker, since I’ve been here, I have seen over 30 cars in a two mile stretch on the same road all stuck or rolled over in the median/divider strip of grass. Shouldn’t that be a sign that says that the roads should be managed better?