I get to bitch because I don't plan on doing anything about it... that's how it works, right?

If I had forgotten how bad snow removal in Madison is, it's all flooding back now. After this weekend's three-inch snowfall, the major roads are sort of clear, and the side roads haven't been touched. I don't really understand how, in a climate where it snows regularly, all winter, every winter, they're not ready for it. Although you couldn't really say that the plows and salt trucks (which are bad for the environment anyway--they should use sand) are behind, persay. It's not that they get caught unawares by the storm and can't keep up with it. That would be pretty pitiful anyhow, considering it only snowed three inches.

No, it's not so much an inability to deal with the snow as an unwillingness. Last night, after the storm was well over, all of the cross streets on the Isthmus were still completely white. And since there had been sleet, they were also covered in ice. The precipitation had stopped, but... were there plows out? Nope. It seems the city just decides which three major streets they're going to plow, and then they pack it it for the day. Mission accomplished! As of this morning, the bus lane on University Avenue, the major downtown campus artery, was still buried under an inch of snow and ice. And if you live on a side street, forget it, you're fucked. The people who live on the little roads going up from Gorham to Lake Mendota might have some of the prettiest houses and the nicest views, but during the most minor of snowfalls, they also live on an icy white slip-n-slide of death.

I wonder if the state thinks that Wisconsinites are just so rugged and hardy that they'll take care of it themselves. Sure, they must all have tire chains and four-wheel drive and personal plows--they're outdoorsmen! Maybe that's true in the more rural parts of the state, but here in Madison we're a bunch of crunchy, liberal, latte-drinking students. You need to plow us out! In the last twelve hours, I have seen three incapacitated vehicles, one the result of an accident, and two that had skidded into banks of snow and gotten stuck. There were policemen there helping, but not a plow within earshot. Oh, yeah, and all three of these accidents were within six blocks of my apartment.

For the love of god, people... THREE INCHES!