Oregon’s Stupid No Salt Policy (Portland: leases, school, inspections)

[StealthRabbit]

In Policy Shift, Oregon Department Of Transportation To Use Rock Salt In Targeted Locations . News | OPB

Sad day

Yes, salt has very bad results on the metal components of your car. (most of your car)

Enjoy fixing your brakes, exhaust, steering, suspension... virtually anything on the undercarriage + wheel wells.

If you drive a newer PLASTIC car, you will only have to worry about a few things, cuz the plastic car will be dead in 10 - 20 yrs anyway. My daily driver is over 40 yrs old and still getting 50 MPG and NO-Rust (cuz it lived in PNW all it's life). When I buy used cars from MN and east ... I take out the engine and drivetrain and shred the car due to rust / miserable to maintain.

E-brake cables are notorious for rust damage and locking up / breaking when you least expect it. (fun)

[Hockeygirl063]

Originally Posted by ormari

Can you point to where in the Oregon Laws it states that municipalities are required to do this?

The Basic Speed Rule puts the burden for safety on the driver: the driver is required to adjust their speed so as to maintain vehicle control based on weather and road conditions. An extreme interpretation of this is that if the roads are too bad to operate safely at any speed, then you should not be on the road.

Almost all the collision could be avoided if people would slow down. I don't know what the problem is in Oregon but every time we get any amount of snow this same crap happens, Every person panics and traffic become a parking lot of gridlock. This is so laughable.

I grew up in the east and what we had here is NOT even a freaking storm. I don't want to hear excuses of well it doesn't happen very often blah blah, slow down and take your time. it is not difficult. I drove a 79 Cutlass in weather about 100 times worse than this and never had a problem. I never in my entire time living back east ever used tire chain or "snow" tires. All season radials and slowing down got me through it.
I may have had a bag of sand in the trunk since that car was not front wheel drive.

[StealthRabbit]

I think it is a knee jerk reaction by ODOT due to the new 'Entitlement' generation finding their kids stuck at school or on buses when the buses / schools were not prepared.

stuff happens, all could have coped...

PNW does have some issues with unique weather / ground moisture conditions. It is definitely worse road conditions for winter driving than my 30 yrs previous in Colorado and WY. No white outs here, (good thing cuz very poor road reflector placement), but I wear 4 wheels studs (West Gorge, freezing rain and 80 mph winds). In the Mtn states I never even bothered with snow tires, crunchy snow offers traction. wet roads topped with ice and snow require a bit more equip and savy.

I am not for salt... wait a day and the rain will wash the ice away. Leave your kids at school, in the rare event of a midday storm (every 10 yrs or so).

[pdxMIKEpdx]

Native Oregonian chiming in here with an approval for the use of rock salt.

As much as it rarely snows here, and with all the problems snow here causes, judicious use of rock salt would not be a problem, in fact, it would be a huge plus.

They don't have to coat every road in the state with 6 inches of the stuff, just use enough to get the job done in places that are known to be problem areas.

Those that complain about the "environmental effects", think about all the pollution that's caused by people idling their cars for hours while they are stuck, or crawling at 2 miles an hour on the 20 mile drive home.

I personally would rather have safer salted roads a couple times a year.

BTW, think of the poor children stuck for hours in school busses on slick icy roads, scared to death, cold and crying, and wishing that if only Oregon salted the main roads, they would be home, nice and warm, and safe and sound.

[redguard57]

I have a 30 year old vehicle that underneath looks like it's 10 years old. I appreciate that. It has saved me tens of thousands in buying new vehicles. I'll admit that I didn't either when I first moved here, but I learned.

I live in central Oregon, which gets more snow than you guys in pdx and the valley. The problem is that newcomers dn't know how to handle it or when to just stay home.

[ccjarider]

Originally Posted by StealthRabbit

In Policy Shift, Oregon Department Of Transportation To Use Rock Salt In Targeted Locations . News | OPB

Sad day

Yes, salt has very bad results on the metal components of your car. (most of your car)

Enjoy fixing your brakes, exhaust, steering, suspension... virtually anything on the undercarriage + wheel wells.

If you drive a newer PLASTIC car, you will only have to worry about a few things, cuz the plastic car will be dead in 10 - 20 yrs anyway. My daily driver is over 40 yrs old and still getting 50 MPG and NO-Rust (cuz it lived in PNW all it's life). When I buy used cars from MN and east ... I take out the engine and drivetrain and shred the car due to rust / miserable to maintain.

E-brake cables are notorious for rust damage and locking up / breaking when you least expect it. (fun)

Wash the underbody a day later, it will be fine. You may see salt 1-3 times a year I'm guessing and on bad spots only. No need for the melodrama.

[take57]

Originally Posted by ccjarider

Wash the underbody a day later, it will be fine. You may see salt 1-3 times a year I'm guessing and on bad spots only. No need for the melodrama.

Amen! For a minute here I thought everyone was talking about a different Portland. One where it doesn't rain non stop from November to March washing away a dump truck pass or two of salt a couple of times a year.

[MrTomJones]

Originally Posted by USDefault

If Portland uses salt a few times a year, the impact on your car: zero. It will not matter. At all.



Laughably false, made-up nonsense. Cars last just as long on the East coast as they do the west. And if you disagree, then don't drive the two times a year the roads will be salted.

There will be zero impact on cars. Zero impact on the environment.

Bottom line, Oregon government has a responsibility to prevent roads that are ice rinks. Beyond dangerous and life-threatening. Salt is the answer. ODOT knows it, too, which is why they announced today they will be using rock salt on frozen roads. GOOD.

Yeah sorry no you're wrong. You've never lived in the rust belt so you have 0 right to talk about rust on cars from salt.

Originally Posted by StealthRabbit

In Policy Shift, Oregon Department Of Transportation To Use Rock Salt In Targeted Locations . News | OPB

Sad day

Yes, salt has very bad results on the metal components of your car. (most of your car)

Enjoy fixing your brakes, exhaust, steering, suspension... virtually anything on the undercarriage + wheel wells.

If you drive a newer PLASTIC car, you will only have to worry about a few things, cuz the plastic car will be dead in 10 - 20 yrs anyway. My daily driver is over 40 yrs old and still getting 50 MPG and NO-Rust (cuz it lived in PNW all it's life). When I buy used cars from MN and east ... I take out the engine and drivetrain and shred the car due to rust / miserable to maintain.

E-brake cables are notorious for rust damage and locking up / breaking when you least expect it. (fun)

Finally someone who knows what they're talking about. Sodium chloride is TERRIBLE for cars. Even once or twice a year.



Something funny and slightly related. Driving home yesterday through Oswego, roads completely clear except for a couple of intersections with ice that have perfectly fine grip because of gravel/sand... this giant 4WD Nissan SUV comes barreling out from around a corner with chains on the front tires. Had a good laugh at them with everyone in my car. If you're that terrified of driving that you think you need chains on dry roads, perhaps stay home.

[ccjarider]

Originally Posted by MrTomJones

Yeah sorry no you're wrong. You've never lived in the rust belt so you have 0 right to talk about rust on cars from salt.

Finally someone who knows what they're talking about. Sodium chloride is TERRIBLE for cars. Even once or twice a year.

I have lived decades in climates where salt is used multiple times/yr, You are the one who doesn't know what you are talking about.

You and your car can survive just fine in a safe environment better than one where Gov;t abdication of duty creates a dangerous environment.

Take a few minutes to wash it off the undercarriage of your car if your so worried about it. Frankly the following week's rains will more than take core of it for you anyway.

[USDefault]

Originally Posted by MrTomJones

Yeah sorry no you're wrong. You've never lived in the rust belt so you have 0 right to talk about rust on cars from salt.

Lived in New York for a good while. Now that is a place that has real winter -- true blizzards that will dump two feet of snow. I've been there (you haven't). West coast winters are a tropical paradise compared to the east.

And what else does New York do? Salt. The. Roads. TONS of salt, from the Catskills to Montauk Point. They dump salt on the freeways and major arteries as if they were icing a cake. We're talking hundreds of thousands of tons of rock salt, in a single year.

Impact on cars? Zero. Impact on environment? None. Trees and plants growing just fine throughout New York state, even right next to the heavily-salted freeways.

There is no difference, none, between car longevity on the East Coast versus West Coast. This is confirmed by the additional fact auto leasing rates are similar among both coasts. If you were right, and salt cut a car's life in half, leasing rates would soar in road-salt states because the lease-ending residual value of the car would be much lower, hence lessees would have to make up the difference between initial capitalized cost and residual value in their payments. But it isn't true -- cars last just as long, lease rates are identical. This alone utterly annihilates your incorrect "analysis."

Cars last just as long in salt and no-salt states. Environmental impact is negligible. It is untrue and laughably incorrect to say a car's life goes from 20 years to 7 years in a road-salt state. Wrong. End of discussion.