***: NJ snow

[vav]

Just talked to my parents, my sister and uncle in northern NJ. They all left their jobs 5 + hrs ago and they are still on the road

My parents were 11.5 mi away. My sister 13 and my uncle 8...unreal

NJ guys stay safe out there

[AngryScientist]

yea, i dont know what the hell went wrong out there today, but i heard similar reports from all over.

i didnt leave the house today.

[vav]

https://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/20...smacks_nj.html

My folks are stuck in 280 E.

[duff_duffy]

Saw 4 accidents in 20 mile ride home. In last three years only saw 1 accident altogether. Crazy!

[Mr. Pink]

Always the most dangerous day to drive. First snowfall. Especially in Jersey. (Born and bred, sorry, I know). Add to that that everyone seems to be convinced that the SUV they paid so much for can defy the rules of physics, like in the commercials.

[BobbyJones]

Whitehouse Station to Queens = 6 hrs.

Sigh.

[parris]

We got pounded here in the Binghamton area. It started around 3:30 and by the time I left at 5:00 the local agencies had trouble covering all the accidents. My normal commute is 10-15 minutes on average. I decided to go through town due to hearing of all the carnage on the highways. Even with that I saw easily 20+ fender benders and blocked off lanes. It took just about 50 minutes to get home. We have around 5-6 inches of very greasy heavy snow on the ground now. I've heard it's worse to the North and West.

[AngryScientist]

crazy!

just listening to the news would lead you to believe it's a war zone out there. heard some kids in the next town over had to spend the night in the schoolhouse because there was just no transportation!

lots of folks stuck on the road (including schoolbusses full of kids) on the road for 7+ hours.

i can only imagine, i know when my kids get bored and hungry, you're in for a tough time, i cant fathom having a bunch of unfed kids after school on a yellow bus for 7 hours!

[Mikej]

Oh, its snowing and the roads are icy? Well, I better check my email and answer these test messages and order some contact lenses and check facebook to see if anybody else is about to crash their car...

[unterhausen]

fortunately, the schools here canceled. It didn't really start snowing until 11. Penn State sent everyone home at 11:30, but I think a lot of people didn't get home until late at night. The neighbor across the street works 15 miles out of town over a mountain, and he was stuck until 10. We had a crash at the end of the street on the main road. That has never happened before. The cops came and left, and the car was there in the ditch for a couple of hours. There were lots of road closures. I think it was a particularly slippery snow, it wasn't just because it was the first snowstorm.

We have an old dog, not sure what I'm going to do to make a place for her to take care of business, the snow is far too deep for her to walk in now.

[parris]

Unter, you're 100% on point about the snow being treacherous more than normal. What we had was a thin layer of snow then it warmed up a touch to freezing rain followed by the heavy stuff that came down quickly.

My commute home was on surface streets for the most part and even at the slow speeds I as well as others were traveling there were an unusually high number of fender benders and people that just couldn't move.

Rt 17/88 was a parking lot pretty much for a few hours due to the number of accidents and lane closures.

[paredown]

At least one friend hit Port Authority for the bus ride home--and nothing was going out--so he spent the night in the city.

Another friend who lives close by had a 5 1/2 hr. commute home last night (typical is 1 to 1.5 hrs). Even local 30 minute commutes were taking 2 to 2.5 hours. I'm not sure if this was typical, but our road guys typically pretreat with the liquid snowmelt stuff, but I didn't see them out yesterday--maybe they weren't ready for official winter.

My debate right now is whether or not to go dig out the bank at the end of the driveway, or gamble that the rain this afternoon will be enough to make it all go away

[echappist]

There wasnt any salt treatment going on until way too late.

Needed to pickup a friend from Ewr, drop her off in Morristown, and then drive back to Philly. No treatment on I95 in PA, and nothing in NJ either. Seems like the local govts were caught off guard, as the snow greatly exceeded what was forecasted

I was hoping to leave Morristown at 2:30, but this became impossible due to long drive from the airport. Instead ended up staying until 7:30, hoping the roads would have cleared a bit, but they werent. Spent 90 minutes driving from Morristown to Bridgewater, when the trip should have taken 30.

I was essentially driving on ice (on i287) for a good 10 miles. Saw quite a few abandoned cars and two semis jack-knived on the road, unable to go up a ~5% incline. Another cars got stuck on an off ramp, and people had to push. There were the clueless idiots trying to change “lanes” once the vehicle volume reduced a bit, and their cars got stuck on the snow mounds btwn lanes. They didnt realize that there was a good reason why that space was empty, as other drivers know not to go blaze tracks...

Worst was the off-ramp to NJ-24 from I-287 north. It was still closed when i got home yesterday evening. People on that ramp must have gotten stuck for a few hours, going nowhere

[Nooch]

It took my about 2.5 hours to make it home -- and I live 9 miles away from my office. Sat at lights for 30 minutes a pop. Got out and pushed some kid in a Scion FR-S for about two miles (push, get in my car thinking he's got it, no, no he doesn't, pull up, push, repeat). Told that kid to pull into the school parking lot and call someone -- he didn't -- I left him at that point.

Can't fix stupid.

[AngryScientist]

i'm sure a lot of people were caught off guard.

i know for me personally, it's a tradition going on 2 decades that i change over to snow tires thanksgiving weekend....