Rant about the NYS DOT: Someone needs to get spoken too at the top!

Shift518 Automotive Shift518 Off Topic
1

Before I begin, let me preface this rant with the following…

Some of you may think I’m over reacting and pissed off for no apparent reason, but I must vent. If you think I’m being unrealistic that’s fine, I don’t care. What happened today pissed me off like nothing has pissed me off in a LONG time.

In the 23 years, 8 months, and 8 days I have been alive…I do not think I have EVER witnessed such stupidity from an office of authority/government on this earth. WOW.

So, what happened with the NYS DOT?

I left this morning at 8:45ish on my way to Rochester for an engagement party that I was supposed to photograph. I had full car of people. As we were leaving the confines, if you will, of Albany…the only thing that was ‘bad’ about the ride was the fact that wind was so strong that I had to fight my car to keep it on the road.

At about exit 29 of I-90, they closed down the west-bound lanes of the highway. Why? Supposedly snow drifts were the culprit.

After spending almost an hour and a half waiting for 2 lanes of traffic to merge into one on an exit ramp and everyone to get through the toll booths, I finally made it to Rt. 5 and proceeded to go west on it. After going about 5 miles and through a little town…things started to get hairy. The snow drifts up in this hilly area of the road were BAD. I couldn’t see more than 5ft in front of me and we were stopped for a long time due to the amount of people on this road thanks to NYS’ brilliant plan to close down the highway.

Now, keep in mind, it wasn’t really actually snowing. It was mostly just wind blowing what otherwise would have been a flurry around causing whiteout conditions. Judging from conditions a little further down the road and to the right, these ‘pockets’ of ‘snow’ were VERY isolated.

Anyhow, we finally managed to break through the bottleneck after many people had turned around and gone back towards the exit we got off at. As we kept driving and the ‘snow’ let up…what do we see to the right? A PERFECTLY CLEAN AND OPEN HIGHWAY! No cars, no cleaning crews, NO SNOWDRIFTS, and no problems.

WHY THE HELL DID THEY CLOSE THE HIGHWAY DOWN!?

We ended up stopping at a gas station and NO ONE had a clue of why the highway was closed.

On Rt. 5, I saw about 15 (maybe more) people in ditches along the way because they couldn’t see where they were going one second and perfect visibility the next second.

So…thank you NY for shutting down a perfectly normal highway (which might have had a drift or two) in favor of a terrible mountain/hilly road where people (including big honkin 18 wheelers) couldn’t see more than a few feet in front of them. I’m sure you actually caused more accidents with that stupidity than prevented.

I ended up turning around and going home because it would have taken hours to get to Rochester via back roads and I was already running late (we stopped at the gas station around noon). And what do you know? When I got back to the exit I got off of, the highway was dry as a whistle with sunshine shining…even though I still had to deal with whiteout conditions on the way back on that road that runs parralel to the highway, so this really makes me question whether or not the highway was actually ‘treacherous’. I’m sure people would have had a better go of it on the highway as opposed to being stuck in snow banks along Rt. 5.

Here is a picture of the conditions on the road:

http://a6.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/183247_10150434012005008_689105007_17304839_8135018_n.jpg

And a video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUGMILr3sfI

As Charles Barkley would say, “Turrible.” Someone needs to be questioned, it was a TURRIBLE decision.

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That’s what you get for not attending mass this morning.

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Mass is on saturday mornings?

I thought mass was on Sunday mornings? And I’m not even catholic!

:rofl

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Roads look like that all the time here.
No school = No snow plow until it stops snowing.

They probably closed it down for the peeps with gold colored plates from the garden state. I have yet to see one drive normally in any condition.

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Road looks fine to me

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That’s kind of how Ukraine is…they don’t have plows in the part I’m from. They just pack it down and people do what they can to get around during blizzards.

@ road looks fine to me…:rofl

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NYS is retarded, probably did it to save money running snow plows.

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There was nothing to plow!

That’s the thing that pissed me off :lol. I would be much more understanding if the highway was actually covered in snow, but it was just wet. If people can’t drive on wet pavement…NYS should just stop registering cars and we should all go back to horse and buggy.

Now the back road (Rt. 5)…that was definitely covered in snow yet NYS made everyone use that route including big 18 wheelers.

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What about the 1 foot radiused potholes? its nuts

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so you never actually drove on the closed part of the road, so you never saw what caused them to close the road down, but you made the decision that they shouldn’t of closed the road, cool, awesome, you probably should just stay at home and pray, pretty sure cars are against the bible or something…

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If they close down the highway- they are doing this for a reason. I drive for a living. Albeit the nys and vt DOT are major chode’s, I fully trust their assessment to close a road

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Have you ever been on Rt. 5 at that section if I-90? Most of it is directly parallel to I-90 in that section. The pavement was BLACK. Like I said, I drove back 2hrs later when I realized I’d be late to the party (thus no reason to proceed) and I KNEW the highway (since I crossed over it like 3 different times while following Rt. 5) was clean and clear and STILL encountered whiteouts on Rt. 5 (albeit much smaller) on my trek back to the exit I was FORCED off at for a stupid reason. I’m not saying the highway (in case reading > you) didn’t have any snow, I’m sure it did, but I’m pretty sure it would have been safer having 300 cars (or more?) + 20 18 wheelers stay on the highway and go 20mph as opposed to going up into the mountains on a regular road (not 4 lanes total, but 2) and not only creating a bottle neck but have that much traffic up there in a white out. Judging by the 15 or so cars I saw stuck in snowbanks or ditches, that is just begging for trouble and not a smart decision.

Oh, and once I finally got on the highway (going home) at like 12:45pm at the exit I got off at (29 or 29a), the pavement was not even wet. It was completely DRY. You could have driven on it with summer tires for pete’s sake. In fact, since there was NO traffic going east, I was able to do a pretty nice speed all the way till 3 lanes started past Schenectady.

Bottom line: If people can’t handle a snow drift or two when they live in NY…they need to stay home as you suggest. They should not close down an entire section of highway cause some shmoe crashed. I am more than capable to drive in that, hell I was doing fine in the white outs.

I guess that’s why NY drivers were rated the worst this past year. Oh and FYI…no. Cars are not against the bible. Asshole. :lol

After what I was stuck in/drove in today…I fully don’t. How come they didn’t close I-88 when I was coming home from Binghampton on New Years 2007 or 08 (I think)? Same deal. Couldn’t see more than tractor trailer length in front of me and it was like 10 inches of snow. They didn’t close the highway then. In fact, I pulled over at a gas station about 45 minutes into that ride and went to bed for a few hours thinkin they would clean it up and I ended up getting home at like 7pm (when I had left Binghampton at 11am).

In my opinion, they closed the road for no apparent reason…and judging by other experiences I’ve had (New Years), they leave them open when they should be closed.

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Thought this would be another tint’d windshield rant thread :lol

I have a feeling it was more about the wind gusts than anything. Those do pop up quickly and I know you have seen cars that drift right into the other lane… add snow to that and the fact that 90% of drivers are retarded. So it makes sense me thinks.

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This. The thruway is wide open on either side and a lot less protected than the secondary roads (in general but especially that section they closed). Big winds > big trucks, thats the main concern. Saw it yesterday on top of the dam where Im at this week for work, box truck caught in a crazy crosswind off the reservoir and almost got blown off the dam. Wish I had my camera, it was pretty nuts.

PS Now if you wanna rant about all of these lovely “seasonal speedbumps”, Im all for that! I thought 146 in CP was bad, Sulivan County is ridiculous. By the time Im done working down here Im gonna need to add suspension components and fillings to my expenses

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Saw a rolled over semi with a 53’ box trailer from the crazy ass winds

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I will say the wind gusts were pretty bad, but was it really bad enough to send people up into an Alaska type back road? I think that road was far more dangerous than the “possibility” of winds doin damage. Like I said, from my perspective actually having been there and driving on that road for 50 miles, I saw a LOT of cars off the road thanks to the lack of visibility.

It was really a precarious situation and I’m not sure it was a smart decision. I guess they were up against a wall with a ‘pick the lesser of two evils’ type scenario. I just think they picked the wrong one.

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DOT does not want tractor trailers transporting our food/gas/drugs to roll over and make a mess. It has nothing to do with whether or not your P-Diddy Infiniti can make it or not.

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:lol @ P-Diddy Infiniti

Has nothing to do with my car fool. That Ford in front of me in the pic was doing just fine, as would have every other car had they left the highway open.

What they SHOULD have done, is ban all tractor trailers from driving…much like they banned tandem trailers from driving from 29 all the way to 45. Would you rather the transportation industry be shut down for a few hours till the winds stopped? Or would you rather an 18 wheeler not seeing where he’s going due to a white out drive into an oncoming lane and kill a family of 5? I can’t believe you people are honestly arguing for the DOT here. IF the tractor trailers were the party that they were worrying about, then just keep them off the highway as to avoid them being toppled over by wind. Not rocket science. At least to me, but what do I know. I’m just a dumb Ukrainian immigrant who owns a P-Diddy Infiniti :lol.

If the issue here is tractor trailers, then keep THEM off the road and not your average car which may or may not be blown off the road. Most likely - if the driver has any competence at all - they will be able to fight the wind and keep the car in lane just like I and hundreds of other drivers were doing up until they closed the highway.

:facepalm

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It’s all politics, anyway. Think of the politics and suddenly everything makes perfect sense.

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So the wind was tossing you around? What happens when that wind catches the tractor trailer infront of you, or god forbid right next to you. That’s the making of a 50 car pileup and tons of injury/death. It was smarter to move people to a lower speed, single file secondary road. Trust me, I’ve driven in some of the craziest northeast weather. If they say it wasn’t safe- I’ll take their word. There was 70mph gusts in parts of NY.