Make no mistake — Roadguy loves the Twin Cities and is usually ready to proclaim it loudly and proudly. But yesterday … well, yesterday, Roadguy was a little embarrassed: a two-inch snowfall brought the morning rush hour to its knees and spawned nearly 300 crashes. What is this, Atlanta?

The epicenter was on I-35 south of Lakeville, where dozens of cars piled up. In St. Paul, some legislators blamed the mess on a lack of transportation funding. But MnDOT said that resources were not the problem — drivers were.

Media coverage was extensive and occasionally curious. KSTP.com has a video clip that says I-35 itself contributed to the problem because it contains … a hill. Meanwhile, this story from KARE11.com includes a State Patrol investigator who exonerates the highway: “The road doesn’t cause the crash.”

(The Strib’s main story is here, with more commuter comments here. WCCO-TV’s is here, and KMSP’s is here.)

So what’s the answer? Could a higher gas tax improve winter driving? Shall every freeway hill be made low? Are we doomed to Darwinian demolition derbies every time it’s zero and snowing? Share your thoughts, and any stories from your commute, below.

(Roadguy note: If you posted a comment earlier in the day and it didn’t appear below, it should be there now. The spam filters were accidentally being hypervigilant. Sorry about that.)

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 7th, 2007 at 6:05 am and is filed under Links, Transportation conversations. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.