Nine years ago, shortly after I started my undergraduate career, a Western Friend of mine remarked to me how stupid it was that they put all this salt on the roads in Ontario. It’s bad for the cars, and it’s not great for the roads, and people in other parts of the country have better solutions.
At the time I didn’t really think much about it; it would be several years until I drove on a regular basis, and several more until I would be doing so in a climate where ice management was an issue. Today I would like to say: O Western Friend, you were absolutely right.
The tipping point came today when I was driving through the eastern suburbs of Toronto. There was essentially no snow or ice on the roads, but there was a lot of salt… as well as a couple of trucks adding to the total. I would have been able to see just fine if it hadn’t been for the fine patina of salty grit that kept coating my windshield.
Gotta love it when the solution becomes worse than the original problem…