Lead photo of NYC snow by Steven Severinghaus via Gothamist
The past few days have been a living hell for drivers across the east coast, with the “snowpocalypse” dumping more than 30” of snow in some areas, completely closing Manhattan and causing traffic back-ups that lasted almost 24 hours. While as huge a pain as it is to get where you have to go in these conditions, what if you’re just stuck at home, with a car buried to its wheel arches in the white stuff? I think it could be a blessing in disguise, if you adopt the right perspective.
In January of 2009, I had been living in Chicago for just more than a month when a monster snow storm hit and we were dumped with 26 inches of snow over a couple day period. Having been working like crazy the week prior, I had done absolutely nothing to prepare for the storm and my supercharged RWD Mercedes-Benz only had access to street parking in Logan Square, so I wouldn’t have the benefit of a garage.
While this wouldn’t affect my daily commute, since I took the blue line to the Loop each day, my ability to go anywhere around my neighbourhood that wasn’t directly off the train or on the way to my apartment was seriously affected. And no, the bus was not an option.
The first day, I actually attempted to dig my car out while the snow was fresh, hoping that would give me some traction to go to the store and get a few things to last me through the week. My confidence was quickly dashed as any sort of forward or reverse motion of the wheels, after having been dug out, only moved the rear of the car closer to the curb. Not wanting to move forward only to scrape my car down the side of the old Range Rover parked in front of me, I abandoned the effort and walked around the corner to the Popeye’s Chicken instead.
Joe Mahoney/Richmond Times-Dispatch/AP
Unlike further south in the Midwest, it stays cold in Chicago through the winter and the snow took more than three weeks to melt, and even then it was a mixture of packed down ice and slush, neither of which really created favourable driving conditions. The Mercedes stayed put, collecting souvenirs from birds and looking mistreated when, in reality, I was longing to get it out and stretch its legs.
Come March, and a few rare sunny days in a row, the snow was all but banished to a few large piles in parking lots and the roads were warm and grippy on a Saturday when I didn’t have much to do. I needed to have my iBook looked at for a bug I was experiencing, but rather than take it to a store in the city, I looked up locations in the suburbs and hit the road toward Oak Brook and took the long way. Illinois is not blessed with many interesting roads, but on a day when you haven’t driven your car in a while and the rush of speed and whine of the supercharger are new to you again, even long, flat, straight roads feel like driving nirvana.
I never enjoyed having a car in Chicago, partially because the city’s public transport is of such high quality and easy to use, but partially because I wasn’t enjoying the driving I was doing. Getting ticketed for a 40 in a 35 and being asked if I was racing a Mitsubishi Gallant (“at that speed and with that car, sir, I assure you I was not”) was a good disincentive to driving in a remotely spirited fashion anywhere in the city, and hitting every stoplight along every street to allow nonexistent pedestrians to pass really sapped the fun from the experience. The old cliché of absence making the heart grow fonder does also apply to driving, depending on your car, and sometimes being forcibly removed from driving and reflecting on what it means can be a blessing in disguise.
My own Mercedes-Benz C230 Kompressor Sport at Lake Monroe in Indiana.
So as the east coast continues to hunker down, their vehicles safely cocooned in powder, petrolheads can daydream about those perfect roads and the joys of motoring on them. Sometimes all it takes is to see old pleasures in a new light to help you appreciate them even more.
Or you can be like these awesome lunatics and make the most of the snow while it’s here!