Unfortunately what they do out here can make it worse too - my husband works over in Issaquah. He said they had a plow out and did Lake Sammamish road, but they didn't drop the blade all of the way down in order to not scrape off the bot-dots (turtles - whatever you like to call them) and reflectors off of the road. What this accomplishes is packing down the snow into a nice hard sheet of ice....

That can be OK when the roads are flat and straight. In Rochester NY where I went to college they only plowed the main streets to the pavement to save on plow blades and left an inch or two of hard pack on all of the side streets, but that city had like one hill in the whole thing, plus they spread salt, which I think the hubby is correct in his thinking that it would never be allowed out here because the run off might damage salmon runs. Don't tell I used some on my sidewalk after spending an hour chipping most of the ice off yesterday.

The hubby rode his bike both ways yesterday and said it was OK for the most part. I took the Marin out, but I chose a baaaaad time of the day. The sun was out and melting a nice sheet of water over all of the ice on the roads here. It was so slick I didn't even make it 2 blocks before falling over so I just headed home. Today the hubby drove, but he packed the bike into the car just in case traffic gets too crazy he figures he'll still be able to get home.