Show you how naieve I was - until I saw (and heard) chains on busses and cars out here I never knew that was what made the ching-ching-ching sound of the salt trucks.... I always thought it was the salt spreader making that noise It was always a sign that it was going to snow, no matter what the news weather was saying, if it was going to snow the salt trucks would be out before it happened, no trucks, no snow - they must have had access to better forecasting. It really is nicer to not have the salt though. it kills everything on the sides of the road, eats cars (rusts them out really fast), eats shoes and is probably not really great to be putting into the water system all of the time.