dear MDOT,

it appears that my previous note to other drivers has fell on deaf ears. while i will not hold you responsible for those atrocities, i will hold you responsible for the horrendous snow i drove inon from miles 1-167 on i-94 in the state of michigan.

see MDOT, i’m from illinois, the land of IDOT, perhaps one of the greatest departments of transportation in the contiguous 48 states. i left chicago at 8am eastern time, and prior to leaving, it was well know a large snowstorm was coming to chicago and western michigan. everyone knew it was coming.

as i merged onto i-94 in the greater chicagoland area, i was happy to see salt and plow trucks on the shoulder, every 5 miles. just waiting. see, the snow hadn’t started yet, but they knew it was coming, just like you did. when it started to come down as i approached the indiana border, salt trucks were already working at the border. preparedness. they were just waiting.

so i thought, maybe, just maybe, MDOT will cover my ass when i needed to get my car through this snowstorm. imagine my surprise when i crossed the border into michigan (as the indiana DOT salt truck making a michigan left uturn before the border) and saw snow, just sitting on the roadway. i went from driving 75 on a wet roadway, to driving 35 on a snowy roadway.

from miles 1-167, i travelled an average of 45 mph, in the center. no, not the center lane, just the center. there were no lanes. you could not see any lanes, so people just drove wherever. my dad called me multiple times as i drove through your fine state, notifying me that i’d be driving “through the worst parts” between miles 60 and 80. see, my dad is a pilot, but his weather comes streaming live from reflective radar to his phone. i have to believe you have similar technology to identify where storms will be doing most of their damage. so tell me, why was it, that i saw just one MDOT salt truck over that 167 mile stretch, while over just a 40 mile stretch in chicago, i saw no less than 8 IDOT trucks.

listen, we know when snow is gonna hit…at least most of the time. put a couple of trucks out there…maybe if you threw salt on the road instead of gravel, you wouldn’t have had to deal with the two semis that collided and jackknifed at exit 130, creating a 12 mile parking lot back to jackson, mi.

thank gosh it was westbound…because i’d be pissed if it was eastbound. so next time, park a couple trucks out on the roads before a snow storm. i promise they’ll come to good use.

thanks,
julius