On 01 Jan 70 00:00, Mark Hofmann wrote to Roy Witt:



 RW>> As a side note, when I was a lad just starting to drive, the city
 RW>> used coal to heat the jail, police station, city hall, fire stations
 RW>> and court house. The street department would collect the ashes and
 RW>> cinders and spread those on the streets during and after a snow. No
 RW>> melted snow, but traction provided by the coal ashes. That was a
 RW>> dirty deal until after the spring rains carried it away, but a whole
 RW>> lot easier on the cars and trucks of the day. And grass grew on the
 RW>> roadsides in spite of the extra dirt the ashes provided.

 MH> Don't know why we got away from using coal ashes.  The only exception
 MH> would be if we had freezing rain.

Even freezing rain didn't reduce the traction on ashes enough to worry
about it. I do recall sliding into the back of a VW bug with a 98 Olds,
but that was on a street that hadn't been treated with ashes yet.

 MH> I'm not 100% certain, but think really cold places like Alaska use
 MH> sand and things like that since salt won't work well at very low
 MH> temps.

I think you're right.

            R\%/itt


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