PORTLAND, Ore. -- Six days after a massive snowstorm hit the Portland metro area, inches thick ice coats roads in many places. Major streets and highways are rutted and bumpy. It has lots of people wondering why things aren't looking better after so long.
"It feels like you're really bumping around on a washboard-type dirt road essentially," said one man on Southeast Hawthorne.
"It's super off-road style, yeah you're definitely off-roading," said Portland resident Nina Frick.
The Portland Bureau of Transportation says it only sprays de-icer on pre-determined routes, which according to their maps, isn't a whole lot: The bridges and parts of main thoroughfares.
We're told plow arms stay an inch above the ground so it doesn't damage the truck or the roadway, plus you can't plow ice.
"This is not acceptable, we have a whole weekend to clean up and this is a main street, Hawthorne. How can we still have ice and snow on it?" said Portlander Suenn Ho.
Another woman gave the government agencies the benefit of the doubt, saying, "Given the fact that this is totally unusual, I think they've done a pretty good job."
Oregon has been holding out on using salt beyond small tests, citing environmental reasons. But it readily uses the chemical magnesium chloride.
According to state data, Wisconsin got between 2.5 and 7 feet of snow last winter. The Department of Transportation in Wisconsin says salt is their number one used chemical. Salt concentrations in Wisconsin's surface and ground water have increased since the early 1960s, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources reports, but aquatic life has not yet been affected that we know of. In drinking water sources, which the WDNR also monitors, salt concentrations are within recognized safe limits.
However, the Portland Bureau of Transportation said that small tests of salt this weekend, didn't provide any noticeable difference from their regular method of spraying down magnesium chloride.
"No it doesn't make any sense at all," said Danielle Ainson, a Portland Lyft driver. "I'm from the east coast, they salt the roads all the time and people complain about rust on the underside of their car but a little rust is well worth people's safety."
Others like John Flynn say don't blame the city of an extended freeze after a historic storm. "Cut the city a break because this happens once every ten years and the investment of plows and salt and stuff just for a couple of days doesn't seem worth it to me," Flynn said.
One plus for some entreprenuers like Ainson, extra money driving in this weather. She has chains on her car, and driving for Lyft, she's been in high demand. She estimates she's made quadruple the amount of money this past week that she normally would.
"It was just surge pricing, there was one right after another and Lyft adds people to your queue so I had people in my queue all day, it was great," she said.