Snow Days

I watched a news clip this morning on winter travel chaos as I ate my cereal. Then, trudging to work, I had an genius (self-proclaimed of course ;) ) idea. Wait for it....wait for it: cars should not be allowed on snow days. Now don't get all uppity with me, let me explain. I'm not saying that cars wouldn't be allowed on the road if it snows. I just mean the snow days - the giant dumps of snow that usually come with extreme cold. Calgary has what, four a year? There was one two weeks ago, and I heard there was something stupid like 273 collisions. AMA put a little clip on the news warning people that it would take eight and a half hours to get a tow. So nice to know you can rely on those folks - sheesh. Lots of people who commute downtown of crazy snow days end up taking hours to get into the office, because the roads are backed up. So I am proposing that one those giant snow days (you know, a big dump in Calgary or 3 inches in Vancouver), that only public transportation run. Think of how much easier it would be to plow the roads, and get them back to usable condition, if all those cars were parked. Just buses, trains, and feet. It would have to become very acceptable for anyone capable (i.e. with an office job, a phone, and an Internet connection) to work from home. Some places (areas surrounding town for example) just don't have public transportation. I'm sure there would be people who couldn't possibly work from home, and couldn't make it in the public transport. In this case, the company should have to pay them anyway. Don't be cheap now, it's maybe 1 day a year. And compare that cost to 273 collisions. And I'm just thinking vehicular damages, let alone (the far worse) potential for injury or loss of life. And while secondary, both of those are expensive as well. On that note, ambulances and police cars would be exceptions. I know there are a few obvious 'hic-ups' with it: for example, there is no bloody way that Calgary Transit (and a lot of other City's transit systems) could handle it. I still think it would be great though. When the roads are that bad, CEO or garbage man, you take the bus to work, or you don't go.