As winter weather continues across Maine, students at Colby College with cars are navigating slushy roads after snowfall. While the snow-covered scenery can be picturesque this time of year, slick road conditions and vehicles buried in snow present less welcome challenges. For some students, shoveling out cars and adjusting to slippery driving conditions have become routine parts of the season.
Mia Dinunzio `28 has a car on-campus and she normally drives about two times a week. In her opinion, Dinunzio thinks the road conditions this year are better or worse depending on if a snowstorm recently happened. She thinks “it has been fluctuating because of the change in temperature and just the fact that, especially in recent weeks, it has been really cold and it’s been snowing quite a lot. We have had two snowstorms already in the last two weeks.”
After a recent snowstorm, Dinunzio found more troubles awaiting her after a wintery hike up to her car, which was parked in Colby’s West Lot. “When I actually did get to my car, especially during that first snowstorm that we had, I had gotten up there early in the morning, probably around 8 a.m. to get breakfast, and nothing was plowed in the parking lot.” She then said, “I obviously haven’t cleaned off my car yet, so it took me 40 minutes to clean off my car and then sort of make a path for my tires to get through in the parking lot. I wanted to make sure that I wasn’t going to skid as I backed out.”
Fortunately, Dinunzio did make it out, but she admitted that getting out “was kind of a struggle.” In terms of the greater Waterville area, Dinunzio said, “I would say it’s always been pretty cleared out.”
In regards to a different snowstorm that happened this year, Dinunzio left in the morning and got onto the road, which was “pretty filled with snow.” she said “there was a track, I would say, of previous cars driving through the snow. There wasn’t even that much on the ground. It just created a sort of barrier that I didn’t want to test.” Playing it safe, Dinunzio said how she was “cruising around 25 mph” in the 40 mph speed limit zone turning out of West Lot.
Still, once the snow melts, the roads are not guaranteed to be much better. This weekend, Dinunzio said, “I was driving this morning, and it was really warm, so the majority of [the snow] melted, but the backside of that is it freezes overnight.” The spot that Dinunzio parked in had “quite a lot of ice underneath,” so she had to back up quite slowly because her “tires were pretty much sitting on ice.”
Still, Dinunzio mentioned how the snow was cleared when she got on the road. She also said, “Both the college and the town have done a really good job of salting.”
On drives back home to Massachusetts in the winter, Dinunzio said the main difference between driving in Maine versus in Massachusetts is that “there would be a lot of snow in Maine,” and then in Massachusetts, “the snow just lessens.” In Massachusetts, she finds herself “getting more relaxed in her drive.” When driving in the snow, Dinunzio said, “If I see a lot of snow around me, whether it’s on the road or not, I feel like I have to subconsciously drive five miles below the speed limit, just to be extra safe, even though I know I’m nowhere near the snow.”
Although winter driving in Maine presents obstacles, students are adjusting to the conditions over time. Until the snow melts, drivers continue to bundle up, brush off their cars, drive carefully, and make their way through another stretch of winter.
~ Haley Hegarty `28
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