The Psychology of Snow Management
Image by Rooey202 via Flickr
- Road Protocol: What is the method for choosing which roads get attention first?
- Pedestrian Value: Obviously the suburbs don’t care for pedestrian travel, but in the tighter, urban, walkable areas… what happens to sidewalks, paths and trails in a snowstorm? It would seem the sidewalks connected to condominiums were the only ones that were maintained in Bethesda (outside of the shopping district).
- Schnowdenfreude: Is there any level of pleasure/sadness gained by snow removal personnel from their job? What about when their work assists/undoes the work of others? What about instances when someone’s inactivity prevents them from a complete job?
- Where does it go? Last night a dozen dump trucks were loaded with removed snow… where does all that white stuff go?
- Moving Glaciers: What is the mindset of the person who cleans their car off completely? The person who leaves a huge mound of snow on their roof?
Even in the most mundane things, we can discover so much about a culture, a person, a way of thinking. So before you think this post completely useless: what question above would not be useful to improving user experience—not just in product design but specifically in website/interface improvement and application development?
Going downtown tonight it seems sidewalks got much better treatment. Perhaps Bethesda is not as committed to walkability as they’ve presented (walkscore.com gives us a 92 out of 100).
Another comment: Apparently a cop drew a gun on a huge snowball fight that took over 14th and U this weekend. What was the psychology behind that snow management?