What It’s Like To Drive A Snow Plow

Curious City

WBEZ Chicago

Society & Culture, Education, Public, Chicago, Arts, City, Radio, Curious, Investigation

4.8 • 642 Ratings

🗓️ 11 January 2024

⏱️ 19 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

There’s a lot that goes into keeping the city streets clear of ice and snow. A snowplow driver shows us the ropes. And did you know Chicago used to ship out its plowed snow? We’ll revisit a story one joyful Floridian will never forget.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Oh my gosh.
0:03.0	All right, we're waving it down.
0:07.8	Oh, no.
0:09.0	We got to wave back.
0:14.3	Hi, I'm Curious City Digital and Engagement producer Maggie Sivit.
0:19.2	That's me and reporter J.P. Swenson trying to flag down a Chicago snowplow driver.
0:24.3	Oh, there's another plow.
0:27.0	And it's parked.
0:29.1	Can we ask you how things are going, clouding the snow?
0:35.3	He seems busy.
0:38.0	If you can believe it, he seems like he has things to do.
0:42.4	We went out during one of Chicago's big snowstorms last year.
0:47.4	And the reason we were out there with the freezing cold, wind and snow stinging our faces,
0:53.9	is that we've gotten a lot of questions about
0:56.2	snowplow drivers over the years, including one from this person.
1:00.6	Yeah, yeah. So I grew up in Kansas City, and we get a slightly less severe version of
1:05.6	winter weather than Chicago gets. Peter Thornhill lives in Garfield Park. He's been curious for years about the lives
1:12.8	of seasonal city workers. He's wondered what landscapers for the city do during winter months,
1:18.5	what snowplow drivers do during the summer months, and things like that. But he also has some
1:23.4	broader questions. What's it like to be a city snowplow driver, both when it's snowing and when
1:28.5	it's not? How does the day in the life of a snowplow driver play out? So we set out to answer those
1:33.8	questions. Beyond going out in the middle of a snowstorm, we talked with a city worker who's been
	...

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