How Large Vehicles Roll in Icy Weather
Stephen Ferszt of Recycle Ann Arbor loads contents of curbside recycling bins into a pickup truck bed, which is the vehicle of choice for designated streets when road conditions are poor.
On first glance, it appeared to The Chronicle that an entrepreneur with a pickup truck was gleaning cardboard from Ann Arbor’s curbside recycling program. But it turns out that Stephen Ferszt was working for Recycle Ann Arbor. He explained that the smaller pickup truck he was driving was part of a contingency plan used on certain streets when road conditions were bad enough. The larger trucks were more likely to get stuck on streets with hills like Mulholland Avenue, where we encountered Freszt. On Friday morning, the freezing rain that had coated roads and sidewalks certainly warranted the contingency.
As for the usual maximum size requirement on cardboard, it appears that Ferszt might have been letting enforcement, ahem, slide.
Other large vehicles requiring extra accommodation to the weather conditions on Friday included AATA buses. Chronicle staff were riding the Number 5 bus when the driver called in for confirmation on proceeding with his route. The word from the top was to forge ahead. A call to AATA headquarters revealed that some buses suspended service for around a half hour before resuming their routes.