When University of Wisconsin sophomore Caitlin Kuck took the Route 85 bus to arrive early to class Tuesday, she expected to escape the snowstorm that struck Madison.
But what would have otherwise been a regular bus ride turned out to be quite frightening, she said.
“At lunch I was listening to the news and a bunch of other UW System schools had closed, MATC campuses had closed, and I was just waiting for UW-Madison to close,” Kuck said. “I left early to class so I could take the bus because the weather was so bad.”
When the 85 turned around the first curve on Observatory Drive, the bus started sliding sideways, and the driver had a hard time reaching the top.
“I started freaking out,” Kuck said.
Near the top, another vehicle stalled and blocked the road, causing the bus to stop. After that, the 85 was unable to keep going.
“The bus driver kept trying to go really fast to get out of the snow, and it just wouldn’t go,” Kuck said. “But eventually he just kind of gave up, and he let everybody off the bus.”
Kuck and about 10 others on the bus were let out, and a few minutes later, another Metro bus tried to make its way up the hill but was unable to proceed.
According to Madison Metro spokesperson Jennifer Bacon, the company sent tow trucks, and the bus was moved within 30 minutes of the incident.
“The whole hill was blocked — we had to re-route the buses,” Bacon said, adding police blocked the bottom of the road to ensure other vehicles would not get stuck.
Though Kuck ended up farther away from class than she originally started, she walked to her sociology class and luckily arrived on time.
“It’s kind of surprising that UW doesn’t have a better system of dealing with the snow,” she said. “Maybe they could work with the Metro system, like setting up a better route when it’s obvious that Observatory Drive is very difficult to drive through.”
City Council President Mike Verveer said although UW parking lots and sidewalks are the university’s responsibility, the city is in charge of cleaning up streets like Observatory Drive.
He added the city had a “very rocky start” in dealing with snow, but in the past week the plow system has “absolutely improved its performance.”
“We’ve had over 21 inches of snow this December in Madison, which is way more than the average for the whole month, and it’s only the beginning of the month,” Verveer said. “And bottom line is we did perform poorly a week ago, but we’ve picked up the pace and done a good job.”
Verveer said the city has already issued many parking tickets and will be towing vehicles, adding students should be careful about where they leave their cars over winter break.
“When I was coming home tonight, I noticed there were still dozens and dozens of cars that were parked on the wrong side of the street, even though the city has written well over a thousand snow emergency tickets in the past week,” he said.
On Tuesday, Gov. Jim Doyle declared Dec. 11 Snow Plow Appreciation Day.
“People like to criticize the snow plows, but we also have to remember it’s a lot of hard work, and they’re doing their best and, like anyone, they can probably do a little bit better,” Doyle spokesperson Carla Vigue said. “But it’s a tough job to be out there in the middle of the night when everybody else is asleep and trying to clean up and get things ready to go to work and school.”
— Carl Jaeger contributed to this report.
