Vox:
There are huge benefits to salting the roads. One 1992 study found that spreading salt can reduce accidents by 87 percent during and after a snowstorm.
But road salt also comes with major downsides: Salt is corrosive, chewing through cars, trucks, concrete, and steel bridges. Worse still, when all that salt dissolves and washes away, it steadily accumulates in rivers and streams. Other times, moose and elk get attracted to the salt and wander onto roads, raising the risk of crashes.
We have similar issues here in Canada with road salt and its affect on cars and the environment. That last sentence came to light for me while riding my motorcycle in the Banff National Park. I came around a corner and there was a herd of massive elk in the middle of the road, licking the salt off the pavement. It created a very high Pucker Factor, to say the least.
On a much smaller level, it burns and cuts doggie feet on the sidewalks here.
I’ve gotten the same pucker factor going around corners and almost obliterating moose and deer in Maine. Happily no motorcycle (and no accidents) but it was always a real possibility.
California uses sand instead of salt. Not sure if that’s because we get so much less rainfall that washing it away would be a problem. It works well enough.
A big problem is sometimes it creates slippery slush that is much worse than the snow.
Oregon has a unique solution as far as I can tell. Because of all the volcanic activity throughout the eons, there’s pumice everywhere in the Cascade mountains.
So they grind up pumice and drop it on roads like salt. It gives tires a good grip, and it doesn’t have the bad effects of salt. And the environment is full of the stuff. So no damage there either! But it does make everything very red. Not much of a downside.