Salt lowers the freezing point of water, corrodes cars, pollutes waterways and has to be imported.
Sugar lowers the freezing point of water, can be grown in the UK and is harmless, probably.
Why not use sugar then ?
Once it dissolves in water to become syrup it would actually make the roads stickier.
A few years ago around here (Worcestershire) they tried a new "grit" of salt with a molasses binder. The cows on the common thought it was christmas and caused all sorts of traffic chaos on the roads across the common.
anyway, its done more in the states I gather
http://www.cas.org/newsevents/connections/beetmolasses.html
water to become syrup it would actually make the roads stickier.
and your windscreen.
Salt is dug out of the ground, and costs next to nothing at source. It's also conveniently impregnated with lots of grippy grit.
Sugar costs a fortune to grow, and has massive carbon footprint.
As above, they tried using molasses in Scotland, but all the deer used to stand in the middle of the road licking the tarmac. Caused more accidents than the ice apparently, so they went back to salt.
They could mix it with jobbies so animals didn't eat it (apart from dogs).
Salt ... has to be imported.Sugar ... can be grown in the UK
import sugar.
cane yes. beet no.
Stay off the crystal meth, mkay.
I thought some countries use alcohol?
I hate the damage salt does to my car - what about these: Calcium Magnesium Acetate (CMA) or Potassium acetate (KA)
why bother gritting at all, just pass a law that everyone has to use winter tyres - like they do in the rest of Northern Europe
What effect would filling watercourses with acetate salts have? 'Salt' at least we know it has negligable impact on the environment.
They could mix it with jobbies so animals didn't eat it (apart from dogs).
Chokes on tea.
In my bit of the Alps they're cutting down on gritting the roads this winter, as they were finding that Lake Geneva was getting too saline 
Certainly going to make the roads a bit more 'interesting' anyway!
In Canadia they use gravel then when the snows gone they scoop it all up, wash it & keep it for next year.
eh gravel....that wud be hard to drive on...and even cycling on..lol
We should have under Tarmac heating - powered by solar panels on streetlights- which would also be powered by said panels.
Genius me
Salt would cause a lot of corrosion on steel bridge superstructures, and to aircraft components so on airfields and large bridges they either use a commercial chemical called Komsin, or just plain old urea as an alternative to salt.
And no I'm not taking the urea.
why bother gritting at all, just pass a law that everyone has to use winter tyres - like they do in the rest of Northern Europe
They do use salt there. I've seen it. Not all the time though as it's too cold. They also use granite gravel because it's in plentiful supply - limestone gravel would get crushed up and turn to sludge.
However you often don't need it there since when it's really cold snow is a solid substance and actually pretty dry - salt won't work if there's no water for it to dissolve into. It's dry, so it gets pulverised by passing cars into a dust and blows away.
On pavements and cycle paths, gravel impregnated snow is actually incredibly grippy. So much so that many cycle commuters in Helsinki don't have ice tyres and just ride carefully when they come to the many ice slicks from leaking drains etc 
sweet
As above
In Calgary in that there famous Canadia they do use gravel - which is swept up during the spring from every street in turn - you have to park somewhere else on the day or you get towed f'sure hey - also most people drive with snow 'tires' though its not mandatory to do so
they also used an alcohol spray last year on the highways which did seem to help
I also found that because it was so cold/dry the snow was pretty grippy and had no real problem driving day to day
Ice was an issue but it didn't really stick around for more than a day or 2 because of the chinooks
It wasn't better than the UK because of the measures they took it was more because the snow is different and it certainly wasn't uncommon to have 100-200 fender benders every day, especially with new snow fall around 4-6 inches
Plum
Much of our salt applied to the roads is molassed these days, many local authoroties specify it.
Whilst animals like molasses, they also are attracted to salts, so they have always been drawn to road salt. Around here the sheep crowd around the bins, not really waiting for it to be spead on the road.
Animal lick buckets are a blend of molasses and mineral salts, so it's no surprise they like road salt.
Molasses also makes the roads nice and slippery which is nice for cycling on.
If we stop using salt the slugs will come!
they also used an alcohol spray last year on the highways which did seem to help
I would have thought that that would cause all the winos to be attracted to licking the road.
Zoolander - I think they do that in Japan - of sorts.
The main roads have lots of steels driven about 15m into the ground to act as sort of ground source heat pumps to keep the surface ice free.
Cos it would be bloody, bloody, bloody, bloody, bloody, bloody, bloody awful.
Zoolander - I was thinking the very same thing earlier this week! Great minds, eh?
It may cost a bit more, but the long term savings may make it worthwhile.
I reckon all local authorities should insist that any new housing developments adopt such a system, and over time, with road upgrades and resurfacing projects, the idea be incorporated nationwide.
Only drawback I foresee is the utility companies coming along and continuing this practice of digging up decent quality road/pavement surfaces to lay/repair their wares and finising off with something of a lesser quality than they dug up. I really can't stand this lack of consistency which leaves us with a patchwork of blacktop in this country.
they tried using molasses in Scotland
Where the hell did they get all the moles from?
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