Let me explain something: We leave our roads unsalted by design out of a sense of responsibility to our neighbors and future generations of Portlanders, not for lack of preparedness or misguided belief system. In fact, our beliefs could hardly be more well-guided. Rock salt is extremely dangerous for many reasons. If you have not personally had any run-ins with errant rock salt, consider yourself lucky. Do you know how easily a piece of rock salt can be kicked into the air by a car tire, a boot or a strong gust of wind? And how likely it is that one of these little pieces of airborne rock salt will land in your open mouth, your eye or an unbandaged wound? To prevent one of these ambushes, it is in our best interest to minimize the amount of rock salt on the ground at any one time.