To be PERFECTLY clear, I am not superior to anyone on the planet in ANY way shape or form nor did I infer such.
I do however have the ability to use common sense in situations like this, can find a SAFE speed at which to travel, have a common sense understanding of increased stopping distances and lateral G forces affecting motor vehicles on ice as well as knowing that control inputs change in dramatic fashion in conditions such as WE ALL experienced yesterday.
I DO however have one expectation and that is that the drivers of motor vehicles should be expected to have the ability to control their four wheeled conveyances at the same level at which the state of Texas expects us to control and be responsible for our bikes.
I guess that's just me.
No, it's not just you. But maybe show a little less exasperation, and a little more empathy, toward the hundreds of thousands of people who were caught in exactly the same situation as you yesterday, and couldn't control the events any more than you could. I was out twice yesterday, both times by necessity. The first time in my Acura, and I was on razor's edge of control. The second time on a mission of mercy in my Jeep 4WD - a much easier experience, but the roads were still treacherous and I had to turn around twice because of roads that had barricaded due to impassible ice. So, let's talk about some facts that added up to yesterday's gridlock:
FACT - There are, what, close to 8 million people in the greater DFW area. During rush hour, an astounding number of cars are on the roads at the same time. Our major routes are taxed to capacity and beyond on any day, and we're always just one small incident away from a traffic backup. Anything introduced to the mix that slows down the normal daily traffic will cause a backup -- a lawn chair in the left lane, rain, a car with a flat tire, ice -- how much of a backup is scaled by the event that just got introduced. It isn't the fault of the person ahead of you or the person ahead of him.
FACT - Our roads are largely untreated and, even where they
are treated, rarely enough to cover the ice for long or make it soft enough to get anything remotely close to normal traction.
FACT - As a result of that, traffic slows down, particularly for bridges. It would be foolhardy not to. Bridges, icy intersections, and other localized ultra-slick spots act as gating factors that affect traffic for miles behind them. So we're all slowing down for an event that we may not see for another half hour or so.
FACT - Not all vehicles handle equally well in the same situation. Not all 2WDs are the same. Not all 4WDs are the same. Not all tires are the same.
So we can't judge how well somebody else
should be able to handle the conditions by how well we
are handling the conditions.
FACT - All the above introduces a slowdown into the entire traffic process, end to end, and beyond. And that slowdown, scaled across 1500 or so square miles of north Texas traffic, is simply more than the system can bear.
And, FACT - Most of us aren't skilled in ice driving. Not just us Texans. Us period. There are huge numbers of out-of-staters here, and they don't fare any better in these conditions. Local news interviews of interstate truckers and visitors from eastern states quickly confirmed that the road conditions were way outside their normal winter driving experience. I've been in several major northern cities (KC, Chicago, Philadelphia) as well as the Pennsylvania Turnpike and Germany when the winter hit. Snow - not too bad. Ice - civilization as we know it pretty much ends. Doesn't matter where in the world we are. The 80/20 rule of the universe says that most of us on this forum, and most of us on the road yesterday, are relatively equal in our skills to manage yesterday's or today's roads.
Are there a few nitwits out there? Sure. But not hundreds of thousands of them. Yesterday I nearly got clipped by a guy in a Tahoe who made an impatient lane change, thus losing control and doing a dance across two lanes until his vehicle straightened out. During the same drive, a thousand other vehicles in my visual acuity drove safely, albeit slowly, on the same icy interstate.
I empathize with the misery of your commute yesterday. My record is 4 hours from Los Colinas to Arington (Jan 2000). My wife's record is 4.5 hours from downtown Dallas to Euless (Jan 1978). And I'm sorry for you and every poor soul who had to be out there yesterday. But please be a little more tolerant of the rest of us. Nobody asked for this.
Welcome to the Two Wheeled Texans community! 
Feel free to hang out and lurk as long as you like. However, we would like to encourage you to 
Scuffed the bumper but no real damage. That ice can be tricky. Last night going home from work the roads were slippery right in my housing area. Then fell trying to get into the door at work and did a number on my hand.
Lovely day to be at work.
