I can't speak for Portland, but Seattle has crowned roads in order to improve runoff from all the rain. A crowned road gets super-exciting with ice. And since ice happens so rarely, and there's so little that can be done about it, most people just call in a snow day. For a while Seattle had this awesome relationship with a surplus dude. Seattle would have a snowstorm and the rabble would rouse about the lack of snowplows. So Seattle would buy snowplows and it wouldn't snow for two years and the rabble would rouse about the money we're wasting on snowplows so they'd sell them. To the surplus dude. Who would sell them right back the next time the rabble roused. I can't find it online but I swear he sold Seattle their used snowplows back to them like three times, profiting each time.