> They need salt. And not the kind of salt that flavors our food, but the kind that melts snow and ice. If we don’t have salt, no one can drive, because salt is what keeps our roads manageable.
Driving in snow/ice without salt is absolutely possible, but requires better driver education.
I may be wrong, but I heard that in certain Scandinavian countries (e.g. Norway) being able to control a skid is part of the driving test.
Driving in snow/ice, even snow/ice that is at the melting point and therefore extremely slippery due to the water, is absolutely possible without salt, but it requires your 'average Joe' to understand that they need to slow down, to leave 10* the space from the car in front, etc.
As many have noted, salt negatively impacts aquatic ecosystems, and also decomposes your shiny new car into a pile of rust.
Any situation that can be permanently resolved by education and intelligence, rather than by brute-forcing a constant 'workaround', would seem to me to be the best way forwards; but as is often the case, stupidity, laziness, resistance to change, and those who provide the salt being scared of the loss of revenue, win out...
/rant