'Slow down:' Drivers caution everyone on the road after Milwaukee's 1st snowfall of the season

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) – Morning commutes took longer than usual because of some slick snowfall.

Drivers say their commutes took double the time Thursday morning. Many say everyone around them was driving slowly out of precaution, and they were too.

“The traffic did take me like an hour to get to where I wanted to get to,” said driver Christian Mendez.

The first snowfall of the season and more time spent in traffic is a telltale sign that winter is here in Wisconsin.

“I wasn’t expecting this. I really was not,” said driver Lisa Helm. “It took me like 20 minutes and I’m only 10 minutes from my job, but it did take a long time.”

Milwaukee’s Department of Public Works (DPW) says it’s already tackling the main roads by brining them with a salt and water mixture.

“We’ll be going into the side streets, our residential streets, and doing the same,” said Jeffery Smith, with DPW. “We are using our underbelly plows, which we do have underneath the salt trucks so they can remove the small level of snow that’s there at this point.”

DPW says while overpasses and bridges were brined last night prior to the snow, they weren’t salted because there wasn’t enough snow forecasted to do so.

“It was bare pavement last night from our standpoint, so there was no reason to use salt at that point in time,” said Smith.

Mendez says he was driving a little too fast for the slick roads and nearly lost control.

“Don’t do that. Don’t do that. Yeah, I almost learned that the hard way, but thank God I didn’t,” said Mendez.

Drivers say give yourself extra time to get to your destination, for both your safety and the safety of other drivers on the road.

“Slow down. Slow down. Don’t be in a rush. Leave 30 minutes early, you know. Time is on your side when you leave with enough time. Don’t rush because it's bad out here and a lot of people don’t know how to drive in the smallest of snow,” said Helm.