Icy Windshields

I stopped this morning to fill up evil carbon producing commuter machine and witnessed the violation of a personal pet peeve on a grand scale. Out of eight vehicles at the gas station, four had windows covered in enough frost to completely inhibit any kind of visibility. Most of the drivers appeared to have hosed enough washer fluid on the windshield to limp down the street to the gas station and one had scraped a tiny peephole to be used for navigating down the 45mph section of Ohio Route 82 that runs past this particular fuel station. There were two drivers whose cars had either been running long enough to melt the evidence from their vehicles or spend their nights parked in a garage and two that had clearly taken the time to remove the frozen matter enough to properly avoid their fellow roadgoing companions.

This morning, it was a brisk 7 degrees Fahrenheit in Cleveland. I understand that cleaning the ice from ones car is an unpleasant affair, but how hard is it to start the engine and allow the defrosting ducts to do their work? In weather around 20 degrees and down, oil gets thick enough that starting a car and immediately driving away significantly increases wear on the engine, so it's not like you are burning fossil fuels purely for personal comfort. It takes my wife's car about five minutes of idling at frigid temperatures to reach about 75% of normal operating temperature and another two or three for the defroster to clear the windows.

Are a few pints of gasoline really worth the risks involved in careening through the morning traffic unable to see?