Little bit of snow and this country goes to the dogs. All this carnage and gridlock would never happen on the continent.

Oh hang on….

trail_rat – Member

spoke to some norwegians who were laughing at how hopeless this country is in a tiny little bit of snow

I hope you laughed back and told them we save countless millions of pounds on infrastructure by not winter-proofing, and that the cost of the disruption is far less.

Employee: there’s a weather warning, I won’t travel in
Employer: do you want paid? If so, get yourself in

That probably contributes quite a bit to the chaos on roads

A relative of mine has lived in Zurich for over 40 years. She says every year everyone has to have the winter tyres on, however they still have loads of accidents and most car owners are dreadful when it comes to driving in snow.

as i say countless times its not the highways fault its not the councils fault ITS PEOPLES FAULT

One of the foundations of modern society is that everything is always someone elses fault.

I blame New Labour

Didn’t we do snow/winter tyres not so long ago.

Winter tyres are cheap as i found out, starting in the £30-40 each area. (for my car)

I got chains, snow shovel, bag of salt grit instead, decided that was the better choice for the few days a year i might need them, first reports of snow, all goes in the boot until spring.

Having moved to a more rural location we decided to get winter wheels for my wife’s German rear wheel drive car and they do make an enormous difference.

The main issue is however other numpties. I was heading home in the last lot of snow in the works 4×4 (smells of cowshit but it’ll get you home) and had my way blocked by a couple of idiots in a ST Focus and a max powered up Saxo.

Helped to push them out the way when a nice young farmer arrived to tow them up the hill. Why they were heading that route which has several steep hill when there are several easier to navigate routes is beyond me. Use your brain cell.

We decided to avoid travelling – and spent the morning in bed instead FTW.

Can you teach this to half the rest of the nation?

It’s all well and good staying at home if you’re happy to not get paid as you’ve not gone to work.

Its not just snow that catches people out I remember seeing two blokes stood on top of a 4×4 in a river only a few months ago,

I remember seeing that on the TV. They were on the top of a Range Rover asking to be rescued. The water was not even over the tyres and it was completely still as the road was flooded.

Get off and walk ffs !

Oh I do love threads like this 😀

Well from my privileged position as one of the (insert generic singletrack forum noun here) people in the middle of the problems on Monday night here’s my tuppence worth.

Yup, it was pretty bad. The last three miles of the m23 were stationary and then the next 7-8 miles of the a23 (whuch are currently 2 narrow lanes going through roadworks starting on a steep downhill then up another steep hill , this is the main commuter route between Crawley and Brighton) were stationary gridlocked cars due to a lot (and I mean a lot) of crashes, one of them very serious. On a normal weekday evening its busy, one crash on a normal working day can screw the whole area up. Add in sub zero temps and a blizzard that hits at about 3:30pm to this and you have frozen roads regardless of how much you can grit them as once traffic stops, the salt/grit can’t help as the cars/trucks tyres can’t move this around and help keep the road surface clean of snow.

So, a couple of small crashes on the a23 caused some problems, tailbacks happened then a big crash caused everyone to stop. The road froze and stayed frozen. All the trucks got stuck. Emergency vehicles had to access the accident….

Oh what fun.

My normal drive home does not involve the a23, I go down a lot of quieter B roads but I know that these are bad when its icy so I didn’t bother, stayed on the major roads which would have at least been gritted, and went around Horsham on the A24 which was better. But….I did have a few moments when I thought I was going to crash into people who were panicking on icy roads ( anyone who drives a merc, MX5 or BMW needs to learn how to drive in Sweden IMHO 🙂 )

The problem later on was abandoned cars, broken down cars and people who couldn’t get up icy hills ( hint, first gear and idled throttle or start in second and be very gentle with accelerator, clutch, brakes and steering)

I was wondering for a while where the gritters were ( but not in a Daily Mail reader style rant) but later on, having crawled round a corner saw one about 200 ahead stuck in the same traffic I was.

So the roads were covered in ice. A few crashes. Lots of people were just trying to get home from work. All the side roads were off limits as they were covered in snow. Once you started you basically had to continue or you could abandon your car ( causing more problems for everyone else who then had to get around it) and walk a long way home.

Oh and no, I don’t have winter tyres on the car ( they are only really useful if everyone has em TBH)

It’s all so much better on the continent where they can cope with such……er…..now having lived in Germany I know this is not true. We used to have exactly the same problems during the start on the winter. . Colleagues in Koln have been telling me about Monday and Tuesday which was also very bad on the motorways…same problems with ice. Oh and you have to have winter tyres on your car there. They don’t stop crashes or problems, they just make things a bit better if everyone has em but the average winter is a lot worse then here.

I can also say that in Geneva yesterday (out on a biz trip) it was about 8-10 degrees, blue skies and sunshine, no snow below about 1500ft.

But yes, I agree, Cheryl Baker is a twunt.

“All the side roads were off limits as they were covered in snow.

Oh and no, I don’t have winter tyres on the car ( they are only really useful if everyone has em TBH)

“

bit of contradiction there no ?

i just drove to work in a RWD motor with aggresive winter tires on the rear and just regular ATs on the front on back roads covered in snow , i saw only a handful of cars all coping fine.

i should be in a ditch somewhere surely ?

where as ive had countless phonecalls in the office this morning with people stuck in traffic as they had to go “the long way on the main roads due to snow”

…sigh….

Well, each to their own I guess but to access the lanes I normally drive on would have involved trying to get through 3miles of gridlocked traffic with no guarantee that once I had cleared this the lanes would be either passable or indeed open…Not really sure how winter tyres would have helped in this situation unless they allow you to drive through hedges, crash barriers or over other cars (well, to be fair some people had actually managed to do this without using winter tyres but hadn’t managed to get much further)

this is the same snow icing sugar dusting i saw on the tv down in englandshire during footage of said traffic jams at the start of the week that brought chaos?

they close the roads for that really ? you live on craggy island ?

Mrs. Doyle: Your Grace. Father Crilly, I’ve just heard they’ve taken the roads in!
Bishop Brennan: They’ve taken the roads in?
Father Ted: Yes, when the weather is bad they store them in a warehouse on the East side of the island.
Bishop Brennan: What?! I have to be in rome tomorrow, for an audience with the Holy Father!
Father Dougal: Don’t worry Len, they repeat those shows all the time.
Father Ted: They’ll have the roads back out by tomorrow.

hint, first gear and idled throttle or start in second and be very gentle with accelerator, clutch, brakes and steering

That only helps, it doesn’t solve the problem. There are still limits on traction.

As for the snow not being deep – how much do you need? 1/4 of an inch of slush that then freezes solid is far more dangerous than 6″ of crisp hardpacked snow.

Winter tyres won’t clear other stuck cars out of the way, but if you live at the bottom of a hill they help a lot. And if your roads are blocked, they allow you to take alternative routes. Depending on where you live, this could save the day.