Amazon driver.. not so much
Well, I remember night rallies against Volvo Amazons and I can tell you they definitely don't hang about!
Sweden has some experience with snow in winter:
Pretty much what stwhannah linked to up there. 👆
Swedish cars seem to be good for it from my limited experience too. I had one of the last non-turbo Saab 900s in the early 2000s and it was awesome in the snow. I remember floating across the snow in Lincolnshire one winter, seeing 9 cars and lorries in ditches and fields on the A157 on my way to work. Saab didn't seem to lose traction.
I don’t get people who clear snow from footpaths. Snow is grippy, when people then clear it, it gets more slippy
Snow is grippy for about a day until it becomes compacted and turns to increasingly slippy ice.
Even when it's grippy, it can be difficult to walk in. I've noticed our council have stopped clearing pavements, leaving them covered in snow and ice for weeks. Very sad to see pensioners trying to push their wheeled shopping baskets through the snow to get to the shops, or young mothers with pushchairs.
https://twitter.com/NicBoothby/status/1602074384314908672?t=8WneExhOGXouhGYuIty_2g&s=19
I remember watching something similar on a narrow road with a blind bend out the back of Hayfield a couple of years ago. Lots of attempts to get round it, oncoming traffic unable to stop.
Absolutely despair at people trying to drive in tses conditions, no-one has a clue. Add in the mix of terrified people driving at 2mph, white-knuckle clenching the steering wheel and drivers who think they're in a custom rally car - it's insane.
Everyone is an expert on snow days...
Absolutely despair at people trying to drive in tses conditions,
Too much reliance on automated safety aids combined with not enough base skills and lack of familiarity is part of the problem.
Modern cars also do not seem to be as forgiving in snow, ice and mud. Large contact areas and higher power/torque outputs seem to make it much harder for the average driver to keep the wheels turning not spinning (lack of foot dexterity).
Worst car I've owned in a number of ways but most sure footed in the snow was my 97 Passat estate. Had something like 185/65 tyres and the engine way out over the front wheels (a trait it shared with Saab's of the era).
Not sure I'd fancy our Smax and summers in the snow much. A lot of rubber and the engine tucked back behind the axle. Thankfully I'm a shandy drinking southerner these days.
Everyone is an expert on snow days…
The guy casually riding his MTB past that wheel spinning van would seem to be the expert!
I rode the MTB into work a couple of times in heavy snow, canal towpath the whole way. Admittedly, conditions like that were very rare but you knew the office would have about a dozen people in (almost all of them cyclists) while a few others would be trickling in through the day, late because of chaos on the roads and railways. Everyone else would just be off work (this was before the days of genuine remote working - the occasional day of WFH was OK with advance permission)
My daughter in law terrifies me when driving.,* She, many years ago , did a paramedics driving course and believes that this still gives her the right to drive as if in an ambulance regardless of conditions.
There must be many such 'experts' out there.
* Actually she terrifies me most of the time
She, many years ago , did a paramedics driving course and believes that this still gives her the right to drive as if in an ambulance regardless of conditions.
There must be many such ‘experts’ out there.
I can get through a snow stage on Dirt 4 on the PS4 without flipping the car 75% of the time.
Last time it snowed around here I recorded my quickest and smoothest ever (car) commute. 25mph, 3rd gear all the way pretty much. A lack of urban assault tanks, as the schools were closed; the serial worriers and bad drivers had decided to stay home, leaving a general feeling of calm from those who had braved the 3 inches of white death.
@crazy-legs I'm supposed to be interviewing in Gloucester tomorrow, now happy it's been postponed if that's what I had to look forward to.
very grateful for our little grit/salt bin that all neighbours clubbed together to buy. However some insist on shovelling great lumps of the stuff over the pavement and road, when it just needs a gentle scattering over a wide area, not a huge clumped mound in every inch of the tarmac.
She, many years ago , did a paramedics driving course and believes that this still gives her the right to drive as if in an ambulance regardless of conditions.
A friend is a paramedic, they have a very high accident rate as most graduates don't learn to drive till they have to do the paramedic driving course (as it's too expensive now to learn when you're 17), so have very little real road experience to fall back on. Pass their test, a few week later blue lights course and then let out on the roads for real.
Wish I'd read this post before I crashed this morning. On the same icy patch I've come off on before. Still nothing that more skin can't fix...
