[Closed] Numpties and the snow

Do these people ever learn that these people will never learn?

must be low on dough

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

if you dont have winter tires on your car - keep your car off the road in snow - then those of us whos journeys are important enough that we feel the need to fit winter tires to ensure we can complete them can carry on without muppets blocking the road.

meanwhile i took the mtb to work as id taken the spikes off the commuter in the snow yesterday - and took the offroad route where i saw NO CAR - was ace.

Ha. No,they never learn.
Love the term "boils my piss". Looking forward to using it myself very soon. Thanks

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. 😉

At least, that seems to be the prevailing mentality.

if you dont have winter tires on your car - keep your car off the road in snow

Cobblers. I've never fitted winter tyres and never had a problem.

But I do live in Saudi Arabia.

Perhaps they felt their journeys were important but perhaps they didn't fit winter tyres for other reasons?

Some or my journeys are important but I would never fit winter tyres.

Perhaps I'm low on sugar this morning and am feeling ratty.

Plus the inane line of questioning from Suzanna and Bill wasn't helping matters either. Neither was Cheryl exclaiming that despite her children having a car accident she still decided to venture out in her car!

I got stuck the other night at work first time I've ever been stuck and it wasn't 'that bad' but what had happened was the snow had melted, froze and it snowed again it was lethal. Slid past a junction too as the wheels refused to turn the vehicle so had persuade it by flicking the back end to get through on the opposite side of the junction. 😳

To be fair to a lot of these people - the forecast was not that bad, and it wasn't snowing when they left for work in the morning. Most people were just trying to get home from work

Cheryl Baker on the other hand decided to drive from Kent to brighton to "help" her grow up kids who have already had an accident in the snow - she is an idiot

"Perhaps they felt their journeys were important but perhaps they didn't fit winter tyres for other reasons?

Some or my journeys are important but I would never fit winter tyres."

dont moan if you get stuck and kindly get stuck off the road then.

Roads were rubbish around my way, but my van managed everything.

I still don't understand why people have to go out in the weather, surely not all their jobs are that important?

I decided not to go today as risk crashing / being crashed into, van off road for more days etc. I've got a mountain of paperwork / catching up on STW to do anyway!

dont moan if you get stuck and kindly get stuck off the road then.

fitting winter tyres in abergloom would seem prudent.

brighton & hove? not so much...

Love the term "boils my piss"

I second that 😆

I live in the 'warning' zone in Kent, i just had to laugh at 'all' the snow we had- it nearly came up to my ankles and everything!
😆

Pretty much the first thing I said to the missus this morning was what an ar$e Cheryl Baker must be. She commented that I had woken up in a typically grumpy mood which i thought a tad unfair.

Anyway the BBC have released aerial footage [url= http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-21753051 ]link[/url] of the extent of the terrible conditions. What surprises me most is that the sloping roofs of houses don't even appear to have much snow on them! This whole snow issue seems to be being blown out of all proportion but then again, thats generally what happens when the south and south west gets a few flakes of snow!

Oh and another thing - how many times will i read about "blizzard" conditions?! Its a few snow fluuries FFS. Captain Oates would turn in his grave.

RANT OVER!

Right, i'm just popping out, i may be some time... 🙄

if you dont have winter tires on your car - keep your car off the road in snow - then those of us whos journeys are important enough that we feel the need to fit winter tires to ensure we can complete them can carry on without muppets blocking the road.

Pahhhhhh, winter tyres? Please get off the road, they're only good below 7degC, not in snow, for that you need snow tyres, with studs. Anything less and it could be a baby robins face next time.

Most drivers would be better off with a little more paitience than winter tyres. Only time I've felt in need of something better was decending the 1in4 switchbacked road down to my parents house after ignoring the road closed sign and about 8" of snow. Got halfway down and figured if it got any worse and went wrong that's why I was paying through the nose for car insurance. 1st gear and not touching the brakes and we made it.

Problem is it only takes half a dozen or so muppets to completely block a road.

Then even with winter tyres on you are just as stuck as everyone else.

Mandating winter tyres is probably the only answer

Problem is it only takes half a dozen or so muppets to completely block a road.

Then even with winter tyres on you are just as stuck as everyone else.

Mandating winter tyres is probably the only answer

Then you just end up with mupets with too much confidence in their tyres blocking the roads.

To be fair to a lot of these people - the forecast was not that bad, and it wasn't snowing when they left for work in the morning. Most people were just trying to get home from work

I think this ^^ plus the huge volume of traffic doon South.
When there is a wee bit of snow and ice added to the day ,It only takes a couple of cars or a lorry to cause gridlock .

When there is a[s] wee bit of snow and ice added to the[/s] day ,It only takes a couple of cars or a lorry to cause gridlock

fixed...

this was the trouble and the reason no snow on the roofs

possibly blew a lot of the salt off the roads too I would imagine.

Problem is it only takes half a dozen or so [s]muppets[/s] owners of rear-wheel-drive German vehicles to completely block a road.

FTFY.

Actually.... Sorry. My apologies. You were right first time. 😀

Whoever has enough money to buy some Winter Tyres, please buy me some. I never got stuck, but I don’t have spare cash to splash on a second pair of tyres for the car. I have loads of tyres for the bike though.

dont moan if you get stuck and kindly get stuck off the road then.

😀

But the reason I won’t fit them is because although they may help once or twice a year in snow, they are less safe in other conditions as the stopping distances are increased over standard fit tyres.

So I thought about it and, on balance, decided they weren't for me.

what snow?

I had a meting in Kent yesterday afternoon,when I got there it was snowing, but not settling. Three hours later when I left there was a light covering of snow over everything, it wasn't deep but had made the roads very slippy - much more than it looked. I think the snow had originally been melting, then the temperature dropped a few degrees below zero and the water froze on the roads. I only saw one car that had slid across the road into an embankment.

I wondered at one stage if I was in for an epic journey back to Surrey, but oddly once I got on the M25 and past the M23, all the snow had gone and the roads were normal.

... and that's why I have a 20 year old Classic Rangie sat on the drive... 😉

The ability to read an OS map is handy too.

Had a similar experience once with snow falling then thawing then freezing solid on the A720 Edinbugh Bypass, outside lane was clear so just stuck her in bottom box, locked the centre diff and gently trickled my way home passing all the traffic in the inside lane at about 10MPH. Felt smug at all those who tried to follow my trick and just failed as they weren't in a 2.5 ton AWD vehicle with decent tyres on and the ability & experience to use it.

Always had a landy of one sort or another for these instances never failed to get home and never met any significant delays (just driven round it).

Proper Planning and Preparation prevents piss poor performance

Anyone tried [url= http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_storeId_10001_catalogId_10151_productId_832077_langId_-1_categoryId_202001 ]these from Halfords?[/url]
£60 for a pair seem reasonable.....

Yesterday we did experience something that was as near to a blizzard as there ever was in this lovely country of ours.

tinas - i take it from your responses you have not tried them then .

infinately better in snow than normal tires.

its below 7 at commuter time for a significant portion of the year up here.

most folk up here run winter tires in winter. those that dont get no sympathy , much like the BMW stuck at the bottom of a dip (on the westhill blackburn road for those that know it) with no traction to get up the otherside- a group of us pushed him into the passing place off the road and carried on with our day. quite a few of the same model car with winter tires got up the hill no bother - i know as we were all joking about there being no more room in the passing place once we pushed the other fella out the way.

and frankly if your stuck in england i dont really care - do what you like , it wont help.

Meh, Barely a sprinkle of snow in Sheffield, with none on the roads. And what were we stuck behind crawling down a large winding hill? The ugly bastard child of the Chelsea tractor craze, the Range Rover Evoque. A car that should have been more than capable of bombing down the hill, hamstrung by an idiot driver. Money > sense.

A little balance on the other side of the fence for you all.

"And what were we stuck behind crawling down a large winding hill?"

wheres the double facepalm meme when you need it !

"A car that should have been more than capable of bombing down the hill, hamstrung by an idiot driver."

post of a trolly troll surely or moron , not quite sure. 4 wd and all the electronics in the world doesnt defy the laws of both gravity and friction.

I had a great time yesterday, went out for a completely gratuitous drive up in the hills to see if I could get stuck. Nearly managed it this time!

thisisnotaspoon - Member

Pahhhhhh, winter tyres? Please get off the road, they're only good below 7degC, not in snow

Not sure if trolling.

Not sure if trolling.

Treading the fine line between tongue in cheek and trolling.

infinately better in snow than normal tires.

I'm sure they probably are, I was being tongue in cheek at that point. My point was that for the few journeys where conditions are so crap that I actualy want 'better' tyres, leaving 5 minutes erlier and driving that little bit slower had the same result (making it to the destination).

Interestingly Norway recently changed the law that made studs a requirement. They resoned that as long as snow tyres were mandatory (as distinct from winter tyres) and 50% of the drivers continued to use studs then the surface would be churned up enough to make studs non essential to the other 50%.

While I have no doubt winter tyres are a (significant) advantage I have yet to encounter conditions in the South that a well treaded set of summer tyres couldnt deal with if the car is driven appropriately.

Granted I don't drive a rear wheel drive german car (front wheel drive mid to large is my preference) and I dont have to drive in the little lanes / tops of the Downs much but for urban areas and major commuter routes you should not NEED them.

I suspect the further North you get or the more rural you live the more I would think the cost makes sense.

I suspect part of the issue with accidents is people's mistaken belief that their 4wd/uber auto with all the whizzy gadgets means no matter what they do the car will save them. Glad I learnt to drive before all that electronic stuff was the norm. Only owned one car with ESP and used to keep it turned off in the snow to temind me to keep it slow and careful. Take away the false safety net - focus the mind.

spoke to some norwegians who were laughing at how hopeless this country is in a tiny little bit of snow when they were over visiting my office before xmas.

the change they have made is that studded tires are taxed in urban areas. They still have as they always did a mandatory winter tire policy between certain dates and that you must have 4.

you can run studs , winter tires or mud and snow tires.

alot of folk chose to run studs so they can drive up the untreated roads to their family cabins in the hills

Its not just snow that catches people out I remember seeing two blokes stood on top of a 4x4 in a river only a few months ago,

modern cars are too easy to drive, which lulls most drivers into a false sense of security that everything will be fine

and if not someone will be there to ‘rescue’ them.

The reason there was no snow on the roofs is that the winds were gusting to 50mph. We decided to avoid travelling - and spent the morning in bed instead 😉 FTW. 😀

You can buy a car with ESP ? Does it predict traffic jams ? That useful I want one !

Does it predict traffic jams ?

Perhaps you just can't afford a car like that? 😉

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 4x4 (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.

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 4x4 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 [s]snow[/s] 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.