So...which parts of the country will come to a complete standstill this Friday with all the snow predicted?
Everywhere apart from Scotland perhaps?
Well, I'm meant to be going on holiday tomorrow for a week, travelling up from Devon to near Shrewsbury. That's looking decidedly iffy now 🙁
Working from home on friday. Warm, snug and coffee on tap.
Working from home on friday. Warm, snug and coffee on tap
This. Why travel if it can be avoided?
Oh, we're West end of the North downs on the Surrey, Sussex, Hampshire boarders. Looks like we'll be hit.
Supposed to be going to see the doc in London tomorrow. Think I may postpone...
Rachel
Hopefully not Portsmouth/Gosport as I have loads of work to do on Fri.
These could be the few days of the year that made it worth owning the 4x4 I stopped owning to get my T5...
These could be the few days of the year that made it worth owning the 4x4 I stopped owning to get my T5...
A 4x4 can't move all the stuck people infront and behind you......
More people travel to work in London than live in all Scotland. That being so why is the traffic so rubbish in and around Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen?
I'll be cycling into the office tomorrow. There's no chance I'm risking a 6 hour, 22 mile commute home in the car. I'd rather be chilly on the bike and get home in good time. Thick tights, snowboarding gloves, thick socks and Lake MX140s, new buff. Sorted.
I'll be commuting from Hastings to Tunbridge Wells tomorrow. Think if i do drive in I'll be taking the bike in the back in case it gets interesting on the way home.
Knowing how bad the trains are down this way when there's even a sprinkling of dust, biking it home seems the quicker option.
[i]A 4x4 can't move all the stuck people infront and behind you...... [/i]
True, but its rare in a morning to see 5 vehicles on my 8 mile journey 🙂
Just looked at my local forecast, 80% chance of precipitation which is likely to be snow.
Bugger, best put on my walking boots on for the walk to work in the morning!
If it lies, it'll be an early finish and a snowy bike ride after. 😀
We had snow Monday and Tuesday, chaos didn't ensue - I don't expect Friday to be any different TBH
"A 4x4 can't move all the stuck people infront and behind you......"
you say that but it was quite nice driving up the ditch and the hardshoulder in 2009/10 at bridge of muchalls of the road past the jackknifed lorry and getting home. unlike colleagues who were stuck behind it in their 2wd motors for hours - another user of this forum by the name of curtains did the same thing and was stopped by the copshop and told "roads closed you cant go any further that what if you get stuck .... erm , i have been driving up the ditch for the last x amount of miles and havnt got stuck yet - if you let me onto the road the chances of me getting stuck are even less....."
an no i cant tow an artic lorry with a land rover ninety - i like my gear box and diff oil where it is not sprayed all over the road. - its rated to 7tonne pull not 27tonne.
the other advantage is that while everyone is queuing to use the main roads with the right tires you can take the back roads no sweat no traffic and take them at your own pace - 15-20mph is better than 2-3mph in the queues as 5 roads worth of traffic try to take the main roads.
Wondering wether to get the train down to the Cycle Show tomorrow from Leicester? Could be asking for trouble
The oddest thing I saw with snow was working on the Isle of Man once
We woke up to about a 1" covering.
Got in the van to go to the site to find we were the only people on the road [9am Monday], everything had stopped - the billboards the following day were claiming chaos 😀
jota180 - i now have an image of craggy island where i once had the isle of man :d
I imagine [s]eBay[/s] Lidl will be busy this morning...
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aye so will the laybys when people try to fit them for the first time.....
Tomorrow would be the perfect day to need my landrover but bloody thing pissed coolant everywhere yesterday
It's good to own a British icon
[quote=russianbob said]I'll be cycling into the office tomorrow.
+1 to that.
WFH today and looks like I might be tomorrow as well because it's already snowing in South Cheshire 😀
Not heavy, more like the snow version of drizzle, but it's a start.
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Id rather have snow than ice. Snow is fun to ride in...ice is not!
orangeboy. get a torch and look under - is it leaking from a hose or have the freeze disks burst out due to freezing coolant ?
I would cycle in but after an altercation with a car earlier in the week im a little tender.
Im supposed to be driving from Oxford to North Wales, might try to see how far I get before it looks really iffy.
If I get stuck in N Wales I will be happy, if I get stuck on some road I wont.
Will be working from home also, start early and finish early.
I can get out on the bike late afternoon to survey the damage!
I have no boiler so no heat or hot water since Sunday night, the plumbers are due to come tomorrow to power flush my system. I hope they don't wuss out otherwise we will freeze!!!!!!!!!! Pregnant wife is the only reason why I'm stressing other wise I'd be happy having a ride and sleeping in front of the wood burner.
Please nice plumber man, MTFU and turn up!
True, but its rare in a morning to see 5 vehicles on my 8 mile journey
*High fives quiet commute buddy.*
It is the volume of traffic, combined with those who are not skilled (or have winter tyres) that cause the problems in any built up area.
Work from home, cancel a meeting that you need to travel to etc etc.
Even I plan to hitch a ride with a colleague in this, now ex-fire engine, and I have winter tyres, chains and regularly drive in snow and ice:
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Yeah, i'll be WFH tomorrow (and today, and yesterday) but after my flights being delayed by over an hour at both Vienna and Frankfurt yesterday I dont rate my gfs chances of getting home on time with her flight from Gatwick tomorrow evening!
"It is the volume of traffic, combined with those who are not skilled (or have winter tyres) that cause the problems in any built up area."
or those that have winter tires and think its a licence to carry on as normal at high speed.
more than one audi been parked onto of the wall on the road to blackburn this week - one even managed to get a fiat 500 on its roof at hatton of fintray
im curious as to what somefolk are thinking as im in 4x4 on bfg all terrains (with snowflake) doing maybe 30mph on some roads and im thinking at times if i hit the brakes i will slide on this compacted snow - yet i see folk powering up behind me with no chance of stopping if something comes round a corner - its no wonder the fields up here are littered with cars and police aware signs.
or those that have winter tires and think its a licence to carry on as normal at high speed.
Fair point...I had a discussion with another colleague who's dad insisted on her changing a Corsa for a 4x4 (Hyundai...) as it was safer in winter. I would argue on going down hills here, the small wee car on winter tyres or chains is safer. A 4x4 will just encourage her to go out when she would not have done in the corsa, and likely drive faster as it grips (initially) more. However, ultimate grip is similar and the car weighs twice as much.
I have a couple of times stopped and avoided 110's on our loch road in the Yaris - one 110 ending up the ditch...The only time the Yaris (or my Touran) looses out is if the snow is deep enough to pile up against the bumper.
Sadly, I quite enjoy the challenge of a winter drive, but I do have the luxury of few others on the road...
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I'm moving house tomorrow from Bristol to Cambridgeshire so this snow has not come at a good time 🙁
The removal company tells me that it will be fine but you can't help but worry a bit. Especially as it's been a very stressful house buying experience so far, having only exchanged on Tuesday - 3 days before completion due to some *&%! at the top of the chain messing the rest of us around for 6 weeks.
Cheers trail rat it's the rad that seems to have split
On the plus side this rad has only been in 6 months so might be a free replacement
Just bad timing
Dammit.
Supposed to be driving from Stockport to Liverpool on Friday evening with my family to visit my sisters/nephews ... depending how far north and east the snow gets this might not be a sensible journey to attempt 😕
was it a britpart rad?
what coolant were you using (as in colour) as there was a big hoohaa about folks using coolant that was the wrong chemical composition and ****ed landys rads. cant remember if it was the pink or the blue stuff though.
hmmm - from north london to east london with the family to see the bike show - Train or 4 x 4.......?
If everyone worked downhill from where they live, we could all go to work on bin bags.
I don't know about getting home though
I'll be cycling into the office tomorrow. There's no chance I'm risking a 6 hour, 22 mile commute home in the car. I'd rather be chilly on the bike and get home in good time. Thick tights, snowboarding gloves, thick socks and Lake MX140s, new buff. Sorted.
I have the opposite approach - I cycle in normally, but when there's tools going too fast in cars when it's snowy it's a bit dangerous on a bike I reckon. Taking the landy tomorrow methinks.
I don't know about getting home though
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hmmm - from north london to east london with the family to see the bike show - Train or 4 x 4.......?
London? in the snow?
I thought the accepted way was to get into you BMW [or other rear wheel drive chariot] and just put your foot down until it wheel spins to a standstill
Never mind tomorrow - took me half an hour to travel half a mile at Clapham. Vauxhall roads still closed off from yesterday and today - a train fire at Victoria. They evacuated the station. Hundreds of commuters waiting for buses, traffic at a complete standstill. Of course a woman with a child picked her moment to step out in front of me when I was on a green light at a pedestrian crossing. Bent front wheel. Of course it was all MY fault. Got to work an hour late.
Meh.
in answer to the point made about the traffic around glasgow, edinburgh and aberdeen being so bad when more people than the whole of the scottish population commute into London: -
The road network is crap. It's improved around Glasgow in the last 10 years but Edinburgh is a nightmare and so is Aberdeen. There is no proper way for through traffic to by-pass Aberdeen plus the fact both are coastal means there aren't as many ways in.
Also, London is very big so it's all relative to the number of people trying to cram into a smaller space 😉
russianbob said » I'll be cycling into the office tomorrow.
+1
This was the "traffic chaos" I faced on Tuesday:
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😀
jota180 - Memberhmmm - from north london to east london with the family to see the bike show - Train or 4 x 4.......?
London? in the snow?
I thought the accepted way was to get into you BMW [or other rear wheel drive chariot] and just put your foot down until it wheel spins to a standstill
Not with he kids in the car. Seriously though the youngest is three months so I don't want us to be standing on station platorms in the cold, when, if I have to have a slow journey home at least it'll be in a warm Kuga-box. My route is main road north circ / a10 so it'll be fine just perhaps a little busy.
This. Why travel if it can be avoided?
I like snow and I have a mountain bike.
I'm a bit disappointed that Glasgow will probably avoid any significant snow
It was a laugh in winter 2010 riding to work on my MTB
The first few days when the snow was still fresh I was easily the fastest thing on the road
Many years ago when I had the Landy I had my one and only vindication of the need for a 4x4... turned off the M65 at Hapton to go north up the A56, it climbs a long long gentle hill about 500 feet over Hambledon Hill before dropping down to Rossendale. The left hand lane was choked solid with cars going nowhere and the RH lane was virgin snow about 4" deep. What else could I do? I drove for about 3 miles up the hill and over to Rising Bridge past hundreds of stopped cars, a big bow wave of wet snow shooting up and spraying them all... good it was!
No Landy now but tomorrow I'll leave home at 6.30 and take Mrs Gti's car with the Avon Ice Touring tyres on it... will probably get to work just as they send out the text telling employees not to bother coming in....
Already pre-emptively working from home. No point battling with the car driving proles, and while I could cycle in just fine, we keep our bikes indoors and there may be a problem with that 🙂
I'll be driving back from Bristol to Derbyshire tomorrow. I should be ok in the pick-up. Will be interesting to see how many chuck a snow day back home when they have to go 2 miles and I manage to make the 160 mile journey.
You think you've got it bad...
We were meant to be riding Llandegla Saturday morning. Looking at the weather forecast, I can't see that happening!
Looking at the forecast it'll be thermals + MTB for me. Looks like getting in will be OK, but getting home will be a nightmare, and there is no way I'm spending friday afternoon stuck in work when I could be out having fun on my bike (and feeling smug and being the fastest thing on the road :-))
Meant to be collecting car from garage tomorrow morning, then driving down to Heathrow to head off to Germany. At this rate I doubt I'll get it out of their car park!
Continuous snow forecast all day tomorrow in Bucks.
It's all gone now 🙁The Pinkster - Member
WFH today and looks like I might be tomorrow as well because it's already snowing in South CheshireNot heavy, more like the snow version of drizzle, but it's a start.
Never mind, hopefully it'll be back and better tomorrow. Thinking of heading to Hanchurch Woods on Saturday, which is always fun in the snow. 😀
I won't be able to sleep tonight. So excited about the possibility of snow. Ice Spikers on. All set. Please please please.
Ps my commute is 3 miles off road.
We were meant to be riding Llandegla Saturday morning. Looking at the weather forecast, I can't see that happening!
You should ride Gisburn instead then - they grit the trails there 😉
I'm up with the sparras tomorrow to fly London to Glasgow for a pitch.
Hoping the trip will provide some travel-delay anecdotes so I can contribute to the office banter..... not.
Travel Chaos?
What, like normal chaos, only smaller, and magnetic?
Hmmm, due to fly back from Amsterdam to Heathrow tomorrow. I bet Schiphol will be working just fine and Heathrow will grind to a halt with 2cm of snow...
my commute is 3 miles off road.
3 miles or under I'd probably just walk to be honest.
Undoubtedly I will be at the tender mercies of TfL and their general uselessness tomorrow. I look forward to waiting for a train with 3 million others for half an hour to get trapped underground for no obvious reason, eventually to get into work and then have a laughably pathetic chance of getting home again (it is Friday after all).
WfH is a non-starter generally here.
3 miles or under I'd probably just walk to be honest.
If I lived that close to work I would have no choice, medical issues aside 😆
Doing the sensible thing, working from home on staff appraisals 😥
Doing the sensible thing, working from home on staff appraisals
Perfect - you can enjoy a few cans of Stella before allowing your creative side to express itself.
No not a Brit part one just got it from the local rad specialist
And yes it does have the correct red coolant for a td5
Spoke to them today and they seemed happy to repair or replace it as long its not from stuff bashing into it
Woohoo! It's started again!!!
Yes it has . Traffics gone crazy
GrahamS - looks like there were some terrible accidents there - the tyre tracks and foot tracks all collide with one another 😉
I'll be ok on my Cross commuter, 80% car free route, if it really snows I could break out the MTB, but it's Cambridge, it'll be a dusting at most.
Jamie - MemberI don't know about getting home though
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I believe last time that was tried it ended badly........
[url= http://http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2005/oct/31/highereducation.uk4 ]Student dies after being thrown from a trebuchet[/url]
students eh!
I've recently come back from Austria where despite heavy snowfall for 3 days non stop, life went on as normal. Nearly everyone drives normal two wheel drive cars, just with winter tyres.
Austrian guy on the plane said he only ever had one day off school because of snow, and that was because 2.5 metres fell then it started raining heavily, so schoolkids were drafted in to help the army clear snow off roofs so they didn't collapse.
UK seems a joke in comparison.
Red warning from the met for some areas now!
UK seems a joke in comparison.
Maybe we do not have the cold weather infrastructure a country like Austria has. What with having, historically at any rate, a different climate to them?
I shall be out ferrying staff from the station to the office and back again afterwards in this:
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then, if there's enough snow at the weekend we will use it for uplifts and go snowboarding. 😀
Red warning from the met for some areas now!
I've always avoided yellow snow, but red!!?? Has someone got the machete out?
Got Michelin Premacy Alpins on my Passat .
Chains in the boot as well incase it is more than forcast .
Might put the skis in and ski on Butser hill on the way home if the A3 isnt blocked.
Intend on using B roads as they dont get littered with stuck cars driven by tools who think bouncing off the limiter is going to get traction.
I really hope that this comes to nothing and there's just a few flakes. We're moving house 200 miles away, currently trying to plot the best route there.
Cheers_drive, m5, m6 and a14 I reckon, but traffic check them all first. Cambridge being generally drier shouldn't get too muc of the whites stuff. Good luck with the move.
My Swansea Brecon commute is going to be interesting in the morning.
Just fitted Ice Spikers on the commuter.