The daft cow in a corsa, who after watching a Western Power Distribution Landrover struggle like buggery to get up the hill in front of her, then decides she's going up too. Gets 20 yards into the 1:4 , the wheels spin like crazy as she slides backwards , then, just as she's perpendicular to the road , they get a good grip and she rockets forward into the parked car. At least she then blocked the road to stop an other idiots having a go .
Probably just warning you that you'll be committing an offence if you leave your van facing the wrong way on the side of the road overnight. 🙂He then starts pipping and waving at me for daring to stop there.
1) I’ve got a four wheel drive so I can drive faster on these snow covered roads. My brain has only just worked out that having four wheel drive means shit when I apply the brakes and skid into the car in front resulting 4 cars being damaged on a narrow residential street.
When we had snow the other week I witnessed just this. Some dozy bint in a big 4x4 tried to drive down the Rake, a 25% gradient covered in sheet ice, ignoring the huge signs at at the top saying ROAD IMPASSABLE IN WINTER CONDITIONS and having driven around the ROAD CLOSED sign placed there
This was the result....
[img] 
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The dozy cow, having wiped out 2 parked cars and very nearly a group of school kids, got out and incredulously declared "I don't understand it! I'm in a 4x4!"
i do hope her insurance told her right where to get off!
We live on a pretty steep road so I was out helping- pushing and gritting and putting boards down and that- and the number of cars that have already hit something and have bits hanging off is mad. Now it's 5pm and literally no traffic, that never happens, everyone;s either stuck, given up or went home early. Very pretty though!
I am an avid snow-cleaner-off-er
The air currents around an MX5 with the roof down blow any snow on the boot back into the car. Like bloody Narnia in there.
My mum, for all her -bless-her- faults is a braw driver.
I mean, she's rubbish and has no spacial awareness or any advanced motor skills (in any sense of the word) but either stays at home, or drives as steady as she can in as a high gear/low revs as the motor will take before conking out and steers and brakes like she's "got a carton of eggs on the bonnet" and has been navigating rural Fife roads for about 40 years with no major issues.
My drive to work was surprisingly **** free. Largely because I didn't drive 🙂
Took the long way in, avoiding the roads as much as possible. It all looked pretty civilised though, but then nobody was actually going anywhere fast! Just about to set off home and it's coming down again, time to head offroad 🙂
I rode into work yesterday (MTB along the canal towpath, lovely) and then got the train most of the way home leaving me just a 4 mile towpath ride.
Came out of the station in heavy snow and the steep road outside was littered with stuck or abandoned cars. The snowfall had come on so suddenly and so heavily but you could sense the bewilderment of drivers. Wheelspinning. Trying to turn round. Just stuck in utter panic. And invariably, one bellend trying to drive down the pavement to get round a stranded car.
I rode up the middle, bike didn't miss a beat. Loads of grip. 😉
This clip is taken in a car at the bottom of my street earlier today. I am not involved with any of the vehicles!
[ video]https://youtu.be/5eBT6OSr1TI[/video ]
But I would buy the bus driver a pint 🙂
I am slightly annoyed that our garage drained out my nice bright blue low temp screen wash and replaced it with clear weak stuff that keeps freezing. It was nearly full too.
That bus driver deserves a medal as well as a beer.
My kids had a snow day yesterday and i took them sledging up in local forest. Winter tyres and 30 years driving meant i kept them safe amongst the massive bellendery of other drivers - which really had to be seen to be belived.
Unfortunately even 30 years driving experience and winter tyres wont stop you from losing your car keys in a forest covered with 10 cm of snow....
Great bus driving Myopic! How about this one from a few years ago?
Everyone in Sheffield seemed to have awarded themselves the day off. I did my commute home in record time as there was almost no traffic at 5pm!
There seemed to be a fair few people content to pootle at 10mph everywhere though. Which is sort of understandable but wasn't necessary.
Just up the road from you in Matlock everyone was exceptionally well behaved – sensible speeds, sensible stopping distances.
Appart from the neanderthal I saw on the roundabout at gasworks corner on the A6 who thought that because they were in a 4x4 momentum didn’t apply to them and hit the roundabout at 30mph completely lost it over compensated ended up on the island on the exit taking out the sign in the process (I can’t think who shopped him to highways but the he seemed to have learnt nothing from it and was driving in whoever it was’s boot half way to Bakewell so memorising the number plate would have been easy (hypothetically))
Makes it look easy EGF! Where is that?
I encountered one car on yesterday's 6.5 mile commute. He was patient and hung back until I pulled in to a gateway to let him past.
I have a feeling today's commute could be even quieter.
Today's commute involves putting coffee cup down on dining room table...
Red Alert! Bed till lunchtime! 🙂
Makes it look easy EGF! Where is that?
Saltburn, North Yorkshire. It was a few years ago.
The bank is a LOT steeper than it looks on the vid.
I was pleasantly surprised by the driving yesterday evening/this morning. I was on my cross bike and there were very few cars (on a main route out of Leeds). Those people who were driving were doing it slowly and sensibly, and sitting patiently behind me until it was safe to overtake (uphill - when I was going downhill I was actually catching cars up).
Apart from the lorry driver who was stuck behind me through some (short) roadworks then tried to speed past without noticing the red light just ahead...
Agrees with hjghg5 - the driving was much better today. I reckon that people have finally twigged that if they are driving in this then they need to adjust their driving.
Saw a bloke this morning, seen him before on my commute. Full blizzard conditions, compacted snow on the road this guy is owning it, legs out on his Transalp, kudos.
That would probably @simonlovesrocks if anywhere near Sheffield!
<span style="font-size: 0.8rem;"> Bonus points if he had his Orange5 strapped to the pannier racks.</span>
There's a Ducati dealer down the road. Yesterday morning one of the mechanics was gingerly - and I mean gingerly - riding one of these around the estate.
Yes really.
Still looked and sounded amazing even in the snow and ice at 5 mph
So here, right, there's hardly any snow. The roads are a bit damp! People go 30 in a 60. So I overtake on a long straight, so they beep at me! What's that about? What effect do they think their hooting is going to have? I'm going to stop next to them and go "oh sorry, I'm not allowed to go faster than you, I'll pull back in behind and crawl around for no reason!" **** I hate driving on the same roads as these f-wits.
binners
When we had snow the other week I witnessed just this. Some dozy bint in a big 4×4 tried to drive down the Rake, a 25% gradient covered in sheet ice, ignoring the huge signs at at the top saying ROAD IMPASSABLE IN WINTER CONDITIONS and having driven around the ROAD CLOSED sign placed there
This was the result….
So which one of those was the "big 4x4"?
My f'in wife. NHS dietitian and (bizarrely) an ex-IAM instructor.
She recently got a team leader post, and spent most of last night calling round her team, rearranging clinics, and making sure no-one travelled unnecessarily. Its been throwing it down here all night in a leafy wee place in West Central Scotland, and we've had no snow clearance in the local streets. Abandoned cars litter the side streets.
Where are you off to? I asked her 30 mins ago. Work, she says- East Kilbride, a 7 mile journey if you can get to the main roads. You're off your head I said, you'll never make it onto the main road.
Car is now stuck on a local hill. Fud.
I think the reason things are reasonably good yesterday and today John is more to do with only 2 schools in harrogate being open and i think it was six across the district yesterday. As a result there's very little traffic as most school runners don't need to bother and a lot of commuters have stayed home with kids.
There's still a few idiots about but there are few enough they're not majorly troublesome. Unless you live in the house on Boroughbridge road which gained an articulated lorry and some telegraph pole in the garden last night, or the one on Brigatte where someone going up the hill has wedged a car into the driveway at 90degrees, only the drive is about 2feet narrower than the car is long.
Oh and last night there were two bmws stuck on the hill out of Farnham up towards ferensby, one passing the other, which was helpful.
A colleague said he'd read your car insurance isn't valid if you have an accident in a red warning zone, is that true? Wouldn't that make it illegal to drive (if you effectively have no insurance)? It's not red where I am but could be later so hmm may have to leave early...
Well it is proper snowmageddon here in the Blacks. Upgraded to Red Alert. So just been out to feed the sheep, then stuck the quad in 2WD and gone for a Ken Block Stylee Hoonathon round the field. Always good to get it out of your system, and you never know when the skid-pan experience may help in real life. Maybe the diving test should introduce some new elements of low traction driving experience, even just to illustrate to anyone who drives what the physical limits are. It may just prevent some people who believe electronics and other driving aids will keep them out of trouble from doing something stupid like in the pictures above<span style="font-size: 0.8rem;">.</span>
I don't fancy there will be much traffic on the roads today round here anyway. Maybe the odd tractor.
I have been doing skids in my fiesta.
Maybe the diving test should introduce some new elements of low traction driving exprience
I had two tests cancelled because of snow and 1 because of fog. Ridiculous really given it was in no case bad enough it would have prevented me (or anyone else) driving. The argument for canceling because of snow was that the road markings would be obscured and the snow hid the curbs so it wasn't fair to ask me to perform maneuvers as i might clip the curb and fail.
sounds like a dumb, Facebook-circulated urban myth for the terminally gullible IMO. I highly doubt it although check your insurance doc if you’re not sure, I suppose his could have a special numpty clause in it!!A colleague said he’d read your car insurance isn’t valid if you have an accident in a red warning zone, is that true?
It may just prevent some people who believe electronics and other driving aids will keep them out of trouble..
At the fear of offending the STW driving gods, I have to say that the ESP/ESC on my 11 year old Focus does actually seem to perform a useful job when it is slippy out.
Obviously it's not a miracle worker, but there have been a couple of times that wee light has come one and I've thought "Thanks car. Good job"
Caveat: not driving like a total bellend obviously helps as well!
Oh and last night there were two bmws stuck on the hill out of Farnham up towards ferensby, one passing the other, which was helpful.
Which is on my commute, Boroughbridge-Killinghall.
Were they still there this morning? I half hope they were. One of them looked at me like i was from mars when i suggested reversing down the hill.
I ended up going out onto Boroughbridge road this morning and round through ferensby to Knaresborough rather than Farnham as i didn't fancy sandy bank.
One observed this morning. The "must pull out of this junction before the truck" type person. Except, when the truck is a snowplough & gritter and you're going uphill maybe, just maybe, it would have been a good idea to let the truck go first so you didn't get stuck on the hill stopping the snowplough getting past.
[i]GrahamS wrote:[/i]
It may just prevent some people who believe electronics and other driving aids will keep them out of trouble..
At the fear of offending the STW driving gods, I have to say that the ESP/ESC on my 11 year old Focus does actually seem to perform a useful job when it is slippy out.
Which is fine, because clearly you appreciate that it doesn't mean you can carry on driving the same as when it's dry - the issue is that some people apparently do think it works miracles.
At the fear of offending the STW driving gods, I have to say that the ESP/ESC on my 11 year old Focus does actually seem to perform a useful job when it is slippy out.
We we had a MkIII Focus as a rental car a while back in the 2010/11 winter snow. Its traction control gently ground us to a halt on my parents’ flat culdesac. Finally found how to disable it on some hateful menu system, pulled away in 2nd no problem at all. Bloody useless.
TC cutting down the revs in some situations just when you need them most is one of the side effects of the system and how it works. Most of the time it isn't a problem. I remember us trying to drive up a long steep sand cover slope leaving a beach in Morocco. The old defender in the group floored it and simply flew up the hill. The Discovery 3 wouldn't go anywhere until the right program was dialled in. It took many attempt to find the one that worked but eventually that too drove up OK. The 2 most recent defenders, both with Traction Control fittted failed to drive up the hill at all until the fuses controlling it were removed (they have no switch to disable the program). Then both simply drove up no drama.
Like I said above, the electronics are fine most of the time, but unless you have a good understanding of how they work and what their limitations are then there will always be situations that will catch you out.
EDIT: Haha, just read the reply which was posted above as I typed this out 🙂
😏
Apologies jimjam, I'll try harder in future 😉
the issue is that some people apparently do think it works miracles
Yeah, same mentality as the more common "I can safely drive four inches from your boot at 70mph because I have disk brakes, ABS, skid control and airbags"
Its traction control gently ground us to a halt on my parents’ flat culdesac.
I live at the end of a cul-de-sac on a mild hill. Got out fine the other day on uncleared road without needing to disable it. From memory I think I've only disabled it a couple of times in the cars lifetime. Thankfully it is just a little button on my car, no annoying menu system involved.
Ultimately the traction aids in most vehicles are simply there to stop you binning it on a wet bend. They’re not really designed for snow, and don’t really work too well either.
That said, on the one occasion I’ve had our Freelander in the snow (you really have to go looking for it in Australia) its snow program did exactly as it should.
The Discovery 3 wouldn’t go anywhere until the right program was dialled in.
On the other hand, my brother-in-law (who is a senior-something-engineery-product-manager-thingy at JLR) was proudly sharing this quite impressive video on Facebook of a police Disco towing a stranded lorry in the snow!
I think the reason things are reasonably good yesterday and today John is more to do with only 2 schools in harrogate being open and i think it was six across the district yesterday. As a result there’s very little traffic as most school runners don’t need to bother and a lot of commuters have stayed home with kids.
There’s still a few idiots about but there are few enough they’re not majorly troublesome. Unless you live in the house on Boroughbridge road which gained an articulated lorry and some telegraph pole in the garden last night, or the one on Brigatte where someone going up the hill has wedged a car into the driveway at 90degrees, only the drive is about 2feet narrower than the car is long.
That's true I guess. And yes - I have seen the news reports / Facebook posts. The people trying to get up or down Briggate are especially stupid. I did see a Facebook thread following the ongoing attempts of one person trying to get up screaming the hell out of the engine before finally giving up.