RANT: Snow scared drivers

[cstreit]

Okay, so here in the Chicago area we're getting about 1" of snow daily, meaning every day for the past week there is some snow on the streets.


WHAT is with the drivers?! They get up to the smoking speeds of 20MPH on 4 lane streets, neck and neck and won't move or let anyone by. They just keep that squinty-eyed death grip on the wheel while they scan the road 10 feet in front of them for the other slack-jawed-minivan-drivers with the same serious affliction.

Then there's the early brakers. You know the ones... They slowly coast up towards the next intersection and come ever so slowly to a complete halt 30 yards from the next car... then creep up at 2 MPH right up to the bumper of the car in front over the next 30 seconds.

A close third is the drivers that seem to proceed relatively normally untill they must turn a corner. They then come to an agonizingly slow halt and creep reluctantly through the corner as if their fatastic rate of speed is going to send them creening off into the next state...

Now I'm all for safety, but it seems so many border on paranoia!

...or is it just me?

[Reg]

Nobody here in Ontario seems to get it right. You have bozo's driving over the limit in terribe conditions and then you have scared people (who should'nt be out period) driving well under the limit.

This does two things. It slows down the normal people (like me) and it makes the bozo's pass the slow pokes making things even more dangerous, especially in low visibility.

arghhhhhhhhhhhh!

[Moneyguy1]

One subject I can't comment on, unless I drive to the top of Mt. Lemmon to the ski runs.......(10,000 feet)

[Aurel]

Last year, I was doing 45mph on the garden state parkway, in my X-Terra with the 4wd on. The road was coverd with slush
inbetween lanes. Since I was by myself on the left lane, I decided to move back to the middle. Ooops, I turned the wheel a little too fast and went into a huge sideslide. 40 mph now, but that feels scary fast when you are going sideways. I managed to put it back straitght, but the momentum was such that I started sliding on the other side,
drifting towards the guardrail. At this point,
remembering a past experience with the 911, I chose to lock the wheels. I hit the guardrail at low speed, on the back bumper.

Damage to the car: $30 bucks (a new side bumper)

Lessons learned:
1) I limit my speed to 35 mph on the snow
2) 4wd is only useful to get out of my driveway without plowing the snow.
3) Absolutely no brisk changes of direction on the snow
4) I got a new set ef tires with very thick and agressive threads (BF Goodrich AT Revo, I love them !). Huge difference.

Aurel

[bell]

same thing here in ohio.........it's like they completely forget how to drive or they just don't prepare and have crappy tires.......or both....i say both.

this is the first year i had a truck for the snow.......so much fun i can't even describe it
there's a long hill with 4 lanes i drive to/from work (the top of this hill is where my 911 got smashed) and with the suburban there's no effort and lots o' traction, i've been playing with different fuel levels to establish the varying drift angles..........there's a curb? i go over it..........someones creeping cause they suck....i go around.......i'm the guy people hate in the winter now that i have a truck

[Z-man]

cstreit, I feel your pain. I know exactly what you mean.

-Z.

[Adam]

LMAO @ Bell!

I can just imagine the fun you're having, man!

[niner11]

Speaking of Ohio. How low does the visibility need to be for people to turn on their head lights. Last weekend had vis of 1/4 mile during daylight hours and I see (Barely) cars with no lights on at all on the interstate. Scary. OK its not just Ohio

[VINMAN]

People in SUV's think they are invincible. I have a full size Ford Bronco. In snow i see people in SUV's passing by me like i'm goin backwards. When they sell these things, they shoudnt let them take it out of the dealership until they get driving lessons on them All the spinouts and accidents i see involve SUVS.
Drivers of these have no concept of the capabilities of 4x4's They are no better then a 2wd on ice or packed snow. Like Aurel said, 4x4 is good for getting out of deep snow and the like. Not to drive faster in bad conditions. Ive had a 4x4 since i started driving (23yrs), I've learned all the pros and cons of them. I dont claim to be an expert on winter driving. But I know enough not to kill my self!!

[oldE]

Amen to the 4 wheel drive comments. I've been down that road in several vehicles, (4x4 trucks and Audi Quattro) Except for getting started or climbing steep hills, the dynamics at speed are so close to most other cars, the driver is the determining factor. Unless you have Arctic Alpins or Blizzacks. Then you're talking a whole new level of mayhem! It becomes difficult to do handbrake turns with the Alpins on. They just want to stick. I'm on my third winter with them and am still impressed. (except for some scalloping, but that might just be the VW)
Les

[MFAFF]

No a real 4x4 expert but it does give you options on snow you would not try otherwise...like gently accelerating out of slides and understeer....a 2wd car would send you into the ditch or other car.

Getting decent snow tyres takes them to a different level...

[cstreit]

I remember driving through Indiana during a particularly nasty storm last winter and commenting (from our 4x4) that 80% of the vehicles in the ditch were also 4x4... ...apparently people don't realize that 4 wheel drive doesn't help you STOP better.

[rammstein]

Ohio is packed with the worst drivers I have ever witnessed. My 1.5 years living there were filled with days of "snow warnings" where 3 inches of snow fell and the crybaby's cancelled their schools and justified the purchase of Rav4s and whatnot. I heard people where I worked say "With all this snow, I should really buy an SUV." You gotta give credit to the marketing of 4wd. Consumers are convinced its a necessity in the snow. How about SNOW TIRES?! Or at least tires with tread on them? I enjoy seeing 4wd vehicles strewn about the sides of the road, their drivers confused why they can't corner, brake, or avoid skids any better than anybody else. Ohio is the worst.

[VINMAN]

I remember the good old days, when dad had to take the car to the gas station every november to get the "snow tires" put on. Them in april they went back in the garage till next winter, Never heard him *****in about the snow. ( *****ed about everything else though!)

[concentric]

Originally posted by BillyPilgrim
Someone who works at a dealership told me this story: A woman comes in absolutely livid, complaining about the vehicle she bought being defective. She says she drove up to Tahoe, parked her car in an icy driveway, on an incline, and came out later to find her car had slid to the bottom of the driveway and crashed into a tree. She wants the dealership to replace her car because, get this, “obviously, the four-wheel drive was defective.”

That's so funny! This must have been in Cali.

I can't wait until we get some snow in the LA area. I'm sure it's bound to happen if I stick around long enough. We already have people who drive 90 mph on the freeway during the first rains of the season (when the water lifts all the road oil to the surface, making the pavement quite slippery), so I'm sure it would be pretty spectacular.

Driving in the snow is fun!

JCM

[Moneyguy1]

My experiences in Ohio include their expressway drivers. You are doing a sane 75 in the RH lane and then ten or twenty Ohioans pass you, a scant ten feet apart...looking more ike a freight train than a line of individual drivers. Did I mention it was raining.....No matter where I have driven in this country (nearly every state), Ohio is the worst. A Statewide accident just waiting to happen....

[rammstein]

Yup. Ohio is a madhouse. Try I-75 from Cincy at rush hour. Worse than anything I saw in California.

[john70t]

Three times I've looked in the rear view mirror and had to move and switch lanes from a stop when people(two SUVs and a truck) slid sideways into the spot I had just occuppied.
My motto: Always leave yourselves an out, see them first, and some people just keep going until they hit a brick wall(they should need a licence to procreate).

[Zeke]

Being a SoCal native, I know nothing about driving in the snow. I was in OR once and spun out on black ice. Got out of the car which was in the snow bank and fell down because it was so slipery. Was driving in a blizzard 7AM in TX once following the big rigs in their tracks in the right lane about 50mph. The cowboys going ot work flew by constantly in the left and no tracks to follow. They just aim their pickup down the center of nothing but white and gas it. I finally had the bravery to follow. Passing the bigs in those conditions raced my heart more than any racing situation I have been in. If those cowboys can do it, so can I.

It really takes some getting used to and some training to drive in the snow. slush or ice. I have to agree that people out of their element probably don't get it right going either too fast or too slow. I just try to fine the best driver and do what he does.

As far as driving in the rain, I drive faster than most, but not unsafe. Seems to me people around here are too cautious, but at the same time, they drive too close to the car in front.