Forgive the native Californian for asking a couple of naive questions, but since it concerns the safety of my little girl, I'm willing to be publicly embarrassed.
My 18yo goes to college on Long Island (Hofstra). One of the attractions was proximity to NYC where she goes often. As it turns out, the free school shuttle that takes her to the LIRR station is infrequent enough that it turns a 30 minute train ride into a two hour slog. So when she comes home for winter break, I am anticipating being asked if she can take her car with her back to school in late January. I also expect she will be going into NYC more frequently as she's hoping to get a job at
TSNY (yes, she does flying trapeze and aerial stuff).
What's driving like in January-April in the Hempstead area of LI? I know that for decades people didn't have 4WD suv's and seemed to get along fine. She has a RWD car (old 318I); does she need snow tires? Are mom and I paranoid about ice coated roads?
BTW, she's been to the BMWCCA Street Survival course for teen drivers, so she's done wet/dry skidpad, slalom, emergency braking training -- so that's a plus. And yes, I have the normal concerns about parking at the LIRR station at night, I have no idea about that one either.
Any help much appreciated for a concerned dad.