I agree with Kingpengvin. Sometimes people just suck at driving in the snow. I can understand slowing down, and generally I slow down to 40 on a 60 kph road (or whatever is “safe” which for me means "how fast I can go and still stop within 40 feet)…but no one should be so worried that they do 10 kph on the same road. If your car is so un-road worthy you shouldn’t be driving that car!
Now don’t get me wrong. I want everyone to buy a new car/tires. The first snow storm caught me off guard. I drove my GF home with SUMMER tires at 3:30 in the morning…7 Kms took me 40 minutes to transverse. I was slipping all over the place. But with my new winter tires, I can easily do 50-75 kph without any slipping (of course that doesn’t include turning). I think people just happen to think slow = safe that so, like most things, take that to extremes.
And BTW, if you MUST go slow PLEEEEASE stay right.
I have no problem with people beng over-cautious the first time out in winter, for it takes a while to get the winter driving skills back up to speed. (ooh, two traffic puns in one phrase!)
For example, there were 84 collisions in one afternoon in my commmunity of 113,000 during our first snowfall of the season earlier this year. That is an absurdly high collision rate. Had more drivers been more cautious, even to an excess of caution, there would not have been so many collisions.
I realize that this can drive commuters in the GTA insane (I used to do two hours each way down there, so I appreciate the frustration that traffic delays cause), but the solution is not to drive faster than caution indicates. Rather, the solution is to learn to deal with one’s frustration. Have dinner in the city before commuting. Listen to books on CD. Sing. Try to pick up the person in the lane beside you. Cell phone home (but don’t get too distracted). Car pool with interesting people.
And with that, I’m going to pack up shop and begin my drive home. It usually it takes about seven minutes, but if traffic is light, as is now, it should not take that long.
(Though I should not gloat too much, for last week it took over eight hours rather than four for me to make it home from our regional office due to the weather.)
Well damn. I just found out that about 4 miles east of where I live a goddamn pick-up truck spun out of control (on Highway 7) and killed 4 young people in a small Toyota. Too bad that bozo wasn’t being more cautious.
Last week we had a slight bit of snow, less than an inch, that resided on all the grassy areas around. PennDOT seemed somewhat prepared this time, and did go out and anti-ice, salt and sand the roads to provide better driving surfaces.
But what was it that mine eyes did see on I-70 south of Pittsburgh on the way home from work? A guy in a Ford Escort doing 30 mph. Not only was he going 30 mph (I know it was 30 because I got stuck behind this dink due the heavy traffic in the other lane), he wasn’t using his hazard lights.
So thank you, to the guy in the teal Escort, for beliving that slow == safe is a true statement, and for endangering my life by causing me to slow down from 50 mph (which is 10 under the normal for that stretch of road, since the weather wasn’t perfect) to 30 mph with cars crawling up my ass. I enjoyed the adrenaline rush, really. But next time you’re on the highway doing 30 mph and everyone else is going 50 mph, please, for the love of all that is unholy, DO NOT REACT BY SLOWING DOWN TO TWENTY MPH.
OK, so, catsix believes in reduced speed during inclement weather. Catsix also believes that if you’re doing 35 mph or less on a controlled access highway on which everone else is doing 50 mph or above, put the flashers on and get off the fucking road.
