My ice scraper lives in my car at all times too, twickster. However, after my brother’s accident, in which the change cup he kept in the car dramatically emptied all its contents into the cabin of the car, thus demonstrating projectile physics to me in a very hands on sort of manner, I tend to keep the ice scraper only in the trunk. It’s an extra hassle to get it out of the car in the morning when it’s cold, but I figger it’s better than the damn thing beaning me in the noggin should I get into an accident.
I consider both the front and back windows ones “they need to see out of.”
I’m conventional that way.
Yeah, I was referring to the people in this thread who are getting pissed off at those who don’t sweep off their roofs and other assorted opaque parts. 
I strap mine to the back of my seat. If I am in an accident bad enough that the snow brush gets me, I’m hurt pretty bad anyway.
The top of your car should be cleaned for your own good too. I didn’t once and I got to an intersection and stopped a little fast when the light changed. All that snow slid from my roof onto my windshield and hood. The wipers got most of the stuff on the windshield, but then all the stuff on the hood ended up back on the windshield as soon as the light changed again. Yeah…clean off your damn cars and defrost/defog your windows before you leave. You get there late, but at least you get there.
Snow blowing off the roof and hood and trunk is what exactly I’m talking about, and it’s usually the light powdery stuff. When you have 3-4 inches of it on your roof and drive off down the road, it creates a whirling vortex of snow behind you, obscuring the vision of the drivers behind you. I find it rather obnoxious.
It’s even worse when it’s wet heavy snow. Then it waits till the car heats up and the whole thing flies off in one piece, usually landing smack on the windshield of the car behind you. Very unsafe.
I definitely recommend never moving to Colorado. It would perhaps occasion a large spike in your blood pressure. 
I’ve been there quite a few times, but always in the summer.
Beautiful place- I love Colorado.
Don’t get me wrong, I like the snow. People just need to learn how to deal with it.
People (Balti-morons specifically) are idiots when it comes to dealing with 3 inches of snow. They closed schools an hour early yesterday (because snow was in the forecast, not because it was actually snowing yet), the kids went 2 hours late today (even though the roads were clear, and it’s been the lead story on the news all day.
“SNOW! SNOW! Bunker down! Stock up on milk and toilet paper! Film at Eleven!!”
:rolleyes:
I’ve been there quite a few times, but always in the summer.
Beautiful place- I love Colorado.
Don’t get me wrong, I like the snow. People just need to learn how to deal with it.
People (Balti-morons specifically) are idiots when it comes to dealing with 3 inches of snow. They closed schools an hour early yesterday (because snow was in the forecast, not because it was actually snowing yet), the kids went 2 hours late today (even though the roads were clear, and it’s been the lead story on the news all day.
“SNOW! SNOW! Bunker down! Stock up on milk and toilet paper! Film at Eleven!!”
:rolleyes:
For the people that don’t have the proper tools to handle snow on their cars, I offer this advice:
You got sleeves on that jacket? Use your arms to sweep the snow off the top of your car.
You got a credit card? Use it to scrape the ice off the glass.
Now drive to the nearest KMart and buy a damn snow brush!
Trust me. Colarado is hardly unique in this regard.
Yeah, I’ve never heard of anyone brusing of their roof to stop a vortex of snow, nor has it ever bothered me. I do brush the snow of the top of my car on those 70 degree days after a 4 inch snowfall though. I had an incident where I had to hit my breaks fast on the interstate, and a four inch thick sheet of snow, lubicated by water on metal, dumped in a solid block over my entire windshield. That kind of sucked.
Still, as wolfman will attest, NO ONE does it here, and NO ONE cares. Every time we have one of these threads, people come out of the woodwork ranting about people who don’t clean every last flake off their cars. None of these people are ever from Colorado.
What are they thinking? They’re thinking “Ignore it. Ignore it. Ignore the strange white stuff. Ignore it hard enough and it won’t be a problem.”
You’ll probably notice these same people don’t adjust their driving for snowy conditions either. Leave extra stopping distance? What? Watch for icy spots? Why? Just go fast enough and never stop, and you won’t get stuck. Run every red light if necessary (they probably do that all the time anyway). If you do get stuck, spin the wheels and scream obscenities, and you’ll get unstuck. If to your amazement this doesn’t work, conditions are obviously beyond human coping ability, and it’s ok to abandon your car in the middle of the street.
(This tribe often won’t dress remotely appropriately for the weather either, but that’s a whole 'nother story, and unlike their driving habits, doesn’t endanger anyone else.)
The “ignore it” mentality is sort of the obverse of the other snow mentality prevalent in places where snow isn’t a daily occurrence, which is the familiar “OMG white stuff is falling from the sky it’s the end of the world must buy milk eggs bread and bottled water before food deliveries shut down!”
As a former resident of The Most Snowy Area East of the Rockies ™, I agree wholeheartedly with the basic rant shared by the members here. But I had to pick up on Poddy’s typo here (she must think she’s back home on Mars ;)). That problem can easily be resolved with a pail of air.
Gyah. That’s what the spare credit card you never use but you keep in your wallet is for. (Or the Starbucks card with 42 cents on it ) At least, on the days when my car’s iced over. That’s about the best we can hope for here in Seattle. sigh
I triple-dog-dare you to find a snow brush ANYWHERE, let alone K-Mart, where I come from. Now I realize most of t he people you’re ranting on are from the frozen northlands, but still.
I live in the (occasionally) frozen north, but mostly use a small, sawed-off broom - works great.
BiblioCat, good to see things haven’t changed in good ol’ Charm City.
Me, when I lived there the brush/scraper thingamajig was always in my car. And during Jan and Feb so was a can of aerosol fast-thaw. And I definitely removed most accumulation above the “belt line” of the car before driving away, mostly for the selfish consideration of not having anything avalanching upon my windshield or rear window while I need to see out of them (and yes, in B-more that snow on your car is more often wet-and-sticky than loose “powder”)
Minor query-how does flying snow cause a vehicle to become muddy? Snow causes snowiness, mud causes muddiness, boots not included. Instead of a cannon in your truck, try a canon in your CD player, perhaps Pachelbel.
Interesting. Hardly anyone cleans off the roofs of trucks or SUVs up here, but generally half the time it’s snowing anyway, so it’s not as if a bit more blowing snow is going to make things worse.
On the highways people (except for the few testosterone morons) keep a pretty safe distance from each other so what snow does blow off of people’s vehicles doesn’t seem to cause a problem. And from what I’ve seen most drivers aren’t traveling close enough to the car in front of them to get gooshed with a snow blob either. I’ve had small blobs hit my windshield, but nothing that would block my vision. Although my dog thinks we’ve just been killed when that happens and tries to climb into my lap. 
We do have plenty of 'peephole" drivers though. Drives me nuts.