Why shovel out your car after a heavy snow?

Factual Questions
41

I was driving on the highway recently–following at a normal, safe distance that would have easily allowed me to stop if the car in front of me slammed on his breaks–a huge chunk of ice and snow became airborne off the roof of his car and smashed into my windshield. It didn’t do any permanent damage other than some very small scratches in my paint, but I nearly hit the guard rail when I flinched in reaction to this massive thing flying straight at my face. Good thing I flinched left instead of right into 4 lanes of traffic, eh?

People who don’t clean off their cars are unsafe, and the cops should be able to write tickets for that.

42

[QUOTE=crazyjoe]
Blowing snow off the back of your vehicle is no worse than driving down a dirt road and kicking up some dust. In fact, it’s nowhere near that bad, as the dust kicked up usually obscures vision much worse than the tiny bit of blowing snow.
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As someone who comes from rural Saskatchewan and who grew up 7 miles from the nearest paved road, I know whereof I speak with regards to blowing snow and dust raised on dirt and gravel roads. The idea that these two scenarios are comparable is laughable, even though the dust raised on a dirt road can sometimes be substantially worse for visibility than a typical lazy jackass who didn’t brush off his car. Following distance on a dirt or gravel road to avoid raised dust can be upwards of a quarter mile, depending on how dry it is and whether there’s wind blowing the cloud off to the side. Traffic on these roads is light enough that it’s no big deal to just drop back until you aren’t getting covered in dust.

Conversely, people trailing a miniature blizzard on the freeway because they’re too lazy to brush snow off their car are not in low traffic situations where it’s feasible to drop back indefinitely. You continue to neglect the multi-lane conditions of most freeways, where someone might be within a few feet of the rear of your car in the next lane. And you are completely ignoring the fact that safe following distance between a visibility-decreasing phenomena is often much greater than safe following distance between a normal vehicle. The usual 2 or 3 second rule for following assumes that you can see at least to some extent ahead of the vehicle in front of you, and will see things develop. 3 seconds is nowhere near enough distance to stop if the vehicle in front of you comes to an immediate halt (due to a multi-vehicle pileup, for example). It’s only enough time to stop assuming that the vehicle in front of you itself has enough time to stop. As we all know, much freeway traffic doesn’t obey these rules, so even if you’ve left enough room and you aren’t continually having that room filled by people cutting into it, you can still run out of space very quickly if you can’t see around the guy in front of you enough to see shit develop.

Face it. By decreasing the visibility of people behind you, you’re putting them at some degree of risk. It may not be a huge degree, and it may not be illegal (though you’ve been shown cites that say it is illegal in some places), but it’s still rude and inconsiderate.

43

[QUOTE=crazyjoe]
Blowing snow off the back of your vehicle is no worse than driving down a dirt road and kicking up some dust. In fact, it’s nowhere near that bad, as the dust kicked up usually obscures vision much worse than the tiny bit of blowing snow.
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I’d be willing to bet that if that dirt road had 70,000 vehicles on it every morning, conditions would be considered downright intolerable. :slight_smile:

Sailboat

44

[QUOTE=Scarlett67]
(And who scrapes ice off the painted part of the car?)
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<sheepishly raises hand> I get carried away and want it off!

45

It really does depend on where you are, how much snow there is, what kind of vehicle you’re driving, and what kind of snow there is. It can’t be simplified into a single answer.

I live in rural Montana. We get snow here. I can count the number of times I’ve shoveled out my truck in the last five years on one hand. But I also don’t parallel park much. I have a pull-in spot behind my store, and I can walk to most of downtown from there.

If the snow is so deep that I’d have to shovel around the wheels to move my pickup, then it’s deep enough that I’m going to have to wait for a snowplow before I go anywhere anyway.

Removing snow? I always clear the windshield, driver and passenger windows, and both mirrors, and check the headlights. I rarely climb into the bed of the truck and clear the back window–I have really big mirrors. If the snow is light and fluffy, I’ll clear it off the hood so it doesn’t blow on my windshield. There’s rarely another vehicle close enough behind me for the roof to matter, and there’s no stinking way I’m shoveling out the bed of the truck.

46

I actually shovel snow into the bed of my truck in the winter- It is a convenient place to put it, and it helps with traction. I always thought it was kind of handy that when I need ballast, it is piled up around me.

47

Another important aspect is that if you try to bull our way through, and instead end up compacting the snow into ice, you’re probably not going to be able to use that car for a while, unless you have a couple of people to help push it over the mounds of slick, sturdy frozen water.

48

[QUOTE=Bryan Ekers]
I used to drive a Buick Skylark. Dig it out? Fuckin’ waste of time. Hit the gas and nothing short of the iceberg that clobbered the Titanic will slow you down.
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Heh. I had a Buick Electra 225 with 455 ci and a 4bbl that sucked ethyl faster than most toilets flush.

Snowbanks? Pshaw!

49

[QUOTE=InvisibleWombat]
<snip>It really does depend on where you are, how much snow there is, what kind of vehicle you’re driving, and what kind of snow there is. It can’t be simplified into a single answer.

I live in rural Montana. We get snow here. I can count the number of times I’ve shoveled out my truck in the last five years on one hand.<snip>
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Really? I have to plow my drive about once a week here in the central Colorado Mountains. I don’t have to dig my plow truck out, as it’s chained up on all four. I plow with that so that we can get our unchained vehicles up the drive.

The nightmare begins when you stick a 4x4 with chains on it all around. Oh yes, it happens.

50

I live in a rural area in western Pennsylvania. I drive a 4 WD Jeep Wrangler. I scrape enough windshield to see, then bull my way down my driveway. I then drive as fast as I can (safely) down the road until I hit this hump I know about. Usually that is enough to dislodge 90% of what is on my vehicle. If not, I push up on my soft top to aid in dispersement. By the time I get to work the windshield is melted/clear and I usually have yet to encounter another vehicle.

51

[QUOTE=vetbridge]
I live in a rural area in western Pennsylvania. I drive a 4 WD Jeep Wrangler. I scrape enough windshield to see, then bull my way down my driveway. I then drive as fast as I can (safely) down the road until I hit this hump I know about. Usually that is enough to dislodge 90% of what is on my vehicle. If not, I push up on my soft top to aid in dispersement. By the time I get to work the windshield is melted/clear and I usually have yet to encounter another vehicle.
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Sorry, a little bit of a hi-jack.

I had an ’84 CJ-7 with BFGoodrich mudders on it. Studded. Came down my driveway one time when the snow I was pushing started coming up over the hood.

Yes, it was a very light snow, but realizing that a soft top jeep makes a very poor submarine, I stayed home from work that day.

52

Here in Chicago (and elsewhere) it’s common to carefully shovel out a spot and then mark it with chairs, lawn furniture, boards, buckets or any other rubbish that so marks that spot as ‘yours’. Mayor Daley gave a great press conference to make clear his position.

[QUOTE=Jargon Chicago]
In a wise political move, Mayor Daley has danced above the fray and given a wink-and-nod to the technically illegal practice. Tap-dancing between respecting the residents of the Bungalow Belt and acknowledging the Saab-driving guy from Lakeview, he has adroitly sidestepped the issue and declared that while articles left for an indefinite period of time in a cleared-out spot will be removed by Streets and San, he wouldn’t make it his cause celebre because, after all, “This is Chicago.”
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And as far as clearing my roof of snow, I don’t typically do it either. If you’re following so closely after a snowstorm that my minisnowcloud hits your windshield, you will probably not be able to stop if I need to quickly hit the hooks. Furthermore, I dispute that this causes the instant blindness some here are describing. Besides, far, far worse are the countless semis, UPS and bread delivery vehicles, plumbers vans, motor homes, etc that have many square yards of snow blowing off them onto your windshields. In fact, given the added height, there’s a better chance for a car following at a safe distance to be where that snowcloud is just as it settles at eye height.

53

[QUOTE=jnglmassiv]

And as far as clearing my roof of snow, I don’t typically do it either. If you’re following so closely after a snowstorm that my minisnowcloud hits your windshield, you will probably not be able to stop if I need to quickly hit the hooks. Furthermore, I dispute that this causes the instant blindness some here are describing. Besides, far, far worse are the countless semis, UPS and bread delivery vehicles, plumbers vans, motor homes, etc that have many square yards of snow blowing off them onto your windshields. In fact, given the added height, there’s a better chance for a car following at a safe distance to be where that snowcloud is just as it settles at eye height.
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No excuse for being lazy. If the family with four kids behind you crashes because your faulty reasoning led you to think that snow leaving your vehicle roof is safe, you’ll not be able to reconcile that. There’s a reason a lot of jurisdictions have enacted laws for this. Spend a little more care on your fellow-human, willya.

54

[QUOTE=gigi]
I’ve scratched my paint when overzealously scraping at ice. This light powdery snow was much nicer!
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I scratched my last car’s paintjob with a shovel, because those little brush deals are useless against heavy snow :frowning:

But I found something perfect for removing heavy snow from my current car - an anti-static pet brush. You can find them in the mop and broom section of a department store. They’ve got study, rubber bristles, which don’t seem capable of scratching the car, and it’s worked fine for 2-4" layers of snow. So far. OTOH, my car’s low enough for me to reach the roof. I don’t think it would be very valuable to SUV owners.

55

[QUOTE=crazyjoe]

Again, if the snow blowing off the top of my car is obscuring your visibility, it’s because you’re TOO CLOSE to the back of my car. Otherwise it’s a light dusting at worst, and that’s what your wipers are for.
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The stupidity of people such as yourself is simply astounding.
I hope for your sake you’re not following a tractor trailer or pick up truck on the highway where the drivers had the same lazy, careless attitude as yourself.

Here in Ontario, you can be held criminally responsible if your lack of consideration by not clearing the snow from your vehicle causes someone to have an accident.

It’s happened here (as I’m sure everywhere) where some lazy dumbass, leaves the 2 feet of snow on his car, or the fiberglass cover of his pick up truck, the snow hardens, turns to ice, and one day while traveling down the freeway at 70 MPH, all of a sudden it comes flying off the roof like one giant sheet of block ice, crashing into the windshield following behind you.

Have you any idea of the consequences of such an event? or were you too busy to give a shit?

Sorry, it’s YOUR responsibility to make sure you’re not driving a loaded projectile down the highway, which could cause damage, cause someone to have a serious accident, or even death, because you were too lazy, careless, and stupid to adhere to your responsibility as a driver.

What, is the guy following lazy Joe supposed to follow 1 mile behind?
Unbelievable, I still can’t believe what I’ve read.

This attitude right here is precisely the essence of what is wrong with the world.

How ignorant, I hope one day you get charged. Stupidity is no excuse, remember that.