Snow + Ice = abandon your car?

[aborgman]

I would never abandon my truck in winter. I live in Minnesota, I drive across glare ice at 60 mph in 2 wheel drive without flinching. A little snow never stopped me from driving. Never seen that happen here either. Odd.

Same here in Michigan.

Snow tires? I don't know anyone that uses anything other than regular old all season radials... and I grew up in a town that gets ~110 inches of snow a year.

 

[superfunk47]

If you're going to WWU, most drivers you run into in are probably WWU students. Given their age, they probably don't have a lot of experience driving in the ice. Most of the abandoned cars I've seen in Bellingham were close to campus.

Whoa, crazy! Wouldn't have figured any TBers to live in Bellingham. Where are you living?

As for the drivers, that's true. But to be fair, I don't have much experience with ice, just compacted snow, and I was still able to get around pretty well. It seems like the problems happen when people try to drive exactly the same way that they would on dry roads.

Strangely, I-5 was totally fine, and I didn't have any problems in downtown Seattle, either. Saw the aftermath of the apocalypse on either side of the roads, but the roads were almost completely clear.

 

[Aaron]

Whoa, crazy! Wouldn't have figured any TBers to live in Bellingham. Where are you living?

I have been living in Bellingham for about 5 years, which is probably when I became less active on TalkBass. I'm trying to sell some basses, so I've been a bit more active in the last week.

I live downtown and play about 4-7 shows a week in a number of different projects. Most are 21+, but I play in a number of restaurants and a couple local wineries.

Are you involved in the music department at WWU?

 

[MJ5150]

Well lookey here.....we have a new problem on the roads besides the ice: Invalid Link Removed

But dang man, it is cold down here today. We lost power for almost three hours.

-Mike

 

[Jonyak]

6" of snow on the ground is a typical day in ottawa.

traffic slows down a bit, but everyone goes about there normal business.

 

[Aaron]

Seattle is nothing but hills, bridges and overpasses. Plus it is shaped like a hour glass with the Puget Sound, Lake Washington, Lake Union and the canals and locks that connect them greatly limiting how much road there is and where you can put it. You add snow and ice to that and everyone is S.O.L. I went to college in Boulder Colorado and have driven in plenty of snow but here it is way different. Way too many places to get stuck or slide off the road if you are caught off guard or without chains. Our weather forecasts always suck too. Never correct. I checked it Saturday and it said we were only getting snow for first half of the day Sunday and them it would turn into rain and that would be that. I'm sure plenty of people got that same bad info and didn't bother with snow tires or chains. I live smack downtown Seattle and even our main road weren't all cleared today. I'm just glad I was off work for all of this.

+1

The roads aren't covered in compacted snow - they're all icey. And there is nothing but hills - there is no way around the hills. My best guess is that it probably doesn't make sense for cities and counties in this region to make the investment to be fully prepared for snowy conditions, because it only snows 0-7 days out of the year.

 

[warwick.hoy]

Oh, I disagree. I ride a bendy bus most days to and from work; they're used all over the city year-round with no issues, and Chicago knows a little bit about snow. That looked more like operator error.

That was sort of a nod to Top Gear host Jeremy Clarkson who likes to rant and razz the Mayor (Boris,...whatever) about removing bendy buses from London streets.

 

[kserg]

That's what you get when your DMV test is 5 questions and the hardest questions are:

1) When turning right, which way you turn your wheel
A) right
B) Left
C) UP
D) all of the above.


3) When turning left you have to turn the right blinker on and honk left in Morse code.
A) True
B) False

5) Do you want to drive a car?
A) Yes
B) No
C) all of the above
D) None of the above.