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kickahaToday we got a snow flurry here in NC. < 1/4", more like 1/8". Dry, light, powder - would be great if it were at a ski slope. Compacts nicely into an even thinner layer, that unfortunately has this bad habit of becoming a thin ice sheet.
In any case, after an almost two hour commute home, and watching people slipping and sliding everywhere today, here's some advice from someone who grew up in the stuff, with actual inclines. Heck, we'd get 8-10" overnight, and the school buses still ran on time the next day. They *were* the snowplows for some neighborhoods.
1) Snow != ice. If you are walking, or driving, aim for the snow. It's not ice, nor is it slick. Head for the powder, and you have traction. It's just that simple.
2) Walk flatfooted. Don't go heel-toe, just place each foot flat down, and lift it the same way. You have better balance this way.
3) Take smaller steps! This one seems like a no brainer, but...
4) Shuffle. If it gets slick, just glide your feet across the ice. It's hard to fall if your feet never leave the ice.
5) Take 2-4, and you end up with a peculiar gait, but it makes it almost impossible to slip and fall. Practice it - it sort of ends up looking like a kung fu master walk. :) After a while, you can try running like that. ;) (Yes, it's possible to run on ice without falling. :) )
When driving:
6) Aim for the snow. If it's flat and shiny, avoid it, if it's ridged and white, aim for it. Usually you can find untouched snowy areas on the edges and center of lanes.
7) Turn off your radio. *Listen* to the road. Do you hear water? Then it's not ice. Is it quiet where it's shiny? You're on ice. Pretty simple. Does it sound crunchy? Whoo-hoo! You're on compact snow and ice, nearly as good as dry and bare. :)
8) LEAVE ROOM! God, I can't tell you how obvious this should be. Don't tailgate, don't try and keep the same distance that you would on regular roads.
9) Don't crawl! I really wanted to strangle some drivers today who were going <10mph on dry pavement, then braking at the bottom of a hill before trying to go up an icy climb. Jeez, mon.
10) Related: think ahead, look ahead. If that uphill you're coming up on is icy, get some speed up before hitting it to carry you up as far as you can. If you're heading downhill, and there's an obvious dry patch in the middle and ice at the bottom, *brake in the dry patch*. Plan ahead through your line of sight.
11) If you start to slip, *don't gun it*. You'll lose all traction, and all power. Instant loss of control. Flutter the gas, lightly, as soon as you hear a wheel spin, back off a bit. Take it easy.
12) Related, *don't brake hard*. Ditto for loss of traction, and helllooooo slip and slide. Flutter the brake. Don't *pump* it, just lightly tap it quickly until you lose traction, then back off. Do this fast and often enough, and you can brake on sheer ice. Clamp down on it, and you're going for a ride.
13) Keep an eye on the taillights in front of you. You can't see glare ice on the road with your headlights, the angle is simply wrong. Use the taillights in front of you, and look at their reflection off the road, if any. They'll tell you if you're on black ice before anything else will.
14) Above all relax. It's not that bad. Use your head, and when something doesn't work (gunning it), stop doing it. It's not going to get better if you try it harder.
15) The colder it gets the *easier* it gets. Ice gets sticky as it gets colder. 25-35-deg is the danger zone. Around -40, ice is about as sticky as bare concrete.
16) *FOUR WHEEL DRIVE DOES NOT HELP YOU STOP*! Jesus, some people are idiots about this. 4WD, no matter how good, will *ONLY* help you *GO*. It also does about jack all on sheet ice. If zero wheels have traction, then power to all four still gets you zero traction. 4 * 0 = 0.
17) Anti-lock brakes will help... somewhat. I haven't found an ABS car yet that I can't send into a spin on the same ice I can stop a non-ABS on without trouble. ABS does not give you a license to stomp on them. You'll still skid.
18) CLEAN ALL YOUR WINDOWS. Now do it again. Do *not* clear off a 6"x6" section and call it good. Now clean off your roof, and your hood, and your trunk. Those sheets of snow will either slide down over your windshield when you stop, or worse, fly off and peg someone. I've seen them break a windshield, dent hoods, and generally cause wrecks because people tend to *panic* when a large several foot square white thing comes winging at them on the road. Invest in a good $10 ice scraper, don't even bother with those $.99 jobbies. They're worthless. (Oh, and about risking scraping your paint when cleaning off the hood, roof, and trunk? Put your finger under an edge and lift. It'll come off if it's ever going to. If it seems stuck, hit it with your fist. The ice will break, your car won't. Now remove it by lifting it gently off.)
19) Windows fogging? Blast *cold* air at them to clear them quickly. Hot air will just make cold windows re-fog immediately. When you first get in the car, put the air system on defrost, but slide the temp control to cold. After the engine warms, you can slide it to warm, then hot. This will gradually warm your windows and keep them from re-fogging. (Note: in *really* cold weather, this doesn't help, since your breath will ice over on the inside of the windows, but people in such climes generally already know these tricks, so... :) )
20) Practice. Really. Have someone drive you to an empty parking lot and go nuts. Spin out on purpose, and figure out how to pull out of it. See how long it takes you to brake on different surfaces. See how long it takes you get going. Gun it, slam on the brakes, go wild. It's a lot of fun, and you'll learn what it feels like right *before* you lose control, and how to recover before things get bad. Besides, it's just plain fun to spin donuts. :D (Of course, you don't want to hit a dry patch sideways, you can break rims, axles, or roll your car... see #10: plan ahead!)
Really, anyone in NC (or Seattle for that matter, the drivers over on that side of the Cascades aren't much better...) who is scared of driving in the stuff should try the above.
Those who *AREN'T* scared of it should have the above imprinted on their foreheads. Grr.
In any case, after an almost two hour commute home, and watching people slipping and sliding everywhere today, here's some advice from someone who grew up in the stuff, with actual inclines. Heck, we'd get 8-10" overnight, and the school buses still ran on time the next day. They *were* the snowplows for some neighborhoods.
1) Snow != ice. If you are walking, or driving, aim for the snow. It's not ice, nor is it slick. Head for the powder, and you have traction. It's just that simple.
2) Walk flatfooted. Don't go heel-toe, just place each foot flat down, and lift it the same way. You have better balance this way.
3) Take smaller steps! This one seems like a no brainer, but...
4) Shuffle. If it gets slick, just glide your feet across the ice. It's hard to fall if your feet never leave the ice.
5) Take 2-4, and you end up with a peculiar gait, but it makes it almost impossible to slip and fall. Practice it - it sort of ends up looking like a kung fu master walk. :) After a while, you can try running like that. ;) (Yes, it's possible to run on ice without falling. :) )
When driving:
6) Aim for the snow. If it's flat and shiny, avoid it, if it's ridged and white, aim for it. Usually you can find untouched snowy areas on the edges and center of lanes.
7) Turn off your radio. *Listen* to the road. Do you hear water? Then it's not ice. Is it quiet where it's shiny? You're on ice. Pretty simple. Does it sound crunchy? Whoo-hoo! You're on compact snow and ice, nearly as good as dry and bare. :)
8) LEAVE ROOM! God, I can't tell you how obvious this should be. Don't tailgate, don't try and keep the same distance that you would on regular roads.
9) Don't crawl! I really wanted to strangle some drivers today who were going <10mph on dry pavement, then braking at the bottom of a hill before trying to go up an icy climb. Jeez, mon.
10) Related: think ahead, look ahead. If that uphill you're coming up on is icy, get some speed up before hitting it to carry you up as far as you can. If you're heading downhill, and there's an obvious dry patch in the middle and ice at the bottom, *brake in the dry patch*. Plan ahead through your line of sight.
11) If you start to slip, *don't gun it*. You'll lose all traction, and all power. Instant loss of control. Flutter the gas, lightly, as soon as you hear a wheel spin, back off a bit. Take it easy.
12) Related, *don't brake hard*. Ditto for loss of traction, and helllooooo slip and slide. Flutter the brake. Don't *pump* it, just lightly tap it quickly until you lose traction, then back off. Do this fast and often enough, and you can brake on sheer ice. Clamp down on it, and you're going for a ride.
13) Keep an eye on the taillights in front of you. You can't see glare ice on the road with your headlights, the angle is simply wrong. Use the taillights in front of you, and look at their reflection off the road, if any. They'll tell you if you're on black ice before anything else will.
14) Above all relax. It's not that bad. Use your head, and when something doesn't work (gunning it), stop doing it. It's not going to get better if you try it harder.
15) The colder it gets the *easier* it gets. Ice gets sticky as it gets colder. 25-35-deg is the danger zone. Around -40, ice is about as sticky as bare concrete.
16) *FOUR WHEEL DRIVE DOES NOT HELP YOU STOP*! Jesus, some people are idiots about this. 4WD, no matter how good, will *ONLY* help you *GO*. It also does about jack all on sheet ice. If zero wheels have traction, then power to all four still gets you zero traction. 4 * 0 = 0.
17) Anti-lock brakes will help... somewhat. I haven't found an ABS car yet that I can't send into a spin on the same ice I can stop a non-ABS on without trouble. ABS does not give you a license to stomp on them. You'll still skid.
18) CLEAN ALL YOUR WINDOWS. Now do it again. Do *not* clear off a 6"x6" section and call it good. Now clean off your roof, and your hood, and your trunk. Those sheets of snow will either slide down over your windshield when you stop, or worse, fly off and peg someone. I've seen them break a windshield, dent hoods, and generally cause wrecks because people tend to *panic* when a large several foot square white thing comes winging at them on the road. Invest in a good $10 ice scraper, don't even bother with those $.99 jobbies. They're worthless. (Oh, and about risking scraping your paint when cleaning off the hood, roof, and trunk? Put your finger under an edge and lift. It'll come off if it's ever going to. If it seems stuck, hit it with your fist. The ice will break, your car won't. Now remove it by lifting it gently off.)
19) Windows fogging? Blast *cold* air at them to clear them quickly. Hot air will just make cold windows re-fog immediately. When you first get in the car, put the air system on defrost, but slide the temp control to cold. After the engine warms, you can slide it to warm, then hot. This will gradually warm your windows and keep them from re-fogging. (Note: in *really* cold weather, this doesn't help, since your breath will ice over on the inside of the windows, but people in such climes generally already know these tricks, so... :) )
20) Practice. Really. Have someone drive you to an empty parking lot and go nuts. Spin out on purpose, and figure out how to pull out of it. See how long it takes you to brake on different surfaces. See how long it takes you get going. Gun it, slam on the brakes, go wild. It's a lot of fun, and you'll learn what it feels like right *before* you lose control, and how to recover before things get bad. Besides, it's just plain fun to spin donuts. :D (Of course, you don't want to hit a dry patch sideways, you can break rims, axles, or roll your car... see #10: plan ahead!)
Really, anyone in NC (or Seattle for that matter, the drivers over on that side of the Cascades aren't much better...) who is scared of driving in the stuff should try the above.
Those who *AREN'T* scared of it should have the above imprinted on their foreheads. Grr.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2005-01-20 03:47 am (UTC)where i come from we call it "four wheel slide."
(no subject)
From:I've just bookmarked this.
Date: 2005-01-20 03:50 am (UTC)Turns out, the driver hadn't brushed the snow off the roof of the cab, so when it slid down over his windshield he lost control of the truck and hit us. When he got out to see if we were okay, he just about fainted. I wonder if he was thinking about the potential lawsuit, what the cops would say or the imaginary headline: But I digress.
I'm not sure if it'll be better for me to not have to unlearn years of bad snow-driving before starting out, or if I'd wish that I'd already gotten my time in when I'm puttering around in it. yipe.
As to walking in it, at least I already knew to head for the fluffy stuff. But how to walk on ice ... nope, that's new to me, too.
Re: I've just bookmarked this.
From:Re: I've just bookmarked this.
From:Re: I've just bookmarked this.
From:(no subject)
Date: 2005-01-20 04:14 am (UTC)The *freezing rain*? Different story altogether. Saturday was fun. Everything was completely coated with a sheet of ice, at about 30ish degrees, with some water over the top of it. Not easy to walk on let alone drive on. Fortunately, this year was limited to about 1/4 - 1/2" over about a 24 hour period. (And about a bazillion wrecks or ditched cars per square mile...) Last year it was several inches over several days. I stayed inside for days. :)
(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
Date: 2005-01-20 05:28 am (UTC)(no subject)
From:(no subject)
Date: 2005-01-20 12:43 pm (UTC)And if you have manual transmission, starting off in second gear can help with traction. I guess Low would work for automatic -- I've never owned one of those.
As far as windows fogging, it also helps if you either turn on your A.C. or blow outside air instead of recycled air -- or both. A lot of that fog is the humidity from your breath, so you need to get dry air into the passenger compartment.
Meh.
Date: 2005-01-20 03:11 pm (UTC)But yes, you provide exceptional advice for those who have yet to understand the *ahem* pleasures of driving in mixed snow/ice conditions.
You might want to add a comment about the differences of snow that falls when it's really cold (extremely slippery, easily windblown) versus snow that falls when it's near-freezing (heavier, wetter, more likely icy the day after).