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  1. #1
    Senior Dog Berna's Avatar
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    Angry Seriously, I have to learn to drive in the snow

    I got stuck while driving uphill, twice! Once because an old lady was walking in the middle of the road and I lost momentum, and second time was completely my fault as I started to panic. Seriously, how do people live here? I left my car and took the uphill part on foot, but I saw at least two more cars stuck on the way. The road is narrow and when two cars meet while driving in opposite directions it's hard not to get stuck. (Have I mentioned I can't wait for spring?)

    Well, someone was happy at least when we reached our destination:




    And there was a nice view of the city (you can see the road conditions - but we actually made it up that hill):




    What's your worst experience when driving in the snow?
    Cookie Black Snowflake
    July 12th, 2006. - May 25th, 2023.

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  2. #2
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    We drive in snow all the time here in Canada but then we also have all the road equipment to keep our roads fairly well ploughed. What I can't do is drive when there has been freezing rain. Those days I stay put. We have just got our first significant snow this past week usually by now we have 3 or feet on the ground and more piling up. Only have about a foot right now. The dogs seem to love it. As I get older the winters seem to get longer. I too can't wait for spring.
    Your pictures of Cookie are shear joy.

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    Berna (01-28-2019)

  4. #3
    Senior Dog Mr Kleb's Avatar
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    Nice photos Berna, thanks for sharing!

    My worst experience - driving home from work one day. No snow was falling but there was snow on the ground and the strong wind created near white out conditions at times. It was like driving inside a snow globe that was shaken at times. I was crawling along at 20 kph at times and one time it cleared enough for me to see that I was on the wrong side of the road, a minute or two later there came several cars going the other way.

    The drive is about 35 kilometers one way on country roads. It usually takes about 25 minutes. This drive took 1 1/2 hours and I was mentally exhausted.

    ETA: I never passed another vehicle on a 20 klick stretch of road. That's why we have a sleeping bag, water, and some food in the car.
    Last edited by Mr Kleb; 01-27-2019 at 02:48 PM.
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  6. #4
    Senior Dog Snowshoe's Avatar
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    Beautiful view. Considering photos tend to make hills look flatter than they are (or else it's me nervous of pelting down a hill on skinny skiis that really is as flat as my photos show ) that's a darn good hill. Even with snow tires (did you have snows on? 4x4?) getting stopped and then getting going again, without having to slide all the way down backwards, called for some good driving.

    Snow on the ground is not my biggest worry. Visibility is my biggest concern. Doesn't matter how good a driver you are, how well equipped your car, how well everybody else drives and is equipped, if you can't see a thing in front of you it's scary. And that's how my first car got totalled. In a whiteout. I hit the car ahead of me, who happened to be OH, then my boyfriend. He hit the car ahead of him and so on with 7 of us all told. I was in the middle. The guy in the pickup who whalloped me really hit hard and all the cars ahead said so too, since they also felt the hit. He ended up responsible for damage to my car and OH's, which was also totalled. I fractured my leg and broke my nose and got a nice swollen face and black eyes out of it. When OH and I went shopping for new cars a couple of salesmen actually laughed out loud. Well no wonder, I was all banged up and when we said we wanted two cars, most people only buy one at a time, they laughed. The man who hit me was on his way to have a leg he'd broken previously checked. He re-broke it.
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  8. #5
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    Michigan gets regular snowfalls so they do a good job at keeping the roads clear. If is is a known storm, I try to stay home because a lot of people think they are invincible and I don't want to be on the road with them or double, or even triple my commute because the roads are more congested because you need to slow down. Luckily I can work from home and most weekend plans can be rescheduled.

    The worst issue I've had was being stuck in a client's parking lot. They only cleared part of the lot and I went down an aisle and thought I could get over to a less filled aisle driving in the snow after the last parked car because I was slipping and sliding trying to back up. I got stuck in snow several inches deep and there was nobody around to push me out. I ended up putting the rear floor mats under the wheels for traction. One of them went flying out behind the car and I never found it.

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  10. #6
    Senior Dog MightyThor's Avatar
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    I learned to drive in the snow of northern Michigan so it's never bothered me. I live in Oregon now and do a lot of driving in the snow. It's 45 minutes from my front door to the ski lifts on Mt Bachelor so I'm driving up snowy mountain roads a few times a week. Usually with tourist traffic from people who never drive in the snow. Around here everyone gets snow tires put on in the fall and taken off in the spring. They are tires made of a rubber that's much grippier in the cold and on icy surfaces than typical tires. Last weekend I was on my way up to Bachelor in the middle of a storm. The Jeep in front of me (California plates) didn't have snow tires and at one point he just stopped moving and started sliding backwards. He couldn't get any traction. I got around him and around the next curve was another car with the same issue. You're required by law to have snow tires or chains in those conditions but it's never enforced.

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    Berna (01-28-2019)

  12. #7
    Senior Dog smartrock's Avatar
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    I've never hit another car or been hit but my car has skidded a good distance more than once. One time I was coming home from work, at about midnight, and my car went into a skid going down hill. In trying to get out of the skid, I managed to make my car do a complete 360 degree spin. Fortunately it stopped moving at the end of the spin and I was able to creep away from that spot into the parking lot of my apartment complex. Whew! Snow tires are not required equipment in our area but every few years for a couple of weeks I'll wish I had them.

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  14. #8
    Senior Dog Berna's Avatar
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    Yes, driving in low visibility is an issue for me too, especially at night. Dense fog is not fun either.

    I am driving a small FWD car, and I do have winter tires (winter / universal tires are required by law in snowy conditions where I live, from November to April).I also have chains but I haven't used them, I wonder whether they would have helped. I have driven up in the mountains, during blizzards, but I have never had an issue up there because they are actually clearing the roads regularly. The neighborhood I drove in on Sunday is actually and "illegal" settlement, which means people built houses wherever they liked so the roads are narrow and an issue even without snow which makes them even narrower! I may upload it from my dashcam when I find some time.

    I've been reading about some tricks when driving in the snow, maybe I could have used those. Ah well, you live and learn, at any rate you live
    Cookie Black Snowflake
    July 12th, 2006. - May 25th, 2023.

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  15. #9
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    Tire chain would definitely help in the conditions you were dealing with. I had a rear wheel drive Suburban when I was in Alaska, and that thing would go pretty much anywhere with the chains on it.

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    Berna (01-31-2019)

  17. #10
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    I try not to drive in the snow unless I have to. I just follow the slow and steady rule. Too slow is also dangerous, but you can’t go too fast for the conditions and just try to keep steady pressure on the gas pedal with no hard breaking.




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    Berna (01-31-2019)

 



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