I have been thinking of this for a while as I have been driving a lot in winter weather. I have been driving on unplowed roads, ice covered roads, thick snow squalls, night driving in snow falls and bright sun on new snow. It is important for you to know how to drive in these conditions in places that receive a lot of snow and places that only occasionally get snow.
Snow tires. I am poor, so I don't have them. Snow tires have softer rubber in colder temperatures and they have wider tread to grip the snow better and it gives you confidence, false confidence. I say false confidence because if you don't drive cautiously in snow and continue to drive as if it were summer, having snow tires won't help you. What snow tires will help you with is climbing hills covered with snow and getting better acceleration, but better acceleration can be bad. It will also give you better braking power in some conditions in winter, but not all and if you are not driving cautiously, you will be in for a surprise.
Four-wheel drive splits the wheel moving power to four wheels instead of two. It allows your vehicle to gain purchase in four potential good locations instead of two potential locations, but you still only have two wheels used for steering. It allows you to get purchase in difficult locations like ditches and on normal roads it can give you a false sense of confidence.
Many are the stories that involve a traffic accident and a driver with winter tires and four-wheel drive. The road is snow or ice covered and there is a corner coming up and the car winds up in the opposite ditch or on top of another vehicle. Just because you have winter tires and four-wheel drive, does not mean you can drive without a care. The two most important winter driving safety measures are caution and reduced speeds.
Speed limits posted on roadways are maximum velocities, not minimums. You are supposed to be driving to the conditions that exist. When your visibility drops to almost nothing you need to slow down to appropriate speeds. Slower speeds means that you can slow and stop better no matter what type of surface you are driving on, because if you are called to stop suddenly, you can stop. When driving at faster speed and trying to brake suddenly will cause you to spin out or end up in the ditch; or wrapped around a tree.
Caution is the biggest, it is lower velocities but it is preparing for possible horrible situations. I don't use my brakes, even in the summer. I stop accelerating early and let the air and the road slow me down. When you apply your breaks hard, your wheels are slowed down or stopped. If the surface is not ideal, the wheel will stop, but the tire will slide and if one wheel has better purchase than the other, you will start to spin or slide through your stopping goal. I had this happen to me. I was driving on an ice covered road way, a snow fall that was driven on and not plowed in temperatures where salt was not working and a fire truck started to pull out of and adjoining road. Normally one pulls over and let's the fire engine get to its emergency. I tried to brake, but I was going too fast for the surface and I started to spin. I stopped braking and the spin stopped. My options we're to go into a ditch or breeze past the emergency vehicle. I breezed past it and pulled over when I could. If I hit the ditch the emergency response vehicle would have been required to lend assistance to me before going to the real emergency.
When traveling to Big Smoke, one day I encountered a sudden snow squall. It only covered about twenty kilometers, but was blinding and was dropping a lot of snow. The two south bound lanes where not getting cleared and all traffic slowed from one hundred kilometers per hour down to fifty to twenty kilometers per hour, depending on the situation. All the cars moved into a single line and we put our emergency signals on, that button that looks like a red triangle that you don't know what it is used for, so that cars were more visible to the one behind. If I had not needed to be in the city, I would have looked for a way to stop and turn around.
Cultivating an attitude that getting to your destination late is okay also helps, as is leaving earlier than necessary. Remember being late to an even is always better than being the late insert your name here.
Where sunglasses while driving in sunny weather in the snow.
Spend the time to clear the snow from your roof and car. It increases fuel mileage and flying snow coming off cars can blind people, off transport truck it can kill.
Headlight on even in the day increases visibility. At night driving in a snow fall, keep your lights on low beams and off high beams. The light going into the falling snow will reflect into your eyes and obscure your vision with high beams. Reduce your speed.
Accelerate slowly. Rapid acceleration on snow or ice can cause tire spinning. Accelerating from stop to go up a hill can be a fruitless endeavor, no matter who you are and how your your car is outfitted; I watched a police car fail and chose a different route.
Truthfully I could have used four-wheel drive and snow tires a dozen times this winter, but by reducing my speed and using more caution, I did not need to because I was cautious and did not travel as if it were summer.
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