Plowed
Gah. I am still recovering from driving home from work (about twelve miles) through the snow. Am I reassured that everyone else in this state seems to be as bad at driving in snow as I am? No, I am not. *Twitch* 
Gah. I am still recovering from driving home from work (about twelve miles) through the snow. Am I reassured that everyone else in this state seems to be as bad at driving in snow as I am? No, I am not. *Twitch*
By JeffS on Dec 18th, 2009 at 10:49 pm
You’ll get used to driving in the snow. I always tense up the first time after a long dearth of snow driving. But then I remember the cardinal rule of driving in the snow: “Don’t drive fast.”
How fast is too fast? If everyone is passing you, speed up. If only some are passing you, you’re probably fine.
By Andrea Harris on Dec 18th, 2009 at 10:51 pm
Ten miles per hour was too fast today.
By musical mountaineer on Dec 19th, 2009 at 3:37 pm
Besides reducing speed, there are two excellent reflexes you can train for low-traction driving:
1. Steer in the direction of the skid.
2. Pump the brakes.
There’s nothing wrong with skidding, as such. It’s just driving on a different level. If your car has rear-wheel or all-wheel drive, you can practice skidding in a big empty parking lot. If you have front-wheel drive, you probably shouldn’t try it. The advantage of front-wheel drive is, it’s harder to initiate a skid. This isn’t so good, if you want to practice. It means you have to go faster and take more risk, to get the rear end to cut loose. The ideal vehicle to practice skidding in is a two-wheel-drive pickup with nothing in the bed. There’s no weight back there, thus very little traction. Perhaps a friendly neighbor with a rear-wheel-drive vehicle will be willing to oblige your curiosity. (Easy for me to say. It’s not my fault or my problem if you drive your neighbor’s car into the greeter’s lap at Wal-Mart, or anything like that.)
Take your rear-wheel-drive car into a large empty parking lot and do some donuts. From a stop, just crank the steering wheel over and stomp the gas pedal. The more gas you give it, the quicker you’ll skid, which is actually safer for this exercise. If you ease up to it, you’ll be going faster when the rear end finally cuts loose. Ideally, you’ll have the rear end swinging around in a circle, with the whole car moving at sub-lawn-tractor speeds. Once you’ve got the rear end in a skid, quickly steer the other direction and start doing figure-eights. In a Large. Empty. Parking lot. You’ll notice that when you steer in the direction the rear end is skidding, there’s a moment when the wheels grab a little and you can sort of go where you want, sideways. You don’t need the brakes for this exercise (unless you run out of room); stay on the accelerator, but be careful about your speed. Once you get a feel for it, you can make big, high-speed donuts and fishtails. I don’t recommend it. It’s risky to go fast sideways; a sudden increase in traction could tip your car over. A sudden increase in traction can happen because you let off the accelerator too quickly (ease off it), or because you went off the edge of the ice and onto clear pavement, dirt, grass etc. Always STOMP ON and EASE OFF the gas. You want to go into the skid quickly and come out of it gradually.
So much for steering, now for braking in a straight line. When you step on the brake and the car just starts sliding, your foot will want to keep pressing the brake harder and harder. Your foot is well-intentioned but misguided; pressing the brake harder has no effect when the wheels are already locked. The trick is to let go the brake and press it again. And again and again. Pumping the brake makes your wheels go from rolling to skidding repeatedly; this really does slow the car down quicker than just sliding along. If your car has anti-lock brakes (ABS), then you can simply mash the pedal down and the car will pump the brakes for you. However, this also needs some practice because the brake pedal squirms like a live animal and your foot will want to let it go. Braking can cause skidding, of course, and you’ll notice that steering in the direction of the skid helps here too.
Finally, sometimes there is just no traction. At that point, your best preparation is a warm coat and waterproof shoes. There are these spring-things you can put on your shoes to give traction on ice and hard snow.
By Andrea Harris on Dec 19th, 2009 at 6:01 pm
My car is a fifteen-year old Tercel with a manual shift. My problem is the tires just sort of spinning when I try to go up a hill in low gear. One of my problems. I didn’t skid much, but the road was definitely slippery, and I soon learned to slow down very slowly. And hope everyone else was doing the same…
Anyway, I don’t think I’ll be driving anywhere for a while. It has been snowing since last night. I was able to locate my car. It is currently a lump of snow.
By McGehee on Dec 20th, 2009 at 3:47 pm
I was going to say, pumping the brakes is a very bad idea if you have ABS, but did the Tercel come with anti-lock brakes back then?
By Andrea Harris on Dec 20th, 2009 at 6:54 pm
No abs on my Tercel.