Texas idiots on ice (NMC)

Frank Berger wrote:

> I stand corrected. Given the ranting and the context, I took what you
> actually said to be a euphemism.


No hard feelings. Are you in Dallas? I made my debut there shortly after
we landed on the moon. :-)

Pat

In article >,
pws > wrote:

> The local vehicle accident number is supposedly up to over 700 from last
> night through this morning.

Just take a personal day, or the (empty) bus, and let natural selection
take its course. On summer tires, you have no business on the roads
until the last bits of ice are gone. Even taxi fare is surely cheaper
than your insurance deductible.

Sand is effective in climates where it's too cold for salt to work.
Here, they mostly use salt, but hills are often sanded for extra grip.
Cinders are typically used instead of actual sand, since most of our
power is coal generated. Out in the country, sand/cinders are used
because farmers don't want salt in their corn and soybean fields.

After the snow melts, we just drive more carefully until rain washes the
stuff off the pavement. Leftover salt is not as bad as sand, but it's
still slippery--sporty drives are on hold until spring.

> We really don't know how to deal with this
> kind of thing here.

Bingo! Your problem isn't the sand, it's that most Austinites have zero
experience with winter driving.

I was out today in the old Accord, and was surprised to see only two
vehicles in ditches (both were SUVs). It was snowing, in the low teens,
and quite slick, but folks were giving each other LOTS of space, and
showing much tolerance at stop signs and traffic lights. I don't mind
going 30 mph on an Interstate if nobody runs into me. Pretty good for
the season's first snowfall.

--
Lanny Chambers
'94C, St. Louis
http://www.hummingbirds.net/alignment.html

"pws" > wrote in message
...
> Frank Berger wrote:
>
>> I stand corrected. Given the ranting and the context, I took what you
>> actually said to be a euphemism.
>
>
> No hard feelings. Are you in Dallas? I made my debut there shortly after
> we landed on the moon. :-)
>
> Pat

Yes, Dallas. The year I got married.

Lanny Chambers wrote:

> Bingo! Your problem isn't the sand, it's that most Austinites have zero
> experience with winter driving.

I agree, although we have a ton of transplants living here from all over
the world, and as mentioned, part of the problem is a lack of equipment
for dealing with snow & ice, especially on a personal level.

I don't even own an ice scraper, and I use summer tires year round
because it rarely freezes here, and the freezes tend to be for very
short periods of time.

Very few, if any people in central Texas are going to keep a set of snow
tires around for that once or twice a year, (if that), that our roads
freeze. You would barely have them on before the ice melted.

Combine that with inexperience and we have a very bad situation every
time the roads ice over.

Pat

> Seriously, I know that you get ice in the U.K., do they put sand on the
> road there?

It depends. In some places they use sand, yes, but in others salt - I don't
know what the criterium is, I think it depends on local preference.

I hadn't heard about the molasses & salt mix; it hasn't got cold enough in
London yet for them to put anything on the roads - I'll have to have a
nibble when they start to find out what they're using...

Eric

> I hadn't heard about the molasses & salt mix; it hasn't got cold enough in
> London yet for them to put anything on the roads - I'll have to have a
> nibble when they start to find out what they're using...

It's really a shame that most things we'd choose to salt would be too
slippery to drive on.

miker

pws > wrote:

>What is that cold, shiny stuff on the road, mamma? It shore looks slippery.
>
>"No worry, son, we have a 4WD, 5000 pound vehicle with terrible handling
>and tires that were never intended for weather this cold, but the fact
>that it is 4WD will make up for that. After all, 4 wheels spinning out
>is so much better than just 2."

The once-a-year that we get snow and ice in Portland, I just marvel at the
stupidity stated above. A couple of years ago I was driving down the freeway in
my wife's Camry after an ice storm. I'm from Calgary originally, so I have some
idea how to drive in snow and ice. I'm doing about 30-40 mph, which is about the
max safe speed given the conditions. Four SUVs go flying past me, flashing their
lights, honking their horns, being really proud of their 4WD behemoths being
able to get them around quickly. In the next three miles I saw three of them in
the ditch. Some people just don't get that when you have four wheels being
driven on ice it just increases the chance that one of them will break traction.

--
Craig Wagner, craig(dot)wagner(at)gmail(dot)com
Portland, OR

"Don't ban high-performance vehicles, ban low-performance drivers!"

Craig Wagner wrote:

> The once-a-year that we get snow and ice in Portland, I just marvel at the
> stupidity stated above. A couple of years ago I was driving down the freeway in
> my wife's Camry after an ice storm. I'm from Calgary originally, so I have some
> idea how to drive in snow and ice. I'm doing about 30-40 mph, which is about the
> max safe speed given the conditions. Four SUVs go flying past me, flashing their
> lights, honking their horns, being really proud of their 4WD behemoths being
> able to get them around quickly. In the next three miles I saw three of them in
> the ditch. Some people just don't get that when you have four wheels being
> driven on ice it just increases the chance that one of them will break traction.
>

It is nice to know that not every idiot lives in Texas.

The really sad thing about the SUV fad is that it came about just as
they were starting to make some real improvements in car design.

Then, a large percentage of our U.S. population decided that giant,
ill-handling, gas-guzzling vehicles that roll over easily were the thing
to drive.

When gas prices were really spiking, I noticed a lot less SUV's on the
road, and they were driving more slowly, to save on gas I assume.
This almost makes me want gas to go up to $10.00/gallon, that would get
the majority of these Silly Useless Vehicles off of the road.

Pat

On 2005-12-09, pws > wrote:
> Craig Wagner wrote:
>
>> The once-a-year that we get snow and ice in Portland, I just marvel at the
>> stupidity stated above. A couple of years ago I was driving down the freeway in
>> my wife's Camry after an ice storm. I'm from Calgary originally, so I have some
>> idea how to drive in snow and ice. I'm doing about 30-40 mph, which is about the
>> max safe speed given the conditions. Four SUVs go flying past me, flashing their
>> lights, honking their horns, being really proud of their 4WD behemoths being
>> able to get them around quickly. In the next three miles I saw three of them in
>> the ditch. Some people just don't get that when you have four wheels being
>> driven on ice it just increases the chance that one of them will break traction.
>>
>
> It is nice to know that not every idiot lives in Texas.

They're everywhere.

Everytime there's a good snowstorm here in Minneapolis, my
Miata and I drive by _lots_ of SUVs in ditches and medians.
Somebody from the Highway patrol was interviewed in the news a
couple winters back, and he complained about how SUVs are such
a problem in the winter because they handle so badly and are
much more likely to roll over when they skid into the ditch --
turning what would be a routine 5-minute towtruck operation
into something that blocks traffic for an hour.

It doesn't help that half of the dim-wits have mud/off-road
tires with huge tread blocks that provide very little traction
on snow/ice. And you _know_ none of them ever leaves the
pavement except when the skid into the ditch during snowy
weather.

--
Grant Edwards grante Yow! BARBARA STANWYCK
at makes me nervous!!
visi.com

pws wrote:

> Seriously, I know that you get ice in the U.K., do they put sand on the
> road there?

Nearly always salt. Sometimes there is sand left in bins on steep hills
for drivers to use themselves, should they get stuck.