With all the snow & ice hitting us up here in the northeast US, I figured it was time to try and educate people about how to drive in the snow\u2026 because, seriously, a lot of people seem to have a real problem with it. So here goes.<\/p>\n
If you do just one thing <\/em>while driving in the snow, it should be to slow down<\/strong>. Pretend that everything is happening in slow motion. In the snow, or really any time the roads are very slippery, everything you try to do takes longer to happen. This means you need to do things more slowly\/gradually: accelerate slower, brake slower, and turn slower.<\/p>\n It doesn\u2019t matter if you\u2019ve got AWD, 4WD, traction control, anti-lock brakes, etc., unless your tires can get some grip. If you\u2019ve got summer tires, or worn down \u201call-season\u201d tires, this more than outweighs any advantage from those sorts of systems<\/strong>.<\/p>\n This is especially<\/em> true if you\u2019ve got low-profile, high-performance sport tires \u2013 if you have these sorts of tires on your (sports) car, you should really just stay home and keep off the roads. (And that goes double<\/em> for people driving luxury SUVs which often come with \u201csporty\u201d tires which are absolute rubbish in the snow.)<\/p>\n This is something that really needs to be drilled into people\u2019s minds. Yes, 4-wheel drive (4WD) or all-wheel drive (AWD) is great, and yes, it gives you extra traction\u2026 for getting moving. But keep in mind that when it comes time to turn, or to stop, you still have the same number of wheels (and brakes) as everyone else on the road.<\/strong><\/p>\n 4WD\/AWD will help keep you from getting stuck in the snow, but that\u2019s about it.<\/p>\n Yes, I know it\u2019s annoying to have to clear all that snow off your car, and it can be tempting to just clear the windows and go\u2026 but there are a lot of good reasons to take the extra time and effort to clear the rest of the snow off your car.<\/p>\n If you have a tall vehicle (say, an SUV, which is probably why you don\u2019t want to make the effort to get the snow off in the first place since it\u2019s harder to get at) then all that snow is adding weight to your car, and adding it up high like that makes you rather top heavy \u2013 or to put it simply, you\u2019re more likely to flip over.<\/p>\n And let\u2019s also not forget that eventually that snow is going to come flying off your car \u2013 and then just think about the poor person behind you.<\/p>\n I\u2019m seriously amazed at how many people I see driving in the snow without their headlights on. Many of them are driving white or silver cars, which makes it even worse.<\/p>\n Many states (something like 20 the last time I checked, including New York and New Jersey) have a \u201cwipers on, lights on\u201d rule, and for a very good reason \u2013 when visibility is reduced due to rain, fog, or snow, turning on your headlights makes it easier for other people to see (and, critically, avoid) you.<\/p>\n I hope that some of these tips have helped someone out there \u2013 driving in the snow really is not that complicated, you just need to keep your wits about you and make sure you have the right equipment.<\/p>\n If you have any winter driving tips of your own to share, feel free to share them in the comments!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Some common-sense tips for driving in the snow and ice of winter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"webmentions_disabled_pings":false,"webmentions_disabled":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":3,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[9,199],"tags":[190,33,77],"class_list":["post-3353","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cars-and-trucks","category-my-opinion","tag-tips","tag-weather","tag-winter","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pimUj-S5","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":351,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2004\/12\/04\/snow-tires\/","url_meta":{"origin":3353,"position":0},"title":"Snow Tires","author":"Keith Survell","date":"December 4, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"We'd been thinking about them a lot, since even with AWD you still need good traction for cornering & stopping So, after a lot of calling around, we settled on a pair of Bridgestone Blizzak snow tires.","rel":"","context":"In "Cars and Trucks"","block_context":{"text":"Cars and Trucks","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/cars-and-trucks\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":387,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2005\/01\/09\/the-beauty-of-all-wheel-drive-and-snow-tires\/","url_meta":{"origin":3353,"position":1},"title":"The Beauty of All-Wheel Drive* (and snow tires)","author":"Keith Survell","date":"January 9, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Can I just say how great AWD is? Okay, okay, I know I've probably said it a million times, but c'mon - it's great fun.","rel":"","context":"In "Cars and Trucks"","block_context":{"text":"Cars and Trucks","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/cars-and-trucks\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":299,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2004\/11\/24\/winter-tire-faqs\/","url_meta":{"origin":3353,"position":2},"title":"Winter Tire FAQs","author":"Keith Survell","date":"November 24, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"A good argument for snow tires.","rel":"","context":"In "Cars and Trucks"","block_context":{"text":"Cars and Trucks","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/cars-and-trucks\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":310,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2004\/11\/13\/s-n-o-w\/","url_meta":{"origin":3353,"position":3},"title":"S-N-O-W","author":"Keith Survell","date":"November 13, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Can you say \"snow?\" I thought you could. Can you say \"snow on November 12?\" Good job! This winter is shaping up to be FUN.","rel":"","context":"In "personal"","block_context":{"text":"personal","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/personal\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":451,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2005\/03\/12\/fun-in-the-snow\/","url_meta":{"origin":3353,"position":4},"title":"Fun in the Snow","author":"Keith Survell","date":"March 12, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Okay, I admit it, I'm a sucker for snow - especially when there's lots of it.","rel":"","context":"In "Cars and Trucks"","block_context":{"text":"Cars and Trucks","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/cars-and-trucks\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":653,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2005\/09\/27\/weird-dreams\/","url_meta":{"origin":3353,"position":5},"title":"Weird Dreams","author":"Keith Survell","date":"September 27, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Last night's dreams were a little disturbing.","rel":"","context":"In "personal"","block_context":{"text":"personal","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/personal\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3353","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3353"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3353\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3353"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3353"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3353"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Check your tires<\/h3>\n
Acronyms don\u2019t make you invincible<\/h3>\n
Clear all the snow from your car<\/h3>\n
Turn on your lights<\/h3>\n
\n