The thing that scares me about snow is the other drivers.  I know how to drive in snow. But some people just have no clue, and I'd rather that they didn't take me out too when they do something stupid.

it was a pretty scary ice, sleet, blowng snow clusterfark so I stayed home, lady. I stayed home and drank beer and looked outside at the fools trying to drive up the hill in front of my house


but i didn't cry

The answer is always C

Skydiving isn't scary, it's calming, especially once the chute is deployed.

Just up in the air, floating around without a care in the world.

and OTOH, we have FREEZING WATER FALLING FROM THE SKY!!!

Surprised she isn't a Texan. Their inability to drive in inclement weather is the stuff of legends.

Well, she IS a woman.  Driving is not exactly first nature to her.

If you get to the point of crying, you shouldn't be on the road. Period.

I understand and accept that winter driving skills are a spectrum, and some folks fall on the short end. If it is seriously so bad it's making you cry...pull off.  There is nothing wrong with admitting you're in over your head. Just remove yourself from the situation. Maybe just long enough to take a few breaths, pull yourself together grit your teeth and continue on. Maybe you check into a motel or hang out at a rest stop until the worst passes. But please don't ADD to the threat level by driving in a state of panic.

I've driven plenty in the snow when I lived in the midwest.  But nothing prepared me for driving with chains on the tires coming back from the mountains (from a skiing trip).   I don't know about crying,  but I was really, really stressed.   Your car is slipping and slidding on a very inclined downward angle and there are both cars and trucks around you.  I was a few feet from pancaking into the next car, quite a few times.

Atleast in the midwest, everything is flat.  And everyone understands that really you should be driving nice and slow in icy conditions.  Oh, and they salt/sand the roads.

Driving in snow can be scary.

Snow isn't too difficult to drive in.  Ice on the other hand, scares the crap out of me.  I'll take a foot of snow over a 1/4 inch of ice any day.

Krazikarl: The thing that scares me about snow is the other drivers.  I know how to drive in snow. But some people just have no clue, and I'd rather that they didn't take me out too when they do something stupid.

THIS.  I grew up in a hilly CT town, so I'm pretty decent at driving in the snow.  I've never hit anything or spun out in the snow.  I've only gotten stuck once, on an exit ramp trying to escape my 5-hour trek on I-84 from New Britain to Manchester four or five years ago.  I just took the shovel out of my car, cleared a path for my tires, and kept sliding my way home.  It amazes me how often I see people sliding off the road, into curbs, etc.

Here's an appropriate shirt.

Yeah, I've been driving in snow like that. I think my blood pressure was about 390/240 when I got home.

I did not, however, cry.

Wimps.

Up here in the north, we used to drive in snow for 1/3 of the year. And not just light dustings, either. We had blizzards, ice storms, and freezing rain thunderstorms. Hailstones the size of marbles or golf balls, sometimes. We did it without chains or 4WD, too.

The only people that need to fear much in snowstorms are the ones who think that they can drive fast. Drive slow, be careful, and don't try to pass anyone. Keep a safe distance between yourself and the vehicles in front of you and behind you. Realize that if you do need to hit the brakes, you're going to need quite a bit of extra space to stop. Don't brake on a turn (brake BEFORE the turn if you need to, and then only tapping them) and don't try to drive through anything that is taller than the distance from the ground to the bottom of your vehicle. Never assume that a snow bank is JUST snow-- There's a pretty good chance there's a huge chunk of ice, a rock, or who-knows-what in the middle of it somewhere.

I used to have to drive to school and work every day in shiatty weather like that. Blizzards up here were no excuse for missing school or work, unless it was just plain impossible to get around.

The winters aren't as bad up here now (because apparently we're now sharing winter with people further south. Enjoy it, snowbirds!) but we still get a lot of snow from January through March.

Of course, don't drive if you don't have to. It's far better to stay home, have a hot cocoa, and make love down by the fire.

But it was only 9 inches of snow. WTF is wrong with those people?

Omahawg: it was a pretty scary ice, sleet, blowng snow clusterfark so I stayed home, lady. I stayed home and drank beer and looked outside at the fools trying to drive up the hill in front of my house


but i didn't cry

NO you were too busy laughing.

Is this the thread where [male] farkers proclaim their superior driving abilities, denigrate female drivers, and make fun of 4 wheel drive vehicles stuck in ditches?

SnakeLee:
In San Diego, if it even looks like it  might rain, all bets are off on the freeway.  This is doubly confusing because nobody farking grew up here and I see more Red Sox and Yankees hats than Padres and Chargers gear combined.  If it snowed here I can't imagine the horror.

Condolences on the Yankee fans.  We get too many of those here too.

kittyhas1000legs: Krazikarl: The thing that scares me about snow is the other drivers.  I know how to drive in snow. But some people just have no clue, and I'd rather that they didn't take me out too when they do something stupid.

THIS.  I grew up in a hilly CT town, so I'm pretty decent at driving in the snow.  I've never hit anything or spun out in the snow.  I've only gotten stuck once, on an exit ramp trying to escape my 5-hour trek on I-84 from New Britain to Manchester four or five years ago.  I just took the shovel out of my car, cleared a path for my tires, and kept sliding my way home.  It amazes me how often I see people sliding off the road, into curbs, etc.

When I lived in Salt Lake City, the most dangerous part of driving in the snow was the transplanted Californians in SUVs who (apparently) believed that 4WD made them invulnerable.

/Drove home from Wendover, NV in a blizzard once...at night.  That was kind of tiring.  Hardly died at all, though, and no crying.

If only she could be one of those people that get buried by a snow plow and isn't found until the first week in April.

Bathia_Mapes: I don't know about you, submitter, but if I was driving a 4-WD vehicle and was still slipping & sliding around I'd be scared.

Then you're doing it badly wrong. 4WD is not a panacea, but it can help.

I live in lake-effect country, so I'm getting a kick out of...

Seriously, though, I'm a snow-driving veteran and there have still been times I've needed to change into my brown pants.

CSB:  First day at a new job, I had a 50-mile commute in a horrible blizzard.  There's this spot on the freeway between two municipalities that apparently no one claims responsibility for plowing, so that particular stretch of road is always terrible.  I'm being overtaken by a gasoline tanker going 20mph, when suddenly I see headlights in front of me.  Then tail lights.  Then headlights again.  The car in front of me is spinning in circles and heading right into the path of the gasoline tanker that currently has me boxed in.  I can't stop, the tanker can't stop, and I just have this vision that this is going to end in a giant snowy fireball.

Thankfully the spinning car slid straight through into the median and missed hitting anything, and the tanker and I drove right past.  Still the scariest moment of my life right there, though.

A few years back I drove some friends to vermont for a ski trip. We showed up during a four day, three foot dump of snow. For the last two hours getting to Stratton, i had thw pedal pegged to the floor, wheels spinning like mad and going about twenty five. Greatest weekend of skiing I'v ever had, but it took a full day for my teeth to unclench.

FizixJunkee: Is this the thread where [male] farkers proclaim their superior driving abilities, denigrate female drivers, and make fun of 4 wheel drive vehicles stuck in ditches?

No way. The women up here in the north would laugh at the chickenshiat male drivers down south who freak out and spin themselves into ditches at the first sign of snow or ice.

But wait, yeah, it IS fun to make fun of 4WD vehicles stuck in ditches, because up here we know that most of `em end up that way because they were being assholes on the road, putting all their faith in their awesome SUV or pickup, thinking that it made it okay for them to whip past other drivers at 20 mph over the speed limit when everyone else is driving a sensible 15-20 mph under it.

So no to the making fun of women. Yes to the making fun of southerners who freak out in snow and 4WD owners who don't have any common sense.

Man up, weepy lady.

ravenlore: If it is seriously so bad it's making you cry...pull off.

This.
I grew up in upstate NY...many feet of snow over the winter. I've driven everything from a Fiat sports car to a 2WD pickup through major blizzards.

If you can't handle it, stay off the road. You are a hazard to yourself and everyone else. Nothing is that important.

Is this where I point and laugh?

I'm Canadian, and drive a Subaru with winter tires. It makes driving on snow and ice feel like cheating.

CSB:  I drive a snow plow.  Not one of those 1.2 tons trucks with a blade on it.  It's a highway tandem with a nose plow, underbody plow and a wing.  People don't know when to stay the fark off the roads.  I helps one old gentlemen out of the ditch this morning.  I asked him what was so important to risk driving with ice covered highways, before dawn, with over a foot of snow in places.

he replield that he had to go for morning coffee with his friends.

/facepalm

If you cant see the road, stay the fark off it, and let the highway maintenance people do their job.  It makes our job easier and faster,  The life you save may be your own.

Canadian. Getting a kick, etc.

Words to live by:
4WheelDrive does not mean 4WheelStop.

Thanks to 25 years in Alaska, I would have been doing 90 down the interstate in my MINI.  It's just a little snow.  Shoot, we got 8+ inches of snow last Sunday.  It didn't make the news, and I sure didn't cry...

Krazikarl: The thing that scares me about snow is the other drivers.  I know how to drive in snow. But some people just have no clue, and I'd rather that they didn't take me out too when they do something stupid.

This. In both Memphis and D.C., driving in mild snow is a hair raising experience due to the large number of folks unaccustomed to snow combining with people that DO know how to drive in snow.

biatches better never move to OH or MI.

Or even worse, ME.

/front wheel drive
//passing slow asses

I live in Vermont.
Roads are 3' deep ruts of mud right now, due to tanker trucks hauling sap.
Plan your route.
Get good tires.
Plan a secondary route.
Have enough gas.
Plan a tertiary route.
Don't drive where you won't survive.

Driving in snow isn't hard.
Driving on black ice is difficult.

But don't start crying.
That's nature's way of telling you to pull over and let the drivers who know how to drive pass you.

Glitchwerks: [cdn.epicski.com image 720x480]

Man up, weepy lady.

That!
/is what I drive.

I don't care if she is a woman, if she's a Nebraskan she has no excuse.  It's like being a Hawaiian who can't swim.

kittyhas1000legs: Krazikarl: The thing that scares me about snow is the other drivers.  I know how to drive in snow. But some people just have no clue, and I'd rather that they didn't take me out too when they do something stupid.

THIS.  I grew up in a hilly CT town, so I'm pretty decent at driving in the snow.  I've never hit anything or spun out in the snow.  I've only gotten stuck once, on an exit ramp trying to escape my 5-hour trek on I-84 from New Britain to Manchester four or five years ago.  I just took the shovel out of my car, cleared a path for my tires, and kept sliding my way home.  It amazes me how often I see people sliding off the road, into curbs, etc.

I grew up in northeastern Nevada, Elko to be precise. That northern strip gets the entire allotment of snow for the state. Most of my driving lessons ended up being in blizzards while driving over summits with no chains to speak of. I had a girlfriend who attended Boise State University and I shuttled her around between Boise and Elko during holidays, before I moved up to Boise too. Two Thanksgivings and Christmases in a row (each) and one Spring farking Break I had to drive her back and forth in blizzards on 250 miles unplowed roads with maybe three feet of visibility around me with frequent steep declines and drop-offs on either side of the road. There are times that I'm not even entirely sure I was even actually on the road. The conditions in all cases never let up. It was shiatty from Mountain City Highway to Wildhorse, through the Canyon, on to Mountain Home and straight through to the Broadway exit and up to the goddamn door of Driscoll Hall. Never once had an accident or even came close to one. Barely even tensed up throughout my driving experience. I moved to the San Francisco Bay Area a few years ago and anytime it rains while I'm on 580, 680 or 880 has been the only tense time I've ever had driving in adverse weather. And not even from the weather itself. We get a slight drizzle out here and the roads become anarchy. It turns into some bastard amalgamation of the asteroid scene in Empire Strike Back and some farked up game of Frogger. People lose their shiat and act like it's raining fire and brimstone and they must get to shelter. You're lucky to get home in one piece because people have no idea how to handle a little God-piss.