Driving

[sobrique]

driving in this morning was an ordeal.

You see, it was snowing.
No, no dramatic drum roll. Same stuff as has been on the ground for the last ... week or two.

But today, by some quirk of fate, it was snowing a bit more. The roads were starting to get a little bit slushy, but ... well, y'know, fresh snow isn't _that_ hard to drive on.

As long as everyone isn't a massive idiot.

Guess what happened today? It seems that most of the driving populace of the coventry area, decided that they weren't going to be late to work in order to drive at a sensible speed. They were also not going to let people out of side roads, and heaven forbid that people who were turning across their stationary traffic should be permitted to.

So the Kenilworth road/A45 junction was not moving.
Nor was the Charter Avenue roundabout - this one had the double delight of 'people' (I use the term loosely) who had decided that in order to avoid queuing in traffic, they'd take the right hand lane, and loop around the roundabout. This in turn, meant a roundabout completely blocked by assholes, so no one could move in either direction.

Snow isn't that hard to drive on. It might get a bit unfriendly if it snows/freezes later, but ... really, it's ISN'T that bad.

It just requires a sort of basic 'be less of an asshole than you would normally be' approach to driving, which seems to fall flat EVERY TIME.

Comments

[ehrine.livejournal.com]

I was starting at 9 today rather then 7 due to being on an ad=hoc late shift yesterday. I know it takes longer during rush hour then normal so left earlier. My normal 25 minute drive to Rugby took an hour. 45 minutes of that were just trying to get from the city centre to the ring road. The sad thing is I had absolutely no grip problems, so I can only put it down to the fact that people are idiots and forget how to drive when it snows.

[fishrgreat.livejournal.com]

Took me well over two hours to get from home to the office on the bus. Most of that was sitting in Kenilworth watching people be stupid. Picked up laptop, came straight back home, on the principle that it would be easier to get home now everyone had got to work rather than at 5....

[hedya.livejournal.com]

V sensible woman. W added bonus that if you do overtime you can do it in you jammies and after appropriate drink/bath/choc application! :) You finished w the stupid deadline? :)

[crashbarrier.livejournal.com]

I don't know what it is about snow but it makes a minority of drivers on the road.. act dumb.. as a pedestrian i can say that during this snow fall i have found so far.

A: snow means drivers don't have to park between the lines in car parks, even when the snow is melty enough to see the lines.

B: Snow on the ground means that rules regarding stopping at red lights are suspended (especially on a busy junction like dysfunction junction in cov) (that made me scared).

C: to drive in snow/ice you gun the engine wildly and weave/swerve crazily down the road.

[sobrique.livejournal.com]

Much the same scenario heading out towards Westwood park. Once out of our road at least, there were a few bits of 'slushy snowyness' but otherwise it was fine.

Current status is that roads here are clear, but snow's actually getting to about ankle deep where it isn't gritted. (It's falling lightly, so it's melting and running off everywhere that has been gritted).
Carparks and side roads may be more of a problem.

[fishrgreat.livejournal.com]

Nope. It all drags on. Feel rather like it's all piling on this week...

[lostdreamer666.livejournal.com]

Got bad news for ya hun. C) is deliberate. If they were actually looking for grip they would be backing off the throttle to let the wheels slow down...

[ehrine.livejournal.com]

Unless (like most are) they're stupid and don't know that they're just making it worse for themselves.

[lostdreamer666.livejournal.com]

Nah. "I seem to have broken traction and lost control, I know I will just floor the throttle and hope that helps!"

If it was actual control loss, then they would be trying to stop the car, not listening to the engine howl!

Which means in most cases they have hopefully deliberately broken traction and the vehicle is still under control, they are just playing silly buggers in the snow.

[ehrine.livejournal.com]

Methinks you're still underestimating the level of general stupidity and cluelessness of the british public and how much snow makes them panic :P

[sobrique.livejournal.com]

I'm afraid there's definitely a class of driver who think 'my car is being a bit slow accelerating' means 'boot it, so it accelerates at a sensible speed'.

There's more that think that sliding around corners is cool, but then lash it up.

But whatever. So it goes. Less worried about the snow, than the morons driving around coventry.

[amabat.livejournal.com]

Took me two hours to get to Warwick by car. I only left 5 minutes late. Hoping today is easier. Should leave now though