Apparently The Posted Speed Limit Is For Snow And Ice.

[TheMastersNemesis]

While driving in the snow and ice and even black ice so many drivers seem to be driving the posted speed limit when it is only safe to drive less than half the posted limit. There are times driving at a crawl is the ONLY safe way to drive. There are so many drivers that are driving at speeds at the posted speed limit or even faster in bad weather..

The biggest offenders seem to be four wheel drives, SUV's and bigger trucks. It's nuts. No matte how careful you try to drive under dangerous conditions there are always a number of drivers pushing far beyond the safe limit. And if they are behind you they want to push you.

It is understandable why there are so many huge pile ups in bad weather. Drivers seem to drive the same way no matter what the conditions are.

[SheilaT]

1. How right you are.

I have long been horrified at how drivers of giant SUVs think the laws of physics no longer apply to them.

I drive a Honda Civic with a manual transmission, and it is almost as good as four-wheel drive (which I've had in the past on the form of a Subaru Outback), and even with that I'm very cautious in bad driving conditions.

What makes me crazy about drivers of automatic transmissions is that in poor road conditions they still plow along, oblivious to what the conditions really are. Even with an automatic you still have the choice of lower gears, but most drivers of automatic haven't a clue there's any gear other than Drive.

[pnwmom]

2. Idiots. Here, they do that in very foggy weather when you can't see more than a few feet

in front of you. So dumb.

They must all be from one of those sunny states . . . they won't last long here driving like that.

[Yo_Mama]

21. LoL - in GA in the worst fog I have ever seen I went to work early one morning on I-75

This is close to the Florida border, so not the heavy traffic.

Anyway, I nearly crapped my pants as people blew past me in the fog driving about 80 mph without even their lights on. The only thing I can think is that they were dead scared and just trying to get it over with ASAP. Visibility was 20-25 feet at best.

[jakeXT]

3. duck and cover

[Jamastiene]

4. The NWS and most of our governors tell us to stay off the roads when it ices

up down here in the south, for the most part. That is because so many areas here don't have road salt and also because so many areas here end up thawing out then refreezing into ice before the moisture finally melts away. For most of us down here in my area, snow is a once in a while thing, like maybe once a year and none at all some years. This last time, some areas got snow but the rest of us got freezing rain and ice. Nuh uh, I won't even walk on that any more. Last time I did, I ended up busting both knees and twisting my left lower leg and hearing a crack sound come from it that made my teeth itch. Even looking out the door at the ice makes my knees and that left leg hurt like it just happened. And that was when they said it was ok to go out years ago, when I fell. I didn't see the black ice on my deck. I haven't forgotten that pain. I now feel it every time it is getting ready to rain.

I'm kind of glad they do tell us to stay off the roads. I don't need them to tell me. I have driven and will drive in snow, but not on ice. You couldn't pay me to drive or walk on ice. There is no "safe" way to drive on ice, unless you are really good at ice skating. That still doesn't involve a car and is still not 100% safe and I still won't be doing it. Ice is worse to fall on than I would have imagined before that one fateful morning when I fucked myself all up and gained this magical painful ability to predict rain. I used to laugh at old farts who said that. Now, I'm the old fart saying that and GET OFF MY LAWN, depending on who is on it. Only, I don't say it to kids or animals, just adults, lol.

[teamster633]

5. So true.

All-wheel drive and 4-wheel drive are great at providing extra traction at low speeds or for getting a vehicle back on the road if it gets stuck. Neither provide any advantage when driving at higher speeds. In addition, the majority of these vehicles are actually worse at higher speeds due to their higher center of gravity. You should never drive at any speed above that which enables full control in a worst case scenario.

[RobinA]

6. An Anecdotal Study

in my area would indicate that a large 4wheel drive vehicle + testosterone seems to repeal the laws of physics. And sometimes I wonder.... Those mammoth vehicles have a high center of gravity and driven the way they are you'd expect on snowy days to see them to be flipped in the gutter far more than you actually do. The stuck person is usually somebody in an econocar, probably with OEM crap tires. Who knows, except to say - Ice is slippery.

[yellowcanine]

14. "The stuck person is usually somebody in an econocar...." not my observation.

In my area (suburban DC.) most of the econocar drivers have the sense to stay home. It is the SUV drivers who think they are invincible and who are trying to come up the hill on MY side of the road while I am negotiating my way down the hill.

[hobbit709]

7. Around here everyone sees the word MINIMUM on all speed limit signs.

I guess I'll have to get some of that special windshield glass that lets you see invisible words.

[2naSalit]

8. As a retired

professional driver I have come to several conclusions and developed some quips to express them such as:

1) Four-wheel-drive/all-wheel-drive... they give one the ability to get much farther out into the cornfield before the need or realization of the need to call for help takes place.

2) Just because you drive a new vehicle does not automatically mean that your driving skills have improved.

3) If you actually pay attention while driving, you'll probably live longer.

There are more but it's too early to dredge them up from the bottom of the memory barrel.

[DeadLetterOffice]

10. Love #1

I've driven Subaru's in the northeast for decades. I love them, and I wouldn't want to face our winters without them. BUT -- as I explained to my newly licensed teenager -- on ice, AWD just gives you two more tires to spin.

[2naSalit]

11. LOL!

...on ice, AWD just gives you two more tires to spin.


I am so stealing that one!

I have driven nearly everything that rolls (back in my day) and learned in the NE but won my buckle in the Rockies. Back then there was much more driver control. When I any of the current drive late models - of anything - I don't feel like I have a lot of control from the driver's seat. Maybe that's by design. It seems that the ins. industry has been "helping" ala ALEC create interference in driver attention and control and marketing these "features" as upgrades... increases profits and job security in that industry.

If you can find one, take your young driver out for a spin in an older vehicle where it requires attention and coordination to stay on the pavement. It will help them understand so much more than you can explain but also show them the difference of "automated" driving, it will improve their skills in a tacit sense.

[DeadLetterOffice]

18. Both our Subarus are on the elderly side...

... 13 and 9 years old, respectively. And they're not too much with the bells and whistles. I despise newer cars and am dreading the day I have to replace my baby.

For real fun, we let the teenager drive the 1980 Triumph Spitfire convertible (not during the winter, obviously, lol). Much noise and loud vrooms, but if you can get that baby above 60 I'd eat my hat. Wicked fun to drive.

[2naSalit]

20. Does sound like fun...

I guess one other thing I miss once in a while is a nice sports car to tool around in on a nice day. But that only happened on days off which weren't all that frequent.

Have fun, I know from the many older Subarus that I know personally, they could well outlast you! I hope my older 4Runner is the last car I ever have to buy. It's holding up well given the brutal winters I demand it live through every year and all the dirt roads in the rest of the year... but the paint is still shiny and it gets down the highway, when I get to one, comfortably.

[Old Codger]

12. One that comes to mind also

They seem to think that since they have AWD or 4WD which gives the more traction on acceleration that the same applies to braking....

[2naSalit]

16. Yup,

Somehow I'm beginning to get the notion that many drivers require a little bit of physics education to understand what's going on under their tousches.

Another quip I came up with when I was a driving instructor (CDL) is: Seems like everybody want is a wannabe graduate from the California School of Stunt Driving. This concept was borne of my experience watching daily traffic in SoCal (6 counties regularly) and noticing that there is rarely a simple fender-bender... most are spectacular crashes complete with airborne vehicles landing inverted atop another vehicle while four fistfights break out like some comical fight scene from a Hollywood movie that spills out of its set and takes over the whole production lot... The journey to anywhere was often a dash through the gauntlet of vehicle mishaps.

I like my retirement from the road... I miss having a front row view of the sky 24/7 but I don't miss the traffic at all. Some weeks I don't even get in or drive my personal vehicle - or any other - at all and I really like that.

[we can do it]

9. Yet wait for summer and the giant assholes will be creeping along 5mph below limit blocking traffic.

Especially the simpletons with the smoke stacks.

[aikoaiko]

13. All Wheel Drive does not equal All Wheel Stop in icy conditions.

[Orsino]

15. I don't want to excuse the bigger trucks...

...but I have some sympathy for drivers whose pay depends in part on keeping to a schedule.

[fizzgig]

17. all my issues yesterday were with subarus with out of state plates

the roads weren't that bad, but certainly not good enough to go ten miles over the speed limit while slaloming between lanes.

i hate subaru drivers.

[DeadLetterOffice]

19. I am a good and responsible Subaru driver. Plz don't hate me. :)

I hate NYC idiots who clearly only drive on weekends when they come upstate. They think stop signs are suggestions, and that one must go AS FAST AS POSSIBLE, EVERYWHERE, ALWAYS. Makes you wanna punch something...

[fizzgig]

22. you're the exception to the rule

i'm sure i get a bad rap simply for driving an older volvo.

my dad drives like such a dick when he gets back from visiting the city. makes me nuts.