How To Drive In The Snow

1. If your car tires are worn, don’t drive.

2. When you see you are going to stop on incline, usually waiting for a traffic light, make sure to leave plenty of room ahead of your car so that a) if the car in front of you doesn’t know how to put an object in motion uphill on ice (tip: it’s really hard) they won’t slide back into you (right away.)

3. Approach all potential stops by not hitting the brakes, but reducing speed (throw into lowest gear, yeah you have them automatics) and then use the creep technique to actually not stop fully. The trick here is not to bring your car to a full stop since it is really hard to get going again if you do.

4. Leave plenty of room when driving behind trucks, they kick up lots of roads smush. Cars don’t but assume the person in front of you doesn’t know how to drive.

5. When on highways, try to keep to the middle lane, which will have the most cars on it and thus the least snow and ice on it. If you do change lanes, be aware that the warmed snow from the middle lane will slough off as ice between lanes and that your car has an increased likelihood of hitting a patch on lane changes, not staying in the same lane.

6. If you find yourself skidding, don’t hit the breaks, take your foot off the gas (shift to neutral to reduce speed*) and steer into the direction you want to go, usually the road in front of you. Steer gently, and as you feel the car correct itself slowly steer in the opposite direction to stop any over correction. *This is true for front wheel drive cars, you don’t want to have your back wheels turning faster than your front wheel since then you will have control over the car.

7. Beware of pickup trucks that have nothing in their beds. They will fishtail because of uneven weight distribution and are most likely to be unable to go up hills that are icy or snow covered.

8. If you are on a steep incline, and there is no other traffic you can make your way up by tacking a bit which means zig zagging up the hill.

9. If you are stuck in a parking space, the trick is to clear the snow in front of the wheels. If you clear and find ice you’ll need something to give traction. If you don’t drive with a bag of clay cat litter in the trunk, or you don’t have cardboard, then look for small twigs and branches. You are looking for something to give your car wheel traction. When you think you’ve made a long enough path, gently give enough gas to get the car moving slowly. Too fast and you’ll just end up spinning your wheels and remaining stuck. If you do get stuck roll back to cover the ground you’ve gained, wait a bit and try again. Too much effort will melt snow which makes ice keeping you stuck.

10. Lastly, remove snow from your roof and back trunk, hatch area. ANd your hood, headlights and taillights. Any snow you leave will not just blow off, as you drive the snow will ice up underneath and then break off in ice chunks carried off by the wind or by how fast you are going. These chunks are dangerous when they land on fellow driver windshields. You want to keep your tail lights and headlights clear so you can see, and so that you can be seen.

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  • savit…

    11. Laugh as you pass the guys in 4-wheel drive SUVs off the road and stuck in the snow because they were over-conifdent.

  • http://YourCT.com Double D

    Best idea of all – move to where it doesn’t snow!

  • Kurm Udgeon

    Or, stay home and drink or some such other activity, and leave the driving to those who can. Remember, the life you save might be mine, so “DRIVE CAREFULLY”!

  • Secondhand Rose

    People who are intimidated by driving in the snow should stay home altogether, or get a ride from someone else if they feel the need to go out. More accidents are caused by those drivers who can’t handle the conditions than are caused by people who know what they’re doing out on the roads.

    How many times has a better driver been forced to swerve out of the way of bad drivers on highways, or who attempt to make their way up hills while these bad drivers are stuck in the snow spinning their wheels?

    Not to mention the bad drivers who “forget” that they’re driving in slippery conditions and who jam on their brakes at the last possible moment allowing their car to slide into the one in front of them at the stop sign or red light….

    Seems like every snow storm brings the LEAST prepared people out onto the roads so they can show us exactly how badly they drive in inclement weather. It’s like an epidemic.

  • NorwalkSpectator

    When I learned how to drive my driving instructor drilled into that I should ALWAYS stop far enough behind the vehicle in front of me so that I could easily see their rear tires touching the ground. The reason for was if the person in front was driving a standard, I wouldn’t be hit if they rolled back. Also if I got hit from behind, I would be less likely to be pushed into the car in front of me.

    I know, I know….it’s so last century, isn’t it?

    • Secondhand Rose

      Did you have lessons with Mr. Santo? LOL, I remember the same instructions. We were also told to drive using the front left fender as a guide to stay to the right of the divider line in the middle of the road. I guess they don’t teach that one any more, because I always see drivers driving over the divider line and cutting corners short.

      They told us to count to three at stop signs before proceeding ,too; another instruction that’s apparently been lost to the ages – along with using signals and giving the right of way.

      Here’s a question for you – why do some people stop at traffic lights at least one car length away from the white line? I see this a lot, and I always wondered why some people stop so far back from the line.

    • Barnstorm

      Excellent advice Spectator.

      • NorwalkSpectator

        I didn’t have lessons with Mr. Santos, but apparently our driving instructors knew each other because I got the fender line up lecture as well.

        Regarding the stopping well behind the white line, I would imagine that the driver could actually see the white line from behind the wheel and was making sure that he was not touching it in any way.

        I first became aware of this when I heard a story about a town resident in the upper reaches of Fairfield County who was stupid enough to have an affair with the local Police Chief’s wife. Well, every cop in that town was on high alert. If the tire was touching the white stop line, well, that was a $50.00 ticket, thank you very much, sir. If the car was parked more than 6 inches from the curb, cha-ching!!! Oh, did your tire touch the yellow line in the middle of the road??? Well now! Here you go, sir. Cha-ching!!!! He eventually decided it was too expensive to stay in town and moved on. She ended up divorced, embarassed and dumped by her erstwhile lover.

  • http://www.DesignerGrill.com kHyal

    Thank you for these practical tips! I forwarded them to my offspring before he headed north on an adventure yesterday. It allowed me to sleep better! :)

  • C in the Hood

    My husband grew up in the Buffalo area & one thing he often does in slippery conditions is to drive in lower gear (usually 2nd). This especially works with city driving.

  • http://donahuefornorwalk.com Chris Donahue

    By the way, I believe that not cleaning snow/ice off the roof of your vehicle is a ticket-able offense.
    It is a huge safety issue, a driver was killed by ice from the roof of a tractor trailer on I-95 last winter, or the winter before…

    • Secondhand Rose

      A tractor-trailer I can understand, but if your car gets hit by snow flying off another automobile, you’re simply following too closely.

  • OLD TIMER

    Rose:
    I hope that argument works for you if you ever get stopped for having ice from your car get airborne and hit somebody else’s car. Don’t count on it. The statute is pretty broad. Your ice or snow doesn’t have to do any damage, just be a nuisance and you earn a ticket. The statute says more, but this is the section that counts if your car is dropping stuff, or, worse yet, letting ice get airborne when you are going fast.
    Sec. 14-271. Securing of loads. (a) No vehicle shall be driven or moved on any highway unless such vehicle is so constructed or loaded as to prevent any of its load from dropping, sifting, leaking or otherwise escaping therefrom in such manner or quantity as to constitute a hazard or nuisance to other users of the highway.

  • Secondhand Rose

    I don’t doubt you’re quoting the source, OT, but I have yet to see any auto driver being pulled over for such a thing. It’s just another one of those useless laws that cops tend to ignore, similar to the cell phone law.

    Anyway, I’ve seen plenty of cars whizzing around the main streets of town AND on the highways – mostly the small compact cars, seems that SUV drivers take this law to heart at least – and I’ve been behind a few when the snow blows off or lifts off. Honestly, it’s not that hard to avoid, especially if while driving behind a “loaded” car you lengthen the space between yourself and them accordingly. After all, a driver IS supposed to be observing their surroundings while they drive (Mr. Santo used to tell us that we were supposed to sweep our eyes across the road from left to right as we drove) – and that includes paying attention to the guy in front of them. Not just what he’s doing, but how his car looks. (Otherwise you’ll run over his muffler when it drops off the car, too, if you’re not observant enough!)

  • OLD TIMER

    Rose:
    That is one of those laws that they do not go out looking for violations, but, they are quick to write a ticket, when there is an accident and one of the drivers claims he swerved to avoid ice flying off the roof of your car and hit something else. A little powdery snow, so easy to brush off, is not the problem. The problem is the thin panel of ice that rides around on the roof of your car for several days until it finally comes loose, gets airborne when you are going fast, and lands on someone’s windshield. They wouldn’t have bothered to write that law if there hadn’t been a number of serious accidents. What difference do you see between riding around with a chunk of ice loose on the roof of your car and riding around with a similar size piece of plywood that is not securely tied down ? The same law applies when there is a problem.

  • NorwalkSpectator

    Ya know, even if you are looking carefully, stuff happens. A few years ago, I was on 95 when the truck in front of me suddenly swerved and cut off a car in the left lane. The truck in front of him had dropped a HUGE chunk of ice and the driver in front of me, swerved to avoid it. I would have been happy to miss it, it would have saved me from replacing the entire exhaust pipe. What I didn’t know was that the truck in front of me was tailgating and the two second rule just didn’t give me enough time to get out of the way.

    But I do know that you will earn yourself a nice ticket to ride if you don’t clean off your license plate.