Skeered drivers O_o and friendly "neighbors" :-D

[PepperElf]

Mixed... part scoff and part good "neighbors"

scoff
We finally had a real snow. I personally pissed off coworkers by laughing at the snow cos ... well um, I'm from NY. When I say "I know how to drive in snow" it doesn't just mean 2 feet of snow, although I can do that, it also means I'm familiar with icy crappy roads.


My drive home was... actually not bad. The cars going up the ramp to the highway were timid - to be expected cos they all were thinking "omg it's black ice". I ended up pulling to the left and passing people at 55-60 in a 70 zone.

Once I broke free from them I hit 70 mainly and realized... um. these roads are damp but no snow, no ice. Being a major highway it gets good service and a lot of traffic, both of which combined keep the snow/ice to a minimum.


good neighbors
Once I got off the highway it still wasn't bad - another major road, but when I got to my last road that's where the ice finally appeared. It's a minor road so it's not serviced as much. I ended up dropping to 2nd and just puttering along. I tested my brakes a little to see how much skid there'd be.

i've always done that really... tested to see how much pressure before the car starts to fishtail to see how much stopping time i need. so... yeah puttering along at a couple of miles per hour is fine. i'm in no hurry.

then up ahead i saw flashing lights and what looked to be a car trying to pull out of a driveway in front of another car. as i approached i saw it was a truck with the ass end in the ditch and some guys trying to push it out.

i tried helping - they asked me to push the gas as they pushed, but no luck, no traction.

then one of the men asked me to back up a bit so he could try pulling the car out. by this time another car was behind me but... not very close. so i could easily back up enough.


the man pulled his truck past me and along side the ditched truck, hooked him up to his winch and started pulling. not even a minute later and the truck was back on the road again, safe from the ditch.

i don't know who the men were. i'm not even sure they knew who each other were but... that's this part of the south for you. strangers are neighbors and will help pull your truck out of a ditch just because they can and because they think it's the right thing to do.

[Kazim]

If i didn't know better i'd have thought that you where describing the place where i live, in northern Sweden

[PepperElf]

eh no. just the south. our first real snow and everyone - well everyone else - was freaking out.

me, i'm just to driving in snow storms and blizzards. last year i even made the mistake of taking the normal way to work in a blizzard, had to turn my car into a snow bank to stop (2 mph or so) cos i couldn't stop.

but here... just a little bit of ice on the side roads. but it's nice to see people helping each other out

[LillFilly]

I always find it funny that, when traffic is moving cautiously due to show/ice, there's people in trucks and suvs speeding like bats out of hell....And then I end up seeing them further on stuck in snow or in a ditch. Big car doesn't equal invincibility people.

[csquared]

A local BBQ place has a sign
Rules for Northerners living in the South

One of the rules is:
If your car breaks down, don't worry. Pretty soon three guys in a pickup truck will stop and offer to fix it. Don't try to stop them. It's what they do.

[dalesys]

One of the rules is:
If your car breaks down, don't worry. Pretty soon three guys in a pickup truck will stop and offer to fix it. Don't try to stop them. It's what they do.

That remids me of a song... (dale, *everything* reminds you of a song)
So? My problem, your suffering.

You could end up like Amy Speace: Double Wide Trailer

Somewhere east of Durham my jeep broke down in Justice
Trying to get to Duke to meet a good friend for the break
A good ol' boy pulled over said, "How can I be of service?"
I got into his pickup truck that was my first mistake.

[bhskittykatt]

I don't mind people who drive a bit slower than I like during potentially scary road conditions...they're thinking safe, and if that's as fast as they're comfortable going, I can forgive it. It can be annoying, but I'd rather they drive in their comfort zone than just go driving recklessly. Not being a very good snow driver myself, I'm sure at some point I've been that driver to someone else.

[Flying Grype]

I remember being in Atlanta one winter about twenty years ago when a half inch of snow fell. Schools closed, people stampeded to the Kroger to buy milk and bread and other staples. My relatives were lucky to have a family of Canadians visiting with a 4WD minivan.

[BlaqueKatt]

Big car doesn't equal invincibility people.

around here the saying goes:
"four wheel drive does not mean four wheel stop."

[sms001]

@Pepper - yep, first thing I do. Get up to about twenty on the residential street and slam on the brakes, er, engage the ABS.
And nice community you've got there. I wish more people appreciated the warm fuzzies you can get from helping a nameless stranger in need.
@Filly. Too true. They get UP to speed just fine. But 4wd and snow tires don't mean anything to ice. STOPPING is the tricky part. (Well, controlled stopping. Anyone can stop up against a tree...)

[PepperElf]

I don't mind people who drive a bit slower than I like during potentially scary road conditions...they're thinking safe, and if that's as fast as they're comfortable going, I can forgive it. It can be annoying, but I'd rather they drive in their comfort zone than just go driving recklessly. Not being a very good snow driver myself, I'm sure at some point I've been that driver to someone else.

Well yeah when it's really icy you do drive slowly. that's why I did 2mph on my road.


the problem with the highway drivers is that they were all doing the "omg snow" kneejerk reaction and driving slowly on roads that had neither ice nor snow.



that's the thing really. major roads - like high traffic highways - are well maintained both by whatever plows we have and by the traffic of other cars. it's just the side streets that had issues. like the one i live on - which was where the guy went into the ditch.

[Pagan]

Well yeah when it's really icy you do drive slowly. that's why I did 2mph on my road.


the problem with the highway drivers is that they were all doing the "omg snow" kneejerk reaction and driving slowly on roads that had neither ice nor snow.



that's the thing really. major roads - like high traffic highways - are well maintained both by whatever plows we have and by the traffic of other cars. it's just the side streets that had issues. like the one i live on - which was where the guy went into the ditch.

You would die laughing watching people here, then! Get one flake floating around in the air and it freaks out the flakes driving!

They do the same thing when we have a wind event, too. I'm usually the one driving along going, "C'mon people! It's just a little wind!"

But then, for some bizarre reason, people have a tendency to drive like bats out of hell when it rains.

[bhskittykatt]

You would die laughing watching people here, then! Get one flake floating around in the air and it freaks out the flakes driving!

They do the same thing when we have a wind event, too. I'm usually the one driving along going, "C'mon people! It's just a little wind!"

But then, for some bizarre reason, people have a tendency to drive like bats out of hell when it rains.

My car is small and light, and a good gust of wind can and WILL push me into another lane if I am not careful. There is one part of the interstate in particular where it's basically a wind tunnel, and I have to fight to keep my car in its lane. Though I usually don't need to drop my speed too much. I will, though, drop it as low as 60mph if the winds get so strong that I'm all over my lane (and we do get some fantastic wind up here).