[Closed] Types of driver ive seen this morning in the current weather...

1. Car has ABS, cars fault for not stopping like it’s dry

2. It’s speed ‘limit’ not ‘target’

3. Should’ve looked before crossing. Silly pedestrian

4) I'm spinning my wheels on compacted snow on this hill, so the obvious solution is to just rev my engine harder to polish up the road surface further. I offer this polishing service free of charge to help other road users.

There's no snow here, so everything pretty normal - but I was amused to see the report from a Lancashire village (I think) this morning on the BBC and a Volvo went past at speed as the reporter was talking and nearly lost the back end. Went a bit sideways, would've been hilarious if the moron had spun out live on telly.

My favourites are those who don't bother to clear their windows properly before setting off. Who needs to be able to see whilst driving anyway?

5) I'll sit a car's length behind the vehicle in front because I'm a driving god and the laws of physics don't apply to me.

5) People who drive down to the bottom of a steep hill cul-de-sac as normal cos they are too lazy to do a 3 point turn outside their drive half way up - except there's snow, so they look all surprised when they cannot then drive back up the hill.  And then do 3) sitting there with their foot on the pedal not moving wondering what is happening.

My favourites are those who don’t bother to clear their windows properly before setting off. Who needs to be able to see whilst driving anyway?

I always assumed those squinting through a tiny aperture in the icy windscreen are gynaecologists honing their skills on the way to work?

Not enough snow by me to change any of the normal driving crap. I was a bit disappointed when I got to the empty work car park that I couldn't have a laugh with the handbrake - maybe tomorrow.

Its the ones who leave all the snow on their bonnets and their roofs and just clear a little porthole in the windscreen. Do you really think thats safe? Do you?

2/ I’m oblivious to the fact this road has been fully treated and looks safe to travel on, but just in case I will do 15mph on this nsl section creating a need for people to overtake in a rushed manner, mainly because they are now late due to binning it on the estate road earlier. (Spotted and overtook on the drive in)

Should that read

2\ the road is wet and shiny, it's -4 and there's obvious ice, there's no need to do 60mph just because i legally can and there's no need for people to overtake we'll all get there at this speed as opposed to burying ourselves in the ditch because it's an NSL.

Just up the road from you in Matlock everyone was exceptionally well behaved - sensible speeds, sensible stopping distances.

Should that read

2\ the road is wet and shiny, it’s -4 and there’s obvious ice, there’s no need to do 60mph just because i legally can and there’s no need for people to overtake we’ll all get there at this speed as opposed to burying ourselves in the ditch because it’s an NSL.

Yes I do believe it is a limit and not a target. However having come from a pretty remote place and having been taught to drive by my dad (ex rally driving god) in such conditions I am a driving god also, in fact I even had a couple of brake checks as I set off as it's usually a reasonable general indicator. I'm fully aware of black ice etc but this section of road did not warrant 15 mph. I overtook and driving godded on my way at 30mph which I found acceptable in the conditions.

Time and a place and all that, but 15 mph was just a little bit too cautious for what was a clear (to the eye admittedly) road.

@rhinofive

nah, the windscreen slot i horizontal, not vertical

My favourites are those who don’t bother to clear their windows properly before setting off. Who needs to be able to see whilst driving anyway?

Nah, these are the narrow minded imbeciles that think life is only important if it’s their own.

I’m spinning my wheels on compacted snow on this hill, so the obvious solution is to just rev my engine harder

Yeah seen a few of them. They seem to operate on the basis that if they spin their tyres fast enough it might build up enough heat to melt through snow/ice (at which point they will catapult forward and have no way to stop quickly).

1) "We live 1/2 a mile from my 15yr old sons grammar school & I usually take him but because our 80K 4X4 Chelsea Tractor may get stuck in the 2" of snow on our 200yd long drive, I'll let him stay off."

2) I drive a 16 seat Merc Sprinter minibus with rear wheel drive & an autobox, taking children & adults with special needs to various locations in & around town, I start the run at 07.00 & will drive according to conditions. I WILL get everyone to their destinations safely & cause no problems to other road users.

3) It's my day off.

6) the train was on time, plenty of free seats and i got to work early enough to buy a lovely coffee and sit down for a bit. i also have the bonus of a 20 minute walk to the station for a bit of exercise

They seem to operate on the basis that if they spin their tyres fast enough it might build up enough heat to melt through snow/ice

like this?

way to keep warm if stranded

1) I’ve got a four wheel drive so I can drive faster on these snow covered roads. My brain has only just worked out that having four wheel drive means shit when I apply the brakes and skid into the car in front resulting 4 cars being damaged on a narrow residential street.

2) I will park right outside the gate to my house even though it’s at a T-Junction which makes hard for everyone else using the road.  My car has now been damaged again due 1)

3) I will use the salt out of the grit bins to do my drive and then blame the council for not gritting the roads and that’s why the no one can get up the short steep hill at the other end of the road that’s not blocked off with a crashed 4x4.

All witnessed on our street this morning.

"I've got four wheel drive so I don't need to slow for the reduced grip because obviously four wheel drive helps you to stop when you put your foot on the brake pedal in snow".  edit - clearly a common one then

Most impressive was the bin lorry.  Bloke driving inside cab - Hi-viz coat.  Bloke emptying bins in the back - T shirt.

7) Smug mountain biker riding to work as usual over taking the que of traffic up the hill instead of patiently waiting for them to polish the ice further.

1: They have spotted a gap in the slow-moving traffic (the gap I had left as to keep a safe stopping distance between me and the car in front) then pull into it causing others to have to attempt to slow down on an untreated road in treacherous conditions.

2: Yes - that Cockwomble was driving a Range Rover Sport so he'll have assumed he was invincible and the rest of us could go to hell.

And the addon to #2 where said driver gets really angry when someone dares to overtake them so they'll flash their lights for 5mins even though the other driver is already half a mile down the road already!!

Well we've just had a 20 min snowmaggedon session. Main road at the bottom of the site and in to the town of Ripley complete white out and good covering of snow. I'd nipped out and just got back as it was finishing managing the whole 10 min drive using the brakes only once as it was that slippy.

However bus driver man has just won the internet as he has gone past the site on totally covered road at at least 40mph. Huge bollox that man must have!

@jambo its a good job they put a cone out to warn other drivers of the potential hazard of an alight vehicle.

I rode in on the towpath, it's been slippy horrible mud for months. Frozen solid and tailwind this morning, which was nice.

Too many to mention this morning, but the usual suspects were out.

Our resident petrolhead/cyclist hater covered himself in glory this morning by ranting about the cyclist who had the audacity to be on the road at the same time as he was while attempting to get to work, and then in the next sentence telling us how funny it was that he could barely see out of his windscreen because his washer jets were frozen and he was having to try & scrape snow from the roof onto the windscreen (yes, while driving) to obtain some moisture for his wipers to clear the caked on salt/mud crust.

My commute was fairly uneventful with most doing a reasonable speed & keeping extra distance.

But

Who'd have thought the steep roads either side of a ford would have ice on them in -6C

https://www.devonlive.com/news/devon-news/firefighters-rescue-two-cars-stranded-1273927

I had quite a fun jaunt around central London in the works Transit.

No real issues, there were the usual stereotypes and a couple of lemmings that hadn’t yet worked out two tons of Van needs more than 2 metres to stop on ice, even at 5mph.

Also love how badly written that Devon Live news report is.

Clearly the folk who find clearing the windscreen too difficult have been watching Das Boot and Run Silent Run Deep

8) Mid-20's blonde gym bunny, in full gym outfit, attempting to drive down one of the steepest hills around, in a Mini (natch), wondering why Mini is now wedged against bank a few metres down and using a garden trowel to drop grit down the remaining 80m of road, rather than reverse the 10m back up and park on the flat, as being suggested by all the passers by....

9) Smug boss in her Subaru with winter tyres and a decade of driving in Norway experience.

Saw a bloke this morning, seen him before on my commute. Full blizzard conditions, compacted snow on the road this guy is owning it, legs out on his Transalp, kudos.

Saw a Tank Commander driving up the lane in his Siemens branded van this morning. Frozen snow on all windows apart from the slit that he had scraped clear on the windscreen. I hope that he didn't hurt anyone apart from himself.

[i]matt_outandabout wrote:[/i]

9) Smug boss in her Subaru with winter tyres and a decade of driving in Norway experience.

Full house there. Though the latter is almost certainly the most important - a numpty could still make a mess of it given the same equipment.

The standard one I see is already mentioned above - when struggling a bit put your foot down. When we had the last big snow in December I saw a few getting stuck using that technique on little hills I just cruised up by doing the opposite.

Another idiot I saw this morning (well two really):

1 – Silly cow on my side of the road heading straight at me (in such a fashion as she clearly assumed she had the right of way) in her X5 covered in snow but for what the front wipers had managed to clear.

2 – The idiot that had parked their car (and for some time judging by the remaining snow and tracks of cars having to round it) despite the road having parking restrictions on it and causing everyone using the road to be put at risk in the first place.

the driver who thinks nothing of blowing 30k+ on a car but is too tight/lazy to buy screenwash that doesn't freeze. necessitating panic braking on the motorway/random pulling over on the roadside when the low sun and road salt combo completely blinds them.

bonus as above

a) who you see in the petrol station giving off because all the screenwash has been sold and is throwing a bottle of vittell at the outside of their windscreen

b) has bought a bottle of vittel and is trying to add it to the frozen washer bottle but can't work out how to open the bonnet.

witnessed numerous times today

quite a few this morning,

young lass texting on m62 with 3 lanes of snowy goodness all aound WTF

B Q delivery artic flashing lights 20 m from my rear cos id come up against middle lane muppet who couldnt wouldnt cross slush to inside lane outside snowed up so  couldnt overtake him.

BQ undertook then continued up next drivers ass. crap driving to be reported to BQ?

car /artic trailer interface at roundabout at bottom of hill car wedged under nearside middle of trailer all drivers  seemed ok . look out they walk among us!

I'd like to think that Tank Commanders would be pulled over* and charged with something like dangerous driving or reckless endangerment. Ideally publicly named and shamed too.

There really is no excuse for it. This snow isn't even particularly hard to clear - its a two minute job. How can anyone be in that much of a hurry that they just scrape one tiny strip and say "That seems perfectly adequate for driving a several ton vehicle in dangerous conditions"?!

* (Although I realise this would require a proactive well-funded well-resourced police force).

Loads of idiots.  SIL just boasted she' walked about 4 or 5 miles to work this afternoon on FB. I got deleted after I said the roads were clear. She posted a pic of a slightly snow covered road that's on a hill but when I mentioned the main road next to it that's snow free. Deleted.  No you aren't a hero, you walked in the freezing cold cos you can't bloody drive properly. You live 200 yards from a well gritted main road.  You'l be expecting someone to take you home tomorrow after you'e been on the ale tonight after your 3 hour shift.

Rant over.  Going to clear our road for my neighbours when I get home then go out on the bike in the snow.

Oh we've just had another classic. I pull up outside my house on the road. Its a long 30mph affair. Left the lights on on the van facing on coming traffic for extra visibility. Some **** has come bollocking up and a car coming the other way has forced him to stop. He's slammed on hit the kerb, gone up it, dropped back down and finished two feet from my van. He then starts pipping and waving at me for daring to stop there. I really really could have pulled him out the car and ****ted him!

I'm admirative of your SIL, fossy. She didn't put herself or anyone else at risk and enjoyed a walk in a Winter wonderland.

The snow didn't cause any unusually bad driving while I was out (on foot). Just the usual phoning, texting, impatience, speeding etc.

jag61 - definitely report to B&Q.

The daft cow in a corsa, who after watching a Western Power Distribution Landrover struggle like buggery to get up the hill in front of her, then decides she's going up too. Gets 20 yards into the 1:4 , the wheels spin like crazy as she slides backwards , then, just as she's perpendicular to the road , they get a good grip and she rockets forward into the parked car. At least she then blocked the road to stop an other idiots having a go .

He then starts pipping and waving at me for daring to stop there.

1) I’ve got a four wheel drive so I can drive faster on these snow covered roads. My brain has only just worked out that having four wheel drive means shit when I apply the brakes and skid into the car in front resulting 4 cars being damaged on a narrow residential street.

When we had snow the other week I witnessed just this. Some dozy bint in a big 4x4 tried to drive down the Rake, a 25% gradient covered in sheet ice, ignoring the huge signs at at the top saying ROAD IMPASSABLE IN WINTER CONDITIONS and having driven around the ROAD CLOSED sign placed there

This was the result....

[img] [/img]

The dozy cow, having wiped out 2 parked cars and very nearly a group of school kids, got out and incredulously declared "I don't understand it! I'm in a 4x4!"

i do hope her insurance told her right where to get off!

We live on a pretty steep road so I was out helping- pushing and gritting and putting boards down and that- and the number of cars that have already hit something and have bits hanging off is mad. Now it's 5pm and literally no traffic, that never happens, everyone;s either stuck, given up or went home early. Very pretty though!

I am an avid snow-cleaner-off-er
The air currents around an MX5 with the roof down blow any snow on the boot back into the car. Like bloody Narnia in there.

My mum, for all her -bless-her- faults is a braw driver.
I mean, she's rubbish and has no spacial awareness or any advanced motor skills (in any sense of the word) but either stays at home, or drives as steady as she can in as a high gear/low revs as the motor will take before conking out and steers and brakes like she's "got a carton of eggs on the bonnet" and has been navigating rural Fife roads for about 40 years with no major issues.

My drive to work was surprisingly **** free.  Largely because I didn't drive 🙂

Took the long way in, avoiding the roads as much as possible.  It all looked pretty civilised though, but then nobody was actually going anywhere fast!  Just about to set off home and it's coming down again, time to head offroad 🙂

I rode into work yesterday (MTB along the canal towpath, lovely) and then got the train most of the way home leaving me just a 4 mile towpath ride.

Came out of the station in heavy snow and the steep road outside was littered with stuck or abandoned cars. The snowfall had come on so suddenly and so heavily but you could sense the bewilderment of drivers. Wheelspinning. Trying to turn round. Just stuck in utter panic. And invariably, one bellend trying to drive down the pavement to get round a stranded car.

I rode up the middle, bike didn't miss a beat. Loads of grip. 😉

This clip is taken in a car at the bottom of my street earlier today.  I am not involved with any of the vehicles!

[ video]https://youtu.be/5eBT6OSr1TI[/video ]

But I would buy the bus driver a pint 🙂

I am slightly annoyed that our garage drained out my nice bright blue low temp screen wash and replaced it with clear weak stuff that keeps freezing. It was nearly full too.

That bus driver deserves a medal as well as a beer.

My kids had a snow day yesterday and i took them sledging up in local forest. Winter tyres and 30 years driving meant i kept them safe amongst the massive bellendery of other drivers - which really had to be seen to be belived.

Unfortunately even 30 years driving experience and winter tyres wont stop you from losing your car keys in a forest covered with 10 cm of snow....

Great bus driving Myopic! How about this one from a few years ago?

Everyone in Sheffield seemed to have awarded themselves the day off. I did my commute home in record time as there was almost no traffic at 5pm!

There seemed to be a fair few people content to pootle at 10mph everywhere though. Which is sort of understandable but wasn't necessary.

Just up the road from you in Matlock everyone was exceptionally well behaved – sensible speeds, sensible stopping distances.

Appart from the neanderthal I saw on the roundabout at gasworks corner on the A6 who thought that because they were in a 4x4 momentum didn’t apply to them and hit the roundabout at 30mph completely lost it over compensated ended up on the island on the exit taking out the sign in the process (I can’t think who shopped him to highways but the he seemed to have learnt nothing from it and was driving in whoever it was’s boot half way to Bakewell so memorising the number plate would have been easy (hypothetically))

Makes it look easy EGF!  Where is that?

I encountered one car on yesterday's 6.5 mile commute. He was patient and hung back until I pulled in to a gateway to let him past.

I have a feeling today's commute could be even quieter.

Today's commute involves putting coffee cup down on dining room table...

Red Alert! Bed till lunchtime! 🙂

Makes it look easy EGF!  Where is that?

Saltburn, North Yorkshire. It was a few years ago.

The bank is a LOT steeper than it looks on the vid.

I was pleasantly surprised by the driving yesterday evening/this morning.  I was on my cross bike and there were very few cars (on a main route out of Leeds).  Those people who were driving were doing it slowly and sensibly, and sitting patiently behind me until it was safe to overtake (uphill - when I was going downhill I was actually catching cars up).

Apart from the lorry driver who was stuck behind me through some (short) roadworks then tried to speed past without noticing the red light just ahead...

Agrees with hjghg5 - the driving was much better today. I reckon that people have finally twigged that if they are driving in this then they need to adjust their driving.

Saw a bloke this morning, seen him before on my commute. Full blizzard conditions, compacted snow on the road this guy is owning it, legs out on his Transalp, kudos.

That would probably @simonlovesrocks if anywhere near Sheffield!

<span style="font-size: 0.8rem;"> Bonus points if he had his Orange5 strapped to the pannier racks.</span>

There's a Ducati dealer down the road. Yesterday morning one of the mechanics was gingerly - and I mean gingerly - riding one of these around the estate.

Yes really.

Still looked and sounded amazing even in the snow and ice at 5 mph

So here, right, there's hardly any snow. The roads are a bit damp! People go 30 in a 60. So I overtake on a long straight, so they beep at me! What's that about? What effect do they think their hooting is going to have? I'm going to stop next to them and go "oh sorry, I'm not allowed to go faster than you, I'll pull back in behind and crawl around for no reason!" **** I hate driving on the same roads as these f-wits.

binners

When we had snow the other week I witnessed just this. Some dozy bint in a big 4×4 tried to drive down the Rake, a 25% gradient covered in sheet ice, ignoring the huge signs at at the top saying ROAD IMPASSABLE IN WINTER CONDITIONS and having driven around the ROAD CLOSED sign placed there

This was the result….

So which one of those was the "big 4x4"?

My f'in wife. NHS dietitian and (bizarrely) an ex-IAM instructor.

She recently got a team leader post, and spent most of last night calling round her team, rearranging clinics, and making sure no-one travelled unnecessarily. Its been throwing it down here all night in a leafy wee place in West Central Scotland, and we've had no snow clearance in the local streets. Abandoned cars litter the side streets.

Where are you off to? I asked her 30 mins ago. Work, she says- East Kilbride, a 7 mile journey if you can get to the main roads. You're off your head I said, you'll never make it onto the main road.

Car is now stuck on a local hill. Fud.

I think the reason things are reasonably good yesterday and today John is more to do with only 2 schools in harrogate being open and i think it was six across the district yesterday. As a result there's very little traffic as most school runners don't need to bother and a lot of commuters have stayed home with kids.

There's still a few idiots about but there are few enough they're not majorly troublesome. Unless you live in the house on Boroughbridge road which gained an articulated lorry and some telegraph pole in the garden last night, or the one on Brigatte where someone going up the hill has wedged a car into the driveway at 90degrees, only the drive is about 2feet narrower than the car is long.

Oh and last night there were two bmws stuck on the hill out of Farnham up towards ferensby, one passing the other, which was helpful.

A colleague said he'd read your car insurance isn't valid if you have an accident in a red warning zone, is that true? Wouldn't that make it illegal to drive (if you effectively have no insurance)? It's not red where I am but could be later so hmm may have to leave early...

Well it is proper snowmageddon here in the Blacks. Upgraded to Red Alert. So just been out to feed the sheep, then stuck the quad in 2WD and gone for a Ken Block Stylee Hoonathon round the field. Always good to get it out of your system, and you never know when the skid-pan experience may help in real life. Maybe the diving test should introduce some new elements of low traction driving experience, even just to illustrate to anyone who drives what the physical limits are. It may just prevent some people who believe electronics and other driving aids will keep them out of trouble from doing something stupid like in the pictures above<span style="font-size: 0.8rem;">.</span>

I don't fancy there will be much traffic on the roads today round here anyway. Maybe the odd tractor.

I have been doing skids in my fiesta.

Maybe the diving test should introduce some new elements of low traction driving exprience

I had two tests cancelled because of snow and 1 because of fog. Ridiculous really given it was in no case bad enough it would have prevented me (or anyone else) driving. The argument for canceling because of snow was that the road markings would be obscured and the snow hid the curbs so it wasn't fair to ask me to perform maneuvers as i might clip the curb and fail.

A colleague said he’d read your car insurance isn’t valid if you have an accident in a red warning zone, is that true?

It may just prevent some people who believe electronics and other driving aids will keep them out of trouble..

At the fear of offending the STW driving gods, I have to say that the ESP/ESC on my 11 year old Focus does actually seem to perform a useful job when it is slippy out.

Obviously it's not a miracle worker, but there have been a couple of times that wee light has come one and I've thought "Thanks car. Good job"

Caveat: not driving like a total bellend obviously helps as well!

Oh and last night there were two bmws stuck on the hill out of Farnham up towards ferensby, one passing the other, which was helpful.

Which is on my commute, Boroughbridge-Killinghall.

Were they still there this morning? I half hope they were. One of them looked at me like i was from mars when i suggested reversing down the hill.

I ended up going out onto Boroughbridge road this morning and round through ferensby to Knaresborough rather than Farnham as i didn't fancy sandy bank.

One observed this morning.  The "must pull out of this junction before the truck" type person.  Except, when the truck is a snowplough & gritter and you're going uphill maybe, just maybe, it would have been a good idea to let the truck go first so you didn't get stuck on the hill stopping the snowplough getting past.