The Glade 4.0

It's not the ice, it's the idiots.

OH GOD THERE'S ICE HERE! BETTER HIT THE BRAKES!

_________________
Sail forth! steer for the deep waters only!
Reckless, O soul, exploring, I with thee, and thou with me;
For we are bound where mariner has not yet dared to go,
And we will risk the ship, ourselves and all.

LOL, I so feel your pain.

I moved from Mpls to Dallas for a while. When I moved down there, I told my boss that when/if we got freezing rain, I wasn't coming in to work. And the reason was NOT because I didn't know how to drive on the ice.

One thing I've noticed is that every individual knows how to drive on ice and snow, but everyone else doesn't.

Because there's usually no women around.

_________________
The Dude abides.

Once you get up to speed, driving on ice isn't much different from driving on pavement provided you have no need to alter your speed or direction. Of course, if the road you're driving on deviates from a straight line (which is all of them), then yes, you do have to slow down.

_________________
Buckle your pants or they might fall down.

Then take your foot off of the accelerator...or in case of a manual, downshift! Brakes are a BIG no no on ice! Better yet...just don't go out in it unless absolutely postively neccessary!!

_________________
"Said I never had much use for one, never said I didn't know how to use one!"~ Matthew Quigley

"nothing like a little meow in bed at night" ~ Bruskey

"I gotta float my stick same as you" Hondo Lane

"Fill your hand you son of a *****!"

Stathol, can you teach them to drive before I get there, please?

_________________
"Dress cops up as soldiers, give them military equipment, train them in military tactics, tell them they’re fighting a ‘war,’ and the consequences are predictable." —Radley Balko

This is what I've noticed too.

I'm quite open about the fact that I don't know how to drive on ice. I've never had the opportunity or inclination (mostly from lack of opportunity) to learn. Snow and ice were a once-in-a-decade event in lower Alabama, and the world stopped turning for those twelve hours or so. Since I've been in Nashville, I've been through four substantial snows (in under a year), each lasting three or so days.

For those periods of time, I just stock up on food beforehand and effin' telecommute for work.

If you absolutely must slow down on ice, use your brakes. Downshifting on ice (or anything else slippery) is generally a bad idea unless you are certain of what you're doing, and are good at it. Even then...why risk it? Braking is almost always the better choice.

1) Your brakes apply even pressure to all 4 wheels. Engine braking only applies to the drive axle. And even then, it may not apply evenly between the two wheels on said axle due to the differential.

2) It's much harder to precisely control engine braking than it is to control normal wheel braking.

3) If you don't perform this very smoothly, the drive axle is going to experience a sudden and significant change in applied forces. Sudden changes on ice = bad. More specifically, the axle is likely to lose traction, at least partially. Especially with a front-wheel drive vehicle (most non-sports cars), this is very bad because loss of traction on the drive axle = loss of steering.

4) Putting 3) and 1) together, this is a recipe for winding up ass-first no matter which axle is the drive axle.


On the whole, Corolinth has the right of it. Newton's laws of motion > *. Driving on ice really boils down to this:

1) Whenever possible, do nothing! Don't brake, don't accelerate, don't change directions. You're on a (nearly) frictionless surface. Your car is going to try to maintain its present velocity (same speed, same direction) whether you like it or not. Hitting a patch of ice is not, in and of itself, a good reason to apply the brakes. If your car is already going where you want it to, there is no good reason to do that. Only bad can come of it.

2) If you need to alter your car's velocity, be it steering, slowing, or speeding up, do so gradually.

3) If you can't do it gradually, the odds are good that you've already done something wrong! Granted, if a car suddenly spins out and crosses the median into oncoming traffic, then that's different. But generally speaking, this only happens because either you were going too fast to begin with, you weren't paying attention to the road/vehicles ahead of you, or you were following someone too closely on ice.

_________________
Sail forth! steer for the deep waters only!
Reckless, O soul, exploring, I with thee, and thou with me;
For we are bound where mariner has not yet dared to go,
And we will risk the ship, ourselves and all.

Essentially don't panic because "OMGZOR ITS ICEEEEE ON TEH GROUNDAZZZ!!!" Relax and driving in the ice/snow is no worse than a lazy sunday afternoon.

_________________

Stathol's got the right of it with his second set of 3 rules.

The other important thing to remember is that turning is applying an accelerating force. So mixing a little bit of turning with a little bit of gas/brakes is more than the acceleration of either of those actions alone. So you're better off doing your turning/speed adjustments one at a time, rather than combined. The most important take-away of which is, if you feel like you are/might be about to slide while turning, *DON'T BRAKE* you'll only turn "almost sliding" into "really sliding." Evaluate whether you're better off easing off the turn 'till you're not sliding, or straightening out so you can brake.

_________________
"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

And the ice is on its way here.

*shivers*

_________________
Memento Vivere

I have local knowledge.
That sandbar was not there yesterday!

Foot on the clutch...foot off the gas...don't oversteer..

_________________


Dream as if you'll live forever...
...Live as if you'll die tomorrow

Vivere Senza Rimpianti

Physics is amazing. It's a shame more people don't know it.

_________________
Buckle your pants or they might fall down.

I think peoples brains freeze along with the pavement.

One simple concept people often fail to grasp. If you tires are not turning, turning the steering wheel is going to have very little effect.

Well on the bright side, cutting the wheel dramatically does at least ensure a lurch in some unexpected direction when traction does pick up again.

If you want to slow down quickly on ice, the best thing to do is pull the parking brake.

EDIT: It occurred to me someone might think I was serious. Don't do this.