Thursday, January 14, 2010

GMTV's expert driving advice

In all these conditions it seems GMTV has decided to get some expert tips on how to drive in this weather.

1st - Move off in second gear.
2nd - Watch road conditions and try to avoid potential troublespots. As he asked to deal with skidding in Canada and was told nope, but I'll teach you how to avoid skidding in the first place.
3rd - Get winter tyres. These are cheap now and can be fitted easily.
4th - Avoid "pesky side roads"

So I'll happily accept advice points 1 and 2. As for 3, so where am I supposed to store the tyres I'm taking off? If you're a two car family that's possibly eight tyres you need to find room for. Onto 4 and fine I'll stick to the main roads can you tell me how to get to them without using those "pesky" side roads first? Okay I'll grant he probably meant don't get smart and try to take a shortcut, but still.

However the big surprise to me was the two main points he didn't use - Take it easy, and watch your distance. Perhaps he assumed these were so basic he didn't need to point them out.

2 comments:

Orphi said...

How about watch the road conditions and adjust your driving accordingly?

Seriously, the road to my house was a giant sheet of ice. It's probably worth driving at 2 MPH, just because it's that difficult to keep traction. But when I got to the main road, there was some guy driving along at 10 MPH — with a 2-mile queue behind him. Which is understandable, considering that the road was completely clear, dry tarmac. Maybe you shouldn't be driving at 60 in these consitions, but 10?? What the hell?

The second thing is that many of the people in this queue were getting inadvisibly close. Sure, it's annoying to be in a queue, but if there's snow around, maybe a slightly bigger stopping distance might be in order? Maybe?

FlipC said...

The main roads around here are mainly clear, trouble is a 50mph stretch is unlit, you can't see the kerb because of the slush, most of the cat-eyes don't reflect, and you can't see the diving line in the dark with oncoming traffic. Oh and did I mention it curves and dips and rises? So travel at 50mph, I think 40 is better in these conditions and when you've got a slush ridge along it 30. Yet I've got people riding my arse when I do that.

Yeah 10mph is too slow and said driver should pull over in the same way tractors should. They're as much a danger on the roads as those travelling too fast.

Oh I've realised I haven't defined 'riding my arse' I can see the whole rear window in my rear mirror, 'riding my arse' is when I can't see a normally positioned number plate and yes I've had them that close at 40mph in this weather.

Queue-wise you're travelling slowly so you can get closer, as I've said watching someone leave a four car gap in a 5mph queue is frustrating. Basically I leave enough room to stop given speed and conditions; and at rest enough room such that I can overtake the vehicle in front should it break-down.