In message om, Tudor
Hughes writes
On Feb 8, 11:25 am, Graham P Davis wrote:
Dave Liquorice wrote:

It may well be the parents first significant snow fall let alone the
kids. This is half the trouble with the roads, no one under the age of
about 35 will have had the chance to drive on snow and it's not taught as
part of the test.

I remember people saying much the same thing forty years ago. Snow and ice
was a lot more common then, but the vast majority of drivers hadn't a clue
how to drive in slippery conditions. We agreed that the driving
instruction - and probably the test - should include experience on a skid
pan.

--
Graham P Davis
Bracknell, Berks., UK
Send e-mails to "newsman" as mails to "newsboy" are ignored.

Ability to control or avoid a skid may be of use to racing
drivers but is pretty pointless for the average motorist. The reason
the roads jam up in snow is due mostly to the fact that in many
places they are at nearly full capacity anyway. The traffic just
about keeps going under normal conditions but anything that slows the
flow will soon cause long delays. For example a steep hill may become
unusable due to lack of adhesion and the traffic has to be diverted,
adding to the congestion. No amount of skill will increase the
coefficient of friction between tyres and ice, snow or slush. Ability
to drive in snow may have enabled you to get through when there was
hardly a car on the road (say, 1930's) but nowadays the problems are
entirely different.

Careful use of the throttle and clutch with the car in 3rd gear and
keeping the revs down will often get you going/keep you going on a bit
of a hill whereas high revs in first gear will guarantee that you'll
come to a stop. There were plenty of the latter unsuccessfully trying to
get up our road this morning with much revving of engines and
sideslipping into the gutter. Those who approached the hill in a high
gear with low revs got up without any trouble.

Norman.
(delete "thisbit" twice to e-mail)
--
Norman Lynagh Weather Consultancy
Chalfont St Giles 85m a.s.l.
England