kgh,

Thanks for the link. Entertaining but I ain't buyin it. So at dark, this guy is really feeling the call of nature. He even watches other people heeding this need on the road. Dark must be 5 or 6PM at the latest? He hangs in another 6 or 7 HOURS plus without relief??

Please, lets be honest here....no guy that I know of would hesitate to water the nearest ditch given that situation.

I could make it the 9 hours, but my DH would have been on the side of the road just a few hours in!
(Although, reading the article, I don't think that there are many secluded areas along his route - not like ducking into the trees off the highway.) And, perhaps he actually indulged as well, and *ahem* wasn't so truthful in his reporting.

GoTravel:
Your classy post notwithstanding, here's the answer for non-flamers.

Driving on ice is quite possible, I've driven on a variety, including ice roads on frozen lakes.

To drive on ice:
--Have proper equipment, i.e. tires with decent tread, properly inflated.
--Know how your car handles on slippery condition and know how to use your brakes (pump or non-pump -- it's often not the answer most people think). Know how your transmission handles in various speeds or gears.
--Know you acceleration affects your control.
--At least triple the distance between you and the next vehicle.
--Know that speed limits are for optimum conditions.
--Obviously if you see GoTravel on the road, hit the ditch, it's the safest place.
--Put the darn cellphone/big mac down.
--Be aware of the areas that freeze and thaw at different rates, i.e. overpasses/bridges.

I guess we're in agreement on this, I wasn't ripping Southerners:
<But bad snow/ice driving is not ``a Southern thing,'' it's just a fact of life anywhere snow is infrequent.>

repete, your directions for driving on ice are perfect for flat areas.

However, the south isn't entirely flat.

Would you care to explain how to drive on ice when encountering hills?

After reading these posts I have to admit that I really can't criticize Southerner's. I agree, you just can't drive on ice. Fortunately, ice is less of a problem in Chicago becuase winter temps don't hover around freezing too often. It's usually above freezing and raining or below freezing and snowing. This year, though, it seems like we've had more icing problems than usual. The great advantage of living here, though, is that streets are salted and/or plowed quickly, usually before hand. So winter weather usually isn't a big deal.

Speaking of ice, I ran into a few nasty instances in Wisconsin. I remember driving from Black Earth to Madison one evening during a pre-Christmas ice storm (about 20 miles if I remember right). It was so slippery that I and most other motorists had two wheels off the road the whole time to maintain control. Ditto on the hills thing. My garage there was at the bottom of a steep hill that also slanted to one side, and I had to make a turn to get into the garage. This was amazingly difficult when there was ice or the snow was packed.

Here in New England there is usually a base layer of sand and salt from mid-November through April as I'm sure everyone with ruined shoes and filthy floors can attest. Also as someone pointed ice is not that much of a problem. It's mostly too cold or less often too warm. However, I would point out that nearly everyone can drive on ice but very few can stop.

If you're in deep snow country in some ways you're a lot safer than places that get little or no snow on the ground.

If you do have to hit the ditch there, deep snow will often mitigate the damage and usually keep you from flipping.

While living in Alaska, our home was in a mountain valley. Coming around a downhill curve, a young moose sprinted into the road and stopped. It was either the moose or the ditch.
Pretty easy choice -- especially knowing that a 4WD would be along soon and see the chance to pull my little Civic out as fun.

As for the ``nightmare commute'' in DC, I guess I missed it. The nightmare was downtown trying to get around the unpredecented security for the inauguration.

I commuted from downtown that day with no problem. In Montgomery County -- where the snow was worse -- my wife made the trip from Silver Spring near the Beltway to the school outdoor ed center in mid-county - a good drive along a hilly and snowy road -- in the late afternoon (4 p.m.) and back (7 p.m.) with no problems other than slower speeds.

That, of course, will change if the predictions are right this weekend.

Again, I'm not picking on Southerners. With all the factors in play, there's a lot less of a margin of error when something happens, like4 as ncgrrrl says, ``people still tailgating, talking on phones, not paying attention.''

Shaz's point about ice is well-taken, expecially with novice 4WD drivers who think that easy acceleration means easy stopping.

I live here in the Raleigh area and I am an insurance agent. Every snow/ice event that hits this area causes many accidents, mostly from the northerners that thought they could drive in this weather. Eventually, they learn to stay off our southern roads until after the ice melts. I just wish they wouldn't complain about having higher rates because of their "at fault accident."

canaic, your post is interestng to me because I owned an insurance agency for years. When I heard about Raleigh NC this a.m. I though, oh dear heavens, the accident reports that the insurance agents will have to deal with. Bet you are overloaded with paperwork!

I sure hope all of you that live in the areas with problems will be safe and careful. Everyone, please take good care.

It's the Northerners! Part 2

First it was ``northern'' reporter and the apparently northerner editors sensationalizing the story -- from their Raleigh office no less.

Now it's ``northern drivers'' screwing up southern roads.

What's next did ``northerners'' sell the state bad salt or faulty plows?

Since Raleigh apparently gets a kind of ice that is unique in all the world (and has hills!), I'm sure scientists from around the world will soon flock there to study it.

But you're not picking on Southerners....

read my posts, which say bad driving on snow is not ``a southern thing,'' it happens just about anywhere where snows are infrequent.

But I guess I am taking to task the claims -- without proof -- that say:

1) a northern reporter infiltrated the Raleigh AP bureau and sensationalized the story (and hoodwinked) her southern editors.

2) the traffic problems were caused by northerners who didn't know how to handle southern ice.

3) that somehow raleigh gets a special kind of icing that those of us who don't live there can't understand.

Yet posters from the region were already defensive about this before I ever jumped in. They noted that:

1)The DOT was prepared

2) Folks ``panicked''

3) Still tailgated, talked on cellphones.

My very first post said it wasn't about the South. It's about ill-prepared drivers who happen to live in the South.

But it's most certainly not some northern media/motorist conspiracy.

I was thinking about this post when I saw on tv people from Detroit, Chicago and media central NYC slipping and spinning on the roads during the weekend storm. I hope everyone was okay but I did want to stand up and scream "See, it isn't a southern thing."

However, after that, they used the local feed of people sliding over the Durham Freeway (though just mentioned as "weather bad as far south as North Carolina")