Snow != Slow Motion

SON240sx Automotive
1

After driving home during rush hour in all the media hype about the mad snowstorm and all routes major or otherwise being super slow, it was really blown up.

I live in Markham (Hwy 7 & Kennedy Area), and I was coming from down-downtown (Adeliade and Yonge).

I didn’t bother taking the highways as I was pretty sure they would be really packed (as they are even during regular rush hour).

So I took the intown routes.
Traffic was beautiful, right up until McCowan and 401. (it took me about 30-40 mins to that point)

Now, one can speculate why exactly slow mofo drivers accumulate north of 401. (everyone already knows)

There has been quite a bit of snowfall, and 99% of the roads have not been plowed. BUT, comon people going less than 20??!?

You say, but I have bad tires and rear wheel drive.
So get to the RIGHT lane. You and your broke/bad at life fellow drivers can have a party at 3 km/h.

Every Corolla, (old 1st gen?) sentra, and saturn also looses its computer controlled guidance system in the snow. Causing controls to go to manual mode, putting the grandmother/certifiably blind woman behind the wheel in control. Naturally, their first instinct is to centre their car with the dotted line dividing the two lanes. If you are this corolla or similar car, please, try to aim for the curb and stay in the right lane.

Finally we have the big super macho guys in their SUV’s and pickups. Naturally they are the kings of the road, and the king can drive wherever he wants. Which just so happens to be the middle of both lanes (in the same direction). It seems at the high altitude of the truck cabin, it is very hard to see other cars down on the ground, let alone the lines on the road (from tires or otherwise) or the curbs. You guys are tough, you have huge powerful vehicles, how about you try driving in oncoming traffic lanes.

So please, if you fall into any of these categories, simply follow my easy advice, and get in the right lane. Or if you don’t fall into any of these categories but feel that going more than 20 km/h is much too dangerous with snow on the road, thats fine, just do it infront of your friends in the right lane.
Keep in mind there are some people that do possess these strange (and mysterious) things that allow them to drive with some level of competency in the snow. Since there are usually only two lanes of one way traffic, and the left is the passing lane, let these people get home/where they are going this millenia.

coles notes version:

Driving < 20 km/h?

  1. Learn to drive
    and/or
  2. Get some tires
    and/or
  3. Stay home until the snow melts/the roads are perfectly clear
    and/or
  4. Fscking kill yourself
    and/or
  5. Come to my house, sign a waiver and let me (4 above) for you

Thanks.

2

=D>

3

well said :smiley:

4

EEXACTLY

At the moment, my car doesn’t have winter tires on (or any tire that would even FUNCTION in any more than a mm. of snow) , so what do I do? I sit my ass down inside because I know that:

a) I’ll take FOREVER to get to where I’m going, if I even get there
b) I’ll be holding up those who have PROPERLY PREPARED VEHICLES
c) It’s just not safe.

Some people lack this common sense though, Midway Nissan’s body shop is making a KILLING… there are like 3 350Zs that are in there with bumpers fucked to shit because people are driving with bald OEM radials.

IF YOU CANT AFFORD GOOD TIRES, YOU CANT AFFORD TO DRIVE and therefore… shouldnt.

5

I can’t afford to drive :cry:

6

i’m just waiting for the flood of posts when people actually make it home after driving home at less than 20km/h.

7

Well, I picked up a Mazdaspeed 6 in Richmond Hill for the week today, and its got all wheel drive and they even put Pirelli Snow tires on it for me.

I had no problem making it back to Sudbury in a real hurry.

What a fantastic winter car.

Im an auto-writer so my 240sx stays parked while I boot around in a brand new vehicle every week, and so far the speed 6 is my favorite. You havent drifted till youve driven one of these. Wow.

8

Mmmmm i like it like that, she’s working that back, i dunno how to act.

Slow motion fuh me, slow motion fuh me.

Its not the weather thats an issue. Its the GTA retards, that dont understand how to drive.

I left for work earlier than usual because i figured when it gets dark, ppl become even dumber.

9

my take…

to all the people that fall into jugs’ categories… FUCK YOU!

My lovely day yesterday…
Work in Scarborough, McCowan + 401
Live in Mississauga, Mavis + Britannia (roughly)

woke up at 4am
Left house at 4:30am
go to work at 5am
Left work at 3:30pm (Scarborough) and started heading home
On a normal day without traffic I get off the 401 at Mavis in 20-30mins. On a day with traffic 50-60mins.
Yesterday I got home at 6pm!!! that was 2hours and 30 mins of SSSSSLLLLLLOOOOOWWWWWW <20kmph driving on the 401

Why was it sooo slow?? i didn’t see any accidents… all i could see was people driving too slow in fear and the normal drivers constantly changing lanes to try and get around these slow ass drivers… also these slow ass drivers merging on and cutting off trucks and shit…EERRRRRRRRR
Then there are the spots were traffic sped up to about 40kmph but only for a few secs because again… everyone who was normal had to change lanes like crazy and avoid rear-ending the slow ass <20kmph drivers…

Sorry i had to let it out this morning…

10

you all need to understand one thing. people… they’re (generally) retarded. they don’t think about other people at all. common sense is a trait far too many people lack, and it’s reflected in their driving. driving courtesy is another big problem, which requires the rare and mysterious common sense i mentioned.

many older people may think “well, if i go slow, i won’t get into an accident”. at the same time, they don’t think about the traffic they create and how much they piss off other drivers, who in turn may be more likely to become more aggressive. this mindframe screws things up for everyone. just because these older people might have all the time in the world and not have anything better to do than take a few days to get home, but other people have things to do and places to be.

the problem is that car manufacturers have completely “dumbed down” driving to the point where any idiot can be put behind the wheel and be able to operate a motor vehicle. imagine a world without automatic transmissions. those who can’t handle stick can take the bus or walk, and those who could handle it would be much more attentive and have a greater respect for driving (hopefully anyways). but for now, looks like i’m going to have to keep dreaming. :doubt:

11

i wish i could dream…but im up at 6am studying for my last exam :smiley:

12

:lol: Nutta!

My biggest problem right now is rubberneckers. I was heading home down the DVP late at night with my buddies in a Pilot and all of a sudden the highway slows to a crawl. We start cussing about how there’s traffic this late, and we continue slowly. Pretty soon we see an accident on the southbound side (we’re northbound), whatever, we pass by it and all of a sudden highway is moving perfectly. Freakin rubberneckers!

13

well one time…we were driving down 401 going to kennedy moving +/- 20 Km/h…no accidents no nothing whatsoever…both express and collectors are heavily congested as in wtf…i dont understand this shit, this not an isolated case, sometimes in the 410 too…no accidents no constructions no bottlenecks, traffic just slows down and then suddenly picks up out of nowhere… weird…

14

So what? People are being careful, is there something wrong with that? I prefer to see people driving 20 km/h rather then smartasses like MANY people on this site who think theyre 240 is a badass drifting machine, and drive 60km/h and crash and kill some unlikely bystander driving his kids to school… Grow the fuck up! There is a reason people drive slow, 500 accidents alone yesterday in Toronto! Sure, some people are terrible drivers, but that is beside the point. It can happen to anyone! I was driving 80 k/h last night on the 410 in the left lane, like an idiot, i hit a patch of snow, and the car went sideways. It happened again a few seconds later. I have Awd, but does it f*cking matter? NO. Use common sense for shit sakes.

15

DETS14, nobody said anything about drifting bro. people who want to drive slow should drive in the right lane. people who can’t even handle staying in a lane shouldn’t be driving, it’s really not that hard. and we’re not talking about going at breakneck speeds either, just reasonable speeds unlike 20km/h. at that rate, i’d be better off walking home or wherever it is i’m going.

i would imagine that most of the accidents you mentioned from yesterday involved people using excessive speed and having shit tires. unless you hit ice, the car CAN be controlled. it’s all about how skilled the driver is and what precautions they made wrt their car before the snowfall (ie. snow tires) to help them keep control.

coles notes:

nobody said to go nuts, just don’t crawl.

16

Being careful? You can “be careful” at any speed, so basically driving on the highway is a complete disregard for safety. Of course. If being a grandma is your “f*ck”'ed up version of safety… then do it in the right lane.

What are you even talking about? Baddass drifters? What does that have to do with anything. I could think I am the baddest ass drifter on the face of the earth, and I could drive as fast as I like, as long as I am a capable driver and am properly equipped (eg. tires).

Any fatalities to “unlikely bystanders” or otherwise?? Thats what I thought. They’re called fender benders, thats what happens when people have bald tires/bad reaction times.
An accident is no disease just because you drive at a reasonable speed you can’t magically ‘catch’ it.

Its good that you do realize you are a bad driver. Thats the first step, many people can’t do it, but I am proud of you. So please stay in the right lane (not the left), so people that can drive can get by.

17

i stil dont understand how ppl manage to crash on the 401 @ 20km/h…or at anytime really, i mean all your doing is driving in a straight line!

18

while i agree with you man, you’re setting yourself up for disaster

whats if you go out now and you’re coming to a stop on your gangster winter tires and some black ice catches you by surprise and you slide into a stopped car? overconfidence is just as bad as underconfidence in my opinion.

no skill level or tire is too good for ice. look at the rally drivers last year i think it was? like 4-5 of the best drivesr in the world went into the wall because of black ice, and there were TAKING IT EASY!

no matter what, when you can’t predict road conditions (i.e. ice you cannot see) driving is not only skill based. Huge precautions need to be taken because you have to realize at any point you may hit black ice.

That being said i agree with you, a lot of peopel who cant control a car sliding shouldn’t beo n the road, people with slow reaction times, people that dont have proporly equipped cars etc.

long story short, be safe if you’re not comfortable go home. if you are comfortable dont think you need to be a hero out there, brake very early and very smoothly and you’ll have no problems. its very simple

19

dude. car starts sliding. lady gets freaked out. over corrects, front of the car gains grip (as it gets off the ice first) as the wheels are turned it throws the car, rear tires have no grip as they are still on ice. car gains momentum sliding now, even when the car is fully on snow or slush it still has enough sideways momentum the lady has no idea how to correct slams the brakes, ABS tries to save the day and is obviously an idiot and just causes the car to keep arcing towards wherever its headed, usually curbs etc and most novice drivers tend to overcorrect to the right away from other cars.

if people just let the car slide and dont steer or press gas brake at all they often have a better chance of not spinning or hitting anything than if they were to attempt to save the car. this is why snow driving school is so key. accidents would be cut down by 80% if people knew how to control a car in a slide and understood how little grip there is on ice and braked early!!!

20

I’ve always thought that any driver with less than 5 years driving experience in the winter (5 winters) or that has been involved in an accident BECAUSE of winter driving conditions and was deemed at fault… should have to attend a MANDATORY winter driving school.

Is the government so naive to NOT realize that some of the people immigrating to Canada have NEVER seen snow in their lives?

And to those of you who think I’m saying this JUST BECAUSE I have more than 5 years experience… it’s not, I haven’t seen 5 winters, so I would be required to take the school.

Or do something like… the G2 exit test requires that you complete a winter driving course within the 5 years you are allowed to have your G2 before you have to upgrade.