The main reason not to drive in the snow is the way other people drive in the snow.
OP you are absolutely correct.
Unfortunately this also applies when there isn’t snow.
Got tailgated by a Genesis on the way home from family’s today going 55 down a highway that is 55, but on which people regularly get away with going 75. Eventually an F150 squeezed in between us and if you can believe it (and you should because luxury car drivers often outdo full-size truck owners in driver cuntiness) actually gave me a little more space than the Genesis. But regardless, they were both following like…less than 20 feet off my ass? I mean that wouldn’t be safe in 70-degree weather with no salt or moisture on the road.
I am not a perfect driver. But I do know that practically everyone else on the road is a worse driver than me. Staring at their cell phones. Close follow distances. Short stopping distances. Stupid fuzzy fucking things strapped over their wheels to guarantee the worst possible grip in an emergency situation. Not signaling and cutting off, of course. Just all of it. And the same solipsistic elements in a person’s personality that lead them to behave that way under desirable road conditions gives them the self-confidence to go out there and drive in 7 degree weather with thick clumps of packed-down snow and invisible ice on the salt-slicked roads with the precisely-same behavior as they would on any other day.
Fuck 'em.
Yup. I’m in Texas right now.
Watched a pickup truck run a red light, or should I say “skated” a red light. Fucker was going 40 (5 under the speed limit, but it’s ice, fuck ICE) and tried to stop a car-length away from the light…
fuck ICE
But you are other people to the other people.
Yes, and if I am not on the road there are fewer people on the road. And therefore risk is reduced.
That’s lucky for them. I’m the the least of their worries (although statistcally, they have no worries, because they are scrolling TikToks while doing 12 over the speed limit)
I like driving in it when nobody else will. It’s kind of relaxing and zen to be in a little snowy bubble the size of your headlights.
Yeah, going slow, feeling the slip into the distance you expected to. I’m not a good driver, but I lose a lot less driving ability on ice than most people because I’m acutely aware of how my car will act on it. That said I live in the PNW these days so no more lake effect snow, not much freezing temps, and my ice driving skills only apply on flat land, fuck driving on snowy mountains.
True. More than once I’ve had to bail from a plowed (but still somewhat slick) freeway and take the unplowed backroads somewhere. Yeah, the backroads are slicker for me, but I’m the only one there, and I can trust my own winter driving skills - I know the limits of my traction and I know how to stay within them. Out on the freeway? Once I pass the second or third or fourth car stuck in the median I start to get a little nervous that the next one will take me with it embedded in my trunk and then I’m anxiously looking for the next exit.
I hate having to drive in the snow.
I love getting to, especially when it’s fresh, fluffy stuff, undisturbed in an empty parking lot.
When life hands you a snowy parking lot on a quiet day, it’s pretty cool.
My first job was at a rather large shopping mall.
Closing up a big box store during a blizzard. Huuuuge parking lots. Plows.
Like 4-8" on the ground. Lamp surrounded by and unholy amount of plowed powder.
Just flooring it, cutting the wheel, spinning, spinning, and softly plonking into a big giant snowbank.
Being 17 wasn’t that bad.
