does the snow make drivers crazy?

Kenjaja1

1) The Standard of Driving In the Snow
My experience has been that most drivers have been reasonably OK but there have been three types of driver causing problems.

- Many drivers who overtook me on slushy roads gave me a good spray of filthy slush. This was annoying, unpleasant and showed a lack of consideration but in fairness to those drivers it was difficult to avoid and I accepted I would just have to put up with it.

- A small minority of drivers clearly believe they know what they are doing and can safely drive at any speed they choose. The flaws in their misguided faith becomes evident when they need to stop/start/turn on ice or snow
- Another group of drivers are overly cautious and pootle along at ridiculously slow speeds.

I believe it would have been worth the effort of broadcasting short public information films on TV before the snow arrived. People could be reminded to use higher gears and that 4wd vehicles may give better traction for moving but they are as bad at stopping as any other car when on ice. People could also be advised of what can happen when driving in such weather conditions. Most importantly people could be encouraged to make intelligent decisions about whether they should drive or not

2) The Response to the Snow

This was very defeatist by far too many. Central and local government spokespeople effectively said that, as the snow was exceptional, it was inevitable there would be disruption. Public transport in London simply threw in the towel very early on. Where I work the majority of the workforce phoned to say they could not get to work but most of them live within2-3 miles.

I believe that local and national government bods need to be more creative in their thinking. They are right that it is very expensive to maintain fleets of snow ploughs for the rare occasions they will be needed. However, I am sure it would be possible to adapt many vehicles so they could be used as snow ploughs when the need arises. Farmers’ tractors and many haulage lorries could also be adapted so that we would have a huge fleet of snow clearing vehicles available when needed. The strategy would need to vary from place to place converted snowploughs might be effective in the south England but in other areas purpose built machinery is obviously needed.

When it comes to people going to work or staying at home there can be no hard and fast rules. Someone in an isolated area may not be able to get to work but able bodied individuals living within a couple of miles of their workplace could (and should!) have got off their backsides and gone to work.

Many schools may well have struggled to maintain their normal program of scheduled lessons but I do not believe that is a good enough reason to close a school. A reduced number of teachers in a school ought to be capable of keeping children occupied and engaged in educational activity for few days. Closing the schools only meant that even more parents either had to stay at home to look after their children (or used that as an extra excuse for not going to work themselves)
Inevitably we cannot expect to be able to cope with any and every set of circumstances but, with a change of attitude and a tad more intelligence, we could have avoided the total capitulation witnessed in the past few days. The cost of preparing need not be prohibitive. Unfortunately we all know that history will continue to repeat itself and we can expect to see almost identical news reports next time we have a bit of snow.