Wimpy UK grinds to a halt the moment the first snows appear...

[Kataphraktoi]

Originally posted by duke o' york
No-one I know does, but I don't have a car so I'm not the expert on this. Surely ordinary tyres and snowchains would be (more than) enough.

we have worse weather here in michigan and using ordinary tires. i havnt seen snowchains for a loong time,and rarely on cars when i have

[Richelieu]

Originally posted by Kataphraktoi


we have worse weather here in michigan and using ordinary tires. i havnt seen snowchains for a loong time,and rarely on cars when i have

What do you mean by ordinary? Summer tires or 4 seasons?

[MOBIUS]

Originally posted by Richelieu
You know, you're probably going to end up with a couple of deaths. That's ****ing pathetic.

Don't worry, I know we're pathetic about this sort of stuff, but nobody is going to die over it...

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[germanos]

If it'll make the Brits feel any better...
In the Netherlands it's the same mess

(people stranded in cars, villages out of power, total screw up on the railways etc.)

[Lawrence of Arabia]

here too, over 400 accidents in CH. in geneva, many frenchies skidded off the road during morning commute and into open fields in the genevan countryside because the roads weren't salted and very few people have put on winter tires yet.

[BlackCat]

Just to make you brits feel worse ...

It has been a standing joke that the first leafs falling would put public train transport to a grinding halt and it has been true for several years, but not this - they have this year introduced a cleaning machine that removes it - result : no problems besides the problem with to less funding of infrastructure (no need to say that it of course was a socialist government that ignored the need ).

They have promised the first snow the next couple of days so it's a little too early to say if the privates know to handle yet another winter.

[alva]

'T was abit of a shock for me, went to bed while the sun was shining and when I got up 't was snowing.
Of course I didn't saw any weather reports yesterday either, so it was weird.

Where's all those tropooical winters the've been promising us for years.

Btw: I can't remember the last time it snowed so much and so early in the year.

[Seeker]

One of my roommates comes from Sudbury, Ont. He asked me if London was a 'snow-prepared city'....unfortunately, the city budgets are not prepared in winter, so it always looks like a good idea to cut the snowplough budget.

But the police budget is high as ever. Plus, instead of sanding or ploughing, they salt, which is cheaper but the worst option. Salt over years rusts cars. Second, in heavy snowfalls and low temperatures, it just turns the snow into slush. So instead of a layer of snow with ice, you have to deal with knee-high slush.

Typical example of city insanity: walking around downtown, there are about a dozen police cruisers waiting in side streets to ticket unsafe drivers. The streets have not been ploughed, and were salted at 10 AM instead of 6 AM, so naturally many people are skidding around in this soup. So here we are, cops galore but no snow ploughs??

So naturally I'm thinking....is this some kind of lame cash grab by the city?? Why don't they attach ploughs to some of the cruisers and give them something useful to do instead of ticketing people caught in the situation the city created???

[Asher]

Originally posted by Richelieu
Snow chains. Haven't heard of those in a long time.

You obviously don't live near the mountains.

[Asher]

Calgary almost always uses sand, and it's really not that "better" for cars than salt. So many paint chips in the damn car that it exposes the metal and starts to rust, unless you religiously touch it up.

[Richelieu]

Originally posted by Asher

You obviously don't live near the mountains.

Nope. The Laurentians are merely bumps compared to the Rockies.

[Dauphin]

I'm intrigued by the reports of snow in Germany, Netherlands, Wales etc. Not as much as a snowflake here southeast of London.

[Provost Harrison]

Yeah, I have been similarly surprised - first of my knowledge of snow was seeing it on here...

[Kataphraktoi]

Originally posted by Richelieu


What do you mean by ordinary? Summer tires or 4 seasons?

ordinary,as in i\we use the same tires year round.unless invisiable gnomes go about changing them and i havnt noticed

[Barley]

UK didnt grind to a halt, the claims of gridlock were from the usual gingoistic media. The one part of Devon which encountered a delay was due to two large lorries jackknifing on ice. The snarl up was cleared within an hour.