Do the weather conditions have no affect on people's driving?

[Matthew_T]

We went down to Manchester yesterday and on the way there, other drivers were not altering their driving habits to take into account the weather.
We saw 2 crashes and yet people were still driving in excess of 75mph with snow lining the side of the road.
Even when we got into Altrincham, we saw a guy on his mobile phone, no seat belt on, driving a 4x4 clearly without any regard for anyone elses or his own safety. My mother stared at him and then got her phone out (she wasnt driving) and pretended to call the police. She made sure that the guy saw by looking in her mirror. I am pleased to say that the driver then put his phone down and kept looking around gingerly.

What is it with people in this country not altering their driving style to counter in the weather conditions? I most other countries (not all of them) the drivers slow down and take extra care when it snows. Why does noone do that here?

 

[swee'pea99]

Oh, it's not just here. Received this earlier this evening from me sis re her other half currently back in Denmark:

"I dropped John off at Heathrow last Sunday and he went on to stay/take care of his brothers place whilst he was holidaying in Tenerife. To get from the brothers to John's place of work involves driving down the coast road to get onto the motorway. Last Tuesday, in blowing snow, the coast road was a sheet of ice. John progressed at something around 20kms per hour with due caution and lots of space between him and the cars in front. Same couldn't be said for the cars stacking up behind him.

John watched as though in slow motion, four or five cars immediately ahead of him crash into one another so, rather than slide into them, he deliberately drove off the road and ended up tipping into a ditch, with the cars that had been behind him sliding into the pile-up.

No sooner had he come to a stop than a mega truck with the town's name slung above the cab came to a halt next to John. Not doing more than grunt, the driver jumped from his cab and slung a rope from his truck to John's tow bar and winched him out of the ditch. All this took less than 10 minutes.

John offered him 200kr and he declined with the biggest grin ever. He said that his job was as boring as fark and he looked forward to that time of the year when he could actually do something he enjoyed (dragging people out of ditches - take all sorts!) anyway, eventually he pocketed the money on John's insistence and they both got on their way. And all before the nine cars that were now mashed had even finished swapping details.

Just another day to the office."

 

[snorri]

There were crash statistics compiled many moons ago which indicated the safest period to be on the roads was two weeks after the last frosts of spring.
These were compiled before drivers were mollycoddled with salted roads and warnings as they are nowadays, so are probably quite irrelevant now.

 

[classic33]

No, is the honest answer. To many its just something else thats slowing them down, getting from A to B. Hope you weren't on the bike, they'd have really loved you if you were!

 

[biggs682]

no it has always amazed me how stupid some people are when they are in control of potential weapons ie cars

 

[rodgy-dodge]

A large percentage of the driving population think they're invincible, it bugs me too

 

[threebikesmcginty]

I had to point out to our taxi driver on Saturday night that I didn't mind him taking a bit longer to get us to our destination if it meant he didn't have to drive so fast.

No tip, apart from don't drive fast on snow.

 

[Andy_G]

Personally i just think most drivers are getting more arrogant buy the day, i drive daily for work around London and Cabs and Addison Lee seem to be worst and now theres little black letter boxes driving around, with mobile phones wedged in their head socks.

 

[PaulB]

It's maddening. To some people, if it takes a specific amount of time for a specific journey, say 40 minutes from Liverpool to their office in Manchester, then 40 minutes will be allowed and 40 minutes it will take. Snow, ice, fog, flooding, high winds or roadworks are beyond the comprehension of most people and are not factored in to the equation.

 

[Mile195]

I find the roads become carnage as soon as it starts raining. Not necessarily because anyone's had an accident, but everyone tries to drive faster, almost as if they're trying to get home before they get too wet. This doesn't make sense to me, because I thought the inside of most cars remains dry, regardless of whether or not it's raining. Or maybe my car is just special, who knows.

 

[Matthew_T]

At least some people have sense!
On today's little ride around, I decided to head up a local hill which had a bit of snow on it to see how bad the snow was. At the bottom of the hill I was overtaken by a car at a narrow section of road who I waved through (could see it was safe). I carried on cycling up the hill and started to see snow on the sides of the road (none at the bottom). I then saw the car that had overtaken me driving back down the hill.
He stopped and opened his window. He then warned me that there was a massive sheet of ice covering the road and it was impassable. I thanked him for letting me know but carried on to see how back it actually was.
The guy wasnt driving a big 4x4 or anything similar so I guess he actually had the sense to realise that driving up a 16% bendy hill on sheet ice was a bad idea.

I carried on up the hill and reached the patch of ice. I spoke to a guy who lived right next to it who was clearing his driveway of ice. He said that there are 10ft drifts of snow and there hasnt been a car able to get through it yet. He suggested that I go and walk up to see but I knew that I would fall in my SPDs.
My little story over.

 

[gaz]

At least we don't live in Russia, where brakes are optional.

I live on a main road which has a slight hill and every time there is snow some numpty revs the crap out of his rear wheel drive saloon car and looses control. Several times we have had to go out to help people push their cars into a side road so that the main carriageway isn't blocked for other traffic.

 

[cd365]

What is it with people in this country not altering their driving style to counter in the weather conditions? I most other countries (not all of them) the drivers slow down and take extra care when it snows. Why does noone do that here?

Have you ever driven abroad? When I was in Florida in January it seemed to me that nearly every person had a mobile phone in their hand whilst driving. Also when the weather was bad (heavy rain) and I was driving accordingly, i.e. slowed down, staying in lane and giving myself a nice distance between me and the car in front all it seemed to do was attract cars jumping into my lane to go from one lane to another, tailgating, no reduction in speed etc.

The USA is not by a long way the worst place I have driven, some of our continental friends, Italians especially seem to think that everytime they get in a car they are in a race and no one is in as much a hurry as they are.

You will find a lot of people in every country will change their driving style to counter bad weather but there are a lot of numpties who feel that they are such good drivers that they don't need to. You really should not make sweeping statements.

 

[ComedyPilot]

Short answer - No.


It's only by luck rather than judgement that people don't crash more often. This has the detrimental affect that it makes them think they can drive fast/close as they get away with it every day.

 

[DRHysted]

People don't drive nowadays because they don't need to, the car does it all and is so safe it doesn't matter if they crash.

Going by the standard of drivers I've seen just after passing their test, they have also reduced the required standard of driving.