Texas 85 mph - Don't work well with fog

[clare]

Canadian Sheild rock-cuts

[Wes Groleau]

That sucks. The engine quickly slows the wheel down to almost stopped, and the car's momentum keeps it sliding.

Every cruise control I have ever had and every speedometer I have ever had measured speed from the drive train, not by GPS or radar or Pitot-Static.

[Wes Groleau]

You are almost correct. The wheels will continue at the same speed but the car will be going at almost the same speed, slowing down gradually until traction is regained or the driver takes over. With the wheel speed and road speed difference being small, there is greater chance of regaining traction quickly.

Without CC, the instant the wheel loses its grip, the engine revs up and the wheels speed up, preventing the regain of traction. Most drivers will instinctively let go of the fuel pedal, making the wheels slow way down, also preventing the regain of traction.

If you don't have CC, the best thing to do is keep your RPM close to what it was and keep the wheels pointed in the direction the car is moving.

Unless there is a slow obstacle in that direction. I've occasionally avoided a crash when skidding by flooring it and oversteering. Even though the rubber isn't gripping the _pavement_, a lot of slush gives the tires some resistance, and I can modify the direction of motion slightly that way.

BTW, I wouldn't be doing any of this at 60 even if I could see there are no other cars or curves for miles.

[Wes Groleau]

Nope, just doing what works.

[clare]

With a standard trans, hit the clutch. With an automatic, put it in neutral, and krrl your foot off the brakes - steer into the skid, very carefully.

[clare]

Then there was the time I had to deliver/install about 20 CD Rom servers to libraries across eastern/northern Ontario in late November

- rented cube-van, and away I went.Heading out the 401 eastboud around Kingston or Belleville I noticed vehicles starting to go "slideways". I was only doing about 85Kph, but when I lifted my foot to slow down., I felt the big van start to go too - popped it into neutral, foot off the brake, and right down the first ramp to the first Motel I could find. Then coming back around Bancroft a couple days later - with no load left in the truck and a pretty good snow going, I came down a hill and I felt it getting loose again - was getting dark, and there was a "motel" sign up the hill to the right. I just let the van into the turnoff lane and called it a night.

[Harry K]

I'll have to try it out the next time the roads are slick. 2005 Ford

Harry K

[Harry K]

Yep. It always amazes me how many people know so little about how those things work.

Haryr K

[Harry K]

Interesting theory but it flys in the face of what is taught in drivers ed and articles on driving in mags. They all say "do not use CC in bad conditions".

Harry K

[Harry K]

Reminds me of the time I got caught in a "Norther" in north Texas. Conditions got so bad I couldn't see to een turn around and go back to where I had spent the night. Slow, very careful driving got me into Amarillo where I hit a red light, steped on brake gently and went through light backwards. First Motel got my business.

Harry K

[Harry K]

Why so? You are just as likely to get smashed in low visibility in a blizzard as in a fog.. Of course plow berms, etc may prevent getting off the road.

Harry K

[Harry K]

Exactly but I'd rather smash up my car than have it smashed between two other vehicles. Tow bills are cheap over hospital bills.

Harry K

[clare]

How are you going to keep from freezing to death in a howling 50 MPH wind at -4F if you get out of your car? And how are you going to get OFF the road in the first place if there is a snow-plow ridge 5 feet high on each side of the road??

Think about it. Then think again and consider your answer.

[Wes Groleau]

Yeah, I've read a lot of things that turned out to be false when tested. Do any of those say why? Do they say what happens? Did they test it or just make it up, like the cholesterol myth?

[Wes Groleau]

What are you _more_ likely to get in a blizzard if you get away from your vehicle?

[Pete C.]

I'm pretty sure there hasn't been a blizzard in south Texas in quite some time...

[krw]

At night it's easy to tell when you've hit black ice, even before the front end points backwards. It's called "black ice" for a reason. You can't see it because there is no back-scatter from the headlights.

When we lived in Vermont, I'd hit it occasionally. I usually found the shoulder (where the sand and other debris accumulates) before things got out of control but once in NY, I did the multiple 360s trick before I found the shoulder. I *didn't* see that one coming (though I should have). No paint lost, though.

[Robert Green]

I used to be a police reporter and did lots of "ride alongs" with State Troopers and the county police. One of Maryland's first female troopers lost both legs below mid thigh because she stopped on the shoulder, standing between her cruiser and the car she had just pulled over when a drunk driver slammed into her cruiser and pinned her between the two cars, crushing her legs like mashed potatoes.

A veteran trooper gave me a very useful piece of information: When you need to pull over the the shoulder, get as far off the roadway as you can. Another important tip was to exit the travel lane very quickly, spending as little time riding on the shoulder as possible.

If you watch experienced troopers, they stay in the travel lanes as long as possible and then quickly pull onto the shoulder. The reason is that the shoulder is often littered with broken glass and all sorts of other debris that is knocked off the main roadway. The longer you drive on the shoulder, the more likely you are to get a flat tire.

-- Bobby G.

[HeyBub]

Depends on what you mean by "blizzard." A few years ago, it snowed THREE times in Houston, about 1/4" each time. They closed the schools. They closed the roads. They closed the airports. Those families that didn't huddle in the family room, filled the church pews. Grocery stores ran out of canned goods.

Little children, wearing all the clothes they owned, scraped the snow from car hoods, constructed six-inch tall snowmen and called them good.

We still refer to the "Blizzards of ought-six!"

[krw]

That's what he said, dummy.

No, harry, once again you're proving yourself to be the illiterate old git that you are. Do try to read.