Yes that's true. But a) his wife needed the car and b) he didn't know it was going to take so long. I think he *would* have left the car and walked if he'd known - as you say, hindsight is the best forecast.
But everyone knew it was going to snow. The Met Office were 100% accurate.
Exactly
This IS a primary road - the A404. If you're coming east on the M4 or M40 and heading north towards the M1 it's the main route if the M25 is blocked, even though you have to go through the centre of High Wycombe.
I saw a headteacher on our local TV news tonight saying the reason her school was closed was that at least half the staff couldn't get in. And the price of houses forces teachers to live miles away and drive in. That was in St Albans I think. It figures, to be honest. I never bother trying these days - I know for a fact I will get less than ½ mile and come to a grinding halt for hours.
Remember making those lethal slides in the playground? :o)
I don't think that would have worked this morning as the snow here had already been turned into pack ice by 6.00pm last night. But it would help to know whether our authorities have investigated what they do in other countries like Switz, or even in places like Sweden and Canada where they have really major winters. Imagine the havoc here if we had a winter like theirs!
Couldn't agree more - Cryers Hill last night was a sheet of wet ice totally gridlocked. The A404 this morning seemed to be totally blocked. I think that I only got through on the way to work because so many stayed at home. No apparent gritting at all yesterday.
I only live a couple of miles from you, and agree with you. The gritting around here seems to defy all logic, they did grit the roads, on Monday morning and at least twice on Tuesday, (when it was above freezing and no snow forecast). On my way to work (5.30am) they are often gritting the roads, but not on the days that I have actually had to scrape the windscreen. This seems to have been the case for the last
2 or 3 years, do you think its a council health and safety thing, in case their drivers sue them if they have an accident due to the ice? It could be just a Wycombe issue, this morning as you say, nothing had been done and the roads were still in the same condition as the were the evening before, but on entering the Aylesbury area, the roads were very suddenly clear of ice and snow.
I was in Sweden yesterday and talking about this with some business colleagues who were somewhat amused by the antics in the UK.
I've been driving around for the last few days and basically snow is simply mechanically ploughed off of the roads or people drive over or though it with snow tyres; although they do know instinctively how to correct a skid at onset. A little heater in the car is plugged in to a power outlet in the car park.
They did concede that it is harder to manage things when the temperature is between 0 and -10 than when it's continually below. I was up in the far north part a few years ago at this time of year and the temperature was around -43 during the day. Cars get around with little problem but there is a ready use of snowmobiles which apart from having a lot of flexibility on where they can go are great fun.
Yeah, I would agree - no way a blower would have shifted what fell last night in the early evening. It was wet snow, not dry flakes, and very quickly formed a thick icy layer under lighter drier snow above. As soon as you walked on it, it packed right onto the icy layer below, that had frozen to the pavements on contact.
Salting may or may not have helped, given the wind chill had taken it down to about -4 when it fell, and later down to -10C overnight.
Tonight, we've had gritters come round. Tonight, though - after the thawing that had happened during the day had re-frozen. Cars and people have been tramping around all day packing it all down further. The front road is free of snow and ice except for the edges now, from what I can tell, though it's still wet so if it gets really cold tonight could still freeze over again. The side road on the hill is atrocious despite gritting, cars still sliding all over when trying to get up it. Not helped by the utter inability to do the right thing with their gear boxes and feet to help a car cope with snow and ice.
I learnt pretty damn fast how to drive a car on snow and ice, why is it that there are so many others that have either forgotton or never learnt? No wonder there's so much chaos on the roads when we get snow and ice. They should make it mandatory to learn to deal with bad weather and make it part of the test, or issue snow/ice licence additions, or something, to keep the worst of them off the roads in the bad weather.
Yes indeed, walking to work along pavements that have been blown clear of snow would be feasible. Walking to work along pavements covered in sheet ice and packed down snow just isn't feasible.
"Peter Taylor" wrote in news:xMeSb.29042$ snipped-for-privacy@stones.force.net:
(Much )
Well my chin is up Peter, less than a mile away from you. Not only did we not get any grit, but the sun doesn't even rise above the (north-facing) hill here at this time of year to attempt to melt the ice.
Geoff (thank heavens for Broadband, I CAN work at home!)
Because I'm at home in the warm, while your principles are still stuck freezing their arse off at the bottom of the hill.
Because if I do it, I apply coal fire ash as it's needed, rather than prophylactic salt that may or may not be required, but rots my car anyway.
Anyway, I've been commuting on my 2x1 this week. 10 miles to Bath on a traffic-free cycle path. Apart from the sheet ice this morning, it's great fun !
I don't think investigating other countries that reliably have much more severe winters would help much. ISTM that it is much easier to prepare for that effectively, and also people in general are more prepared and experienced in dealing with snow and ice etc.
a big aspect of this does seem to be the budget/costs and the pressure to keep them down as much as possible. And I think that is always an issue, how much to spend on equipment that is hardly ever used?
The Highways Agency has 6-7 snow blowers in Yorkshire, they have never used them, though they have been used in other areas occasionally.
Which was precisely the point I was making, albeit rather sarcasticly. The LAs are shit-scared of being sued so they take the easy way out. Maybe we parents should band together and sue them for failing to provide our kids with a satisfactory education? and, in the same vein, WTF are TD (Teacher Development) days? Maybe they call them something different in your area but they're the extra days holiday that kids get whilst their teachers are being trained. Why don't they do this during the school holidays? We never had them when I was a kid (teachers were trained _before_ they were let loose in a classroom).
because nowadays teechurs have to keep up with all the New Initiatives, Reporting arrangements and Curriculum requirements as well as actually doing the teaching of the subject ...?
Barley Twist (Please put out the cats to reply direct)
"Peter Taylor" wrote | > Hands up all those who were at school more than 20 years ago who can | > remember their school ever being closed due to snowfalls of less than 4 | > feet or if the heating broke down?
But usually because the school buses couldn't make it.
| Remember making those lethal slides in the playground? :o)
Nowadays of course the kids are let off school and they make lethal slides on the pavements.
I saw some council workers out on a footbridge yesterday adding salt in big random clumps to the 2-3" of slush that was already there. A shovel would have done a much better job but that would have required more than 2 brain cells to figure out.
Pack ice??? I don't believe it. I can, however, sypmathise when it comes to many people's poor driving these days, and also when it comes to their absolute lack of preparation. As you say, there was plenty of warning - but many drivers took NO heed!
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