🚀 go-pugleaf

Mark Crispin <mrc@Ikkoku-Kan.Panda.COM> writes:

>Some of these people who talk about how they ``know how to drive in
>snow'' (and by extension, most everyone else doesn't) and spin yarns
>about how they made it through snow-covered passes without bothering
>to put on chains remind me somewhat about those general aviation
>pilots who brag about how they know how to fly in thunderstorms, and
>how they do it all the time.  True, you can fly into the side of a
>level 3 cell and come out the other side none the worst for wear.  But
>you can also fly into the side and come out the bottom; and even
>experienced pilots do so.

Translation: "Hi, I'm from California and I'm here to tell all you folks
who learned to drive in the Rockies and the Midwest how to drive on
snow and ice.  Trust me."

As someone who learned to drive in Northern New Mexico (in a town where
a "big snow" meant that the local radio station would ask you to please
move your car off the streets because if the snow buries your car the plow
won't see it and may hit it) I found the comments of the poster from Wyoming
to be straightforward, accurate, and completely consistent with my
experiences.

Mark's post about understeering and oversteering sounds factual
enough to me, but what's the point if it just confuses people?

> [edited]

>Risk assessment is one of the important aspects of a performance
>driving school (*not* high-school driver's ed or the K-Mart Driving
>School).  Those individuals who are self-taught, or taught by family
>or friends, miss out on this and other benefits of professional
>training.  They may acquire some ``seat of the pants'' folklore along
>the way, but in the long run they end up disproportionately
>represented in the accident statistics.

Odd, risk assessment and the avoidance of unnecessary driving during
adverse conditions are one of the things that I (and most others in
snow country with "`seat of the pants' folklore" knowledge) practice.

The people disproportionately represented in winter accident statistics
on the Pajarito Plateau were either a) driving while intoxicated, or b)
visitors from warmer places.
-- 
David Barts  N5JRN                      UW Civil Engineering, FX-10
davidb@ce.washington.edu                Seattle, WA  98195