CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Debate!

Basic Winter Driving Skills...

(44 posts)
  • Started 13 years ago by Wilmington's Cow
  • Latest reply from ruggtomcat

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  1. Wilmington's Cow
    Member

    They really do seem to be lacking.

    This morning waiting to turn right a a traffic lit junction two cars jumped the red, at speed, coming the other way, both turning left (i.e. into the same road as me). Given the conditions, the ice and slush and snow about, it's just such a daft thing to do.

    But the worst this morning is the sheer amount of drivers who seem to think that pulling away from a junction that is covered in ice is best done by spinning your wheels as fast as you possibly can. And they don't learn. Clio I tailed from the Uni, across George IV Bridge, down the Mound and up to George Street. Every single junction or set of lights was spinning away like crazy.

    Nice and easy does it people. If you're not going to invest in winterising your car, at least learn to drive to the conditions.

    Posted 13 years ago #

  2. steveo
    Member

    I was saying that last night, less gas more clutch pull away just at stalling point and we'll all be a lot happier.

    Posted 13 years ago #

  3. Wilmington's Cow
    Member

    "... just at stalling point..."

    Precisely. Although I'm not sure I'd count on many drivers being able to identify that point or hold it there.

    Posted 13 years ago #

  4. chdot
    Admin

    Driver created ice.

    Posted 13 years ago #

  5. Min
    Member

    Yes it is astonishing isn't it? I wonder if people are doing it on purpose because they enjoy skidding their car about in busy streets?

    Posted 13 years ago #

  6. SRD
    Moderator

    Last year I thought the driving improved markedly after a few days (less tyre spinning anyway).

    I think they should have big signs up saying 'steer into a skid'.

    Posted 13 years ago #

  7. steveo
    Member

    I think they should have big signs up saying 'steer into a skid'.

    Unless you have a BMW then abandon hope and pray to your favourite deity.

    Posted 13 years ago #

  8. Wilmington's Cow
    Member

    Clearly we're on the same wavelength steveo, that was pretty much my first thought...

    Posted 13 years ago #

  9. cb
    Member

    I have to say, I've seen very little wheel spinning, most people I've seen have been pulling off very slowly (almost too slowly sometimes!)

    I've seen quite a lot of folk just driving too fast though. 4x4 drivers are frequent culprits.

    Posted 13 years ago #

  10. chdot
    Admin

    "I've seen very little wheel spinning"

    I've seen quite a bit - though more on side roads. Saw a guy trying to get his Audi out of a parking space on Brougham Street yesterday. After about a minute he left the car and wandered off. He didn't even try reversing!

    Posted 13 years ago #

  11. steveo
    Member

    Clearly we're on the same wavelength steveo, that was pretty much my first thought...

    Hehe.

    Posted 13 years ago #

  12. cb
    Member

    "I've seen quite a bit - though more on side roads."

    But if the snow is deeper you're bound to see wheel spinning. If there's not enough traction then the wheel is going to spin, no matter how good you are.

    Posted 13 years ago #

  13. chdot
    Admin

    "no matter how good you are"

    Yes, but this was standard 'right foot is all I know' driving (with no forward movement).

    Posted 13 years ago #

  14. kaputnik
    Moderator

    just driving too fast though. 4x4 drivers are frequent culprits.

    YES!

    And blue-van man who almost ran me down as I was slithering gingerly across Great King Street - turned in from Dundas Street without the requisite stop / mirror / signal / maneouvre routine, hit the ice, put his foot down, then fishtailed wildly down the road, almost taking out cars on both side of the street.

    Posted 13 years ago #

  15. Smudge
    Member

    4x4's should come with a big sign saying "4WD is not a magic button to make your car brake and turn better than 2WD vehicles!"
    (Not anti 4X4, I'm an sometime off road driver for fun and used to train 4 and 6WD drivers at work in a former life)

    As to the BMW thing, are they really any worse than any other drivers of Jag/Merc/etc? Certainly there's nothing wrong with the cars, has Edinburgh become infested by bad BMW drivers since I last looked??

    Posted 13 years ago #

  16. steveo
    Member

    I think the BMW issue they are "relatively" cheap and rwd so people put silly wheel/tyres on them and drive them like well BMW drivers. Where they promptly slide straight into a snow mound.

    Posted 13 years ago #

  17. chdot
    Admin

    "has Edinburgh become infested by bad BMW drivers since I last looked"

    Depends when you last looked...

    There was a thread here a while ago that seemed to conclude that BMW drivers had taken over from the 'get out of my way I'm in a Volvo with my lights on so you must be able to see me' menace.

    Posted 13 years ago #

  18. Smudge
    Member

    I'm currently finding private hire taxis more of a pain, but maybe I've just been lucky :)

    Posted 13 years ago #

  19. wingpig
    Member

    "...the 'get out of my way I'm in a Volvo with my lights on so you must be able to see me' menace..."

    I never noticed that one. How long ago was this the case? In Lincolnshire the general rule appears to be that anyone driving wearing a flat cap is liable to try and kill you. True when I was a kid and still applying every time I go back.

    "I'm currently finding private hire taxis more of a pain, but maybe I've just been lucky?"

    In the town centre they don't seem to be as much of a problem but they infest the side roads of EH6 and any road anywhere which could conceivably be used to head to or from the airport. Whereas most traffic going past the house has been doing so extremely slowly since the snow landed pseudotaxis are still insisting on not dropping below 25. They're very bad at passing far too closely, possibly even as much as Beemers.

    Posted 13 years ago #

  20. PS
    Member

    Mercs and BMWs are often overpowered for their size/weight as well, which doesn't help them put the grip down.

    Posted 13 years ago #

  21. Smudge
    Member

    @PS, I've driven an unladen 500+hp tractor unit in snow, it only spins when you press the pedal ;-)
    "Overpowered" vehicles are sometimes easier in poor conditions as you can ignore the throttle and just ease the clutch out to pull away, good example is the 2litre turbo-diesel saloon we have which is a doddle to pull away in snow whereas a friends 1.3 puddlejumper requires much more careful balance, no throttle = stall, a hair too much = wheelspin.

    Driver education is the best traction control there is!

    Posted 13 years ago #

  22. recombodna
    Member

    nose into the corner handbrake on back end out steer into the skid and power on!!!!

    Posted 13 years ago #

  23. cb
    Member

    I have heard of BMWs being unable to move across an entirely flat icy carpark. Any possible combination of gear/throttle just produces wheelspin. Seems bizarre that a car could be that rubbish, but I've heard enough stories through the grapevine so it must be true.

    Posted 13 years ago #

  24. ruggtomcat
    Member

    Private hires, defiantly. Van Boy next. Then the Rich.

    Posted 13 years ago #

  25. kaputnik
    Moderator

    I have heard of BMWs being unable to move across an entirely flat icy carpark

    I pushed a BMW 5-series turbo diesel out of the work carpark. On the flat. How much of that was down to the driver's skill (or lack of) and his choice of vehicle, I couldn't say. But he did have those silly oversize alloy wheels with low-profile faux-slick tyres on.

    Posted 13 years ago #

  26. ruggtomcat
    Member

    anyone with a garage wanna help me knock up a two person plough/gritter quadricycle?

    Posted 13 years ago #

  27. PS
    Member

    It's the wee hatchback/sporty mercs that seem to be over powered - I helped pushed a number of mercs up a lightly snowed hill a couple of weekends ago (there had been a golf-related event on) and by far the worst was a hatchback. it didn't seem to have enough weight on the rear to push the rearwheels down. The fact the driver had a heavy right foot didn't really help though. Fully agree that driver education is the way to go.

    Posted 13 years ago #

  28. alibali
    Member

    BMWs do have a built-in weakness in low-traction situations: their much boasted about 50/50 weight distribution. This means they don't have much resistance to rotation and don't have much weight over the driving wheels. It's easy to end up facing the wrong way..ask me how I know! The fat tyres with no transverse features don't help.....

    Posted 13 years ago #

  29. kaputnik
    Moderator

    I wonder how this BMW copes in the snow?

    €1,300 for an aluminium framed tourer? You can get a proper Reynolds-tubed steel tourer for less, with proper kit on it too. The Specifications seem to make quite a lot of the "integrated BMW logo" feature. Worth every Euro.

    Seems the advice from BWM RWD exec saloon owners to improve snow performance is bags of builder's sand and a shovel in the boot to increase weight over the driving wheels and if that fails, to dig / sand your way out.

    Posted 13 years ago #

  30. Cyclingmollie
    Member

    recombodna: nose into the corner handbrake on back end out steer into the skid and power on!!!!

    That's exactly how to play Outrun 2006 Coast to Coast. Drifting!

    Posted 13 years ago #

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