Tips for Driving in a Winter Wonderland

Some folks appear to live with the philosophy:

“If my tires ain’t spinnin, I ain’t winnin’!”

Wrong, wrong, wrong.

In Northern Indiana we were socked in due to the dumping of several inches of snow this week, which kept me home Monday, but by Tuesday I was back on the road. Wednesday, most people were back on the roads and I saw many stupid and dangerous actions by my fellow drivers.

The driving conditions are a bit unusual, even for winter. The snow plows did a fantastic job of clearing away the foot of snow we had, but what they left us with is an ice rink.  Due to sub zero temperatures, roads that are normally just wet and slushy after getting the plow and salt treatment are still packed snow/ice covered  roadways.

I’ve been driving since I was 16, so I have a good 35 years experience of navigating in this crap. And while there are plenty of other drivers my age on the road, many have never learned some of these tips:

1. How to avoid going through a red light on a city street.  This is one that I’m surprised that more drivers aren’t aware of.  In many cities, the intersections with traffic lights also have lights for pedestrian crosswalks. Many of those pedestrian crosswalks have a timer and will countdown the seconds left before the light will change.  As a driver, I use these as a guide to determining if I will be able to go through the intersection before the light changes to red.  Try it.

2. How to avoid rear-ending someone. First off, slow down.  In driving school, we were told to keep a minimum of a car length distance between us and the car in front of us for every 10 miles per hour we are moving.  That’s the good driving conditions standard which not many people follow.  In nasty weather, you have to increase that distance.  Remember: you want to be able to stop if the vehicle in front of you suddenly stops.

3. How to avoid spinning out.  Again, slow down.  This week, I continued to witness cars that were at a complete stop at a traffic light that were unable to get enough traction when the light changed to green.  Their tires would spin, their cars would start to slide sideways, and they were going nowhere, fast.  Literally.

Instead, keep your vehicle in motion. The idea is you want to use whatever traction your car has to your advantage. Slowly approach the intersection but never come to a full stop if possible.  Most police officers are going to understand if you do a rolling stop at a stop sign under these road conditions.

Your turn.  Add your winter driving tips in the comments.