Given the number of intellectually-challenged persons I had to drive around to get home over lunch today1, I figured it was long past time to write up my best winter weather driving tips.
- If the weather looks worse than you feel comfortable driving in, then don’t. Stay home and save the rest of us some headaches.
- When the weather is affecting visibility, turn on your headlights. Yes, this means you mister white SUV speeding down the road with no headlights during blizzard-like driving conditions.
- Clean as much of the snow and ice off your car as you can reach. This does include the roof & hood of your car as well as the windows. Failure to clear these areas tends to cause the snow/ice to migrate from them to your windows once you get moving, so all that time you spent clearing the windows suddenly has gone to waste.
- And you were carefully clearing off all your windows and not just a tiny viewport in the front & back windows, right?
- Unless the road is 100% clean and clear, double everybody’s stopping distance and not just yours.
- When you’re thinking about cutting through a yellow light (or red if you have a death wish), just imagine what will happen if your tires lose traction and somebody is coming the opposite way2.
1 My area is currently under a Winter Weather Advisory and a Blizzard Watch.
2 For those of you lacking in imagination, it’s called a car accident.