"Evacuate everyone South of that line."

[OneSickPsycho]

Originally Posted by pauldun170

When I'm in Atlanta, I'm always fascinated by the amount of cars driving around on bald tires.
New cars, old cars, expensive cars, it makes no difference.
Down to the steel belt seems to be the general guideline for tire usage down there.

Same thing down here... People run their tires until they pop...

[CasterTroy]

Originally Posted by Papa_Complex

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kHzrWIL0bo

The transition to Benny Hill was perfectly timed!


On a related note....the drivers up your way are complete dick-holes and several would be instances of "Shooting in an occupied vehicle" here in the south. I see why you have instituted the "Russian camera mentality" on both car and motorcycle. God bless your blood pressure!

[Papa_Complex]

Originally Posted by Trip

From living in Alaska and my experiences in Tennessee, the people in the north can't either. People who were most often in the snow bank in Alaska were the badass pro drivers from the north with their badass ready to go 4WD SUVs and trucks all ready to jump any size snow drift. It was point of laughter up there. Typical overconfidence of skill and conditions.

It's the same thing I saw this week. People with mini vans, small cars, small trucks taking in conditions that they weren't use to in stride and slowing down to compensate for the bad conditions they had no experience in handling. Then you got the morons with their super awesome 4WD SUVs ready to just go hauling ass through the ice and making sure everyone gets the fuck out of their way only to wind up sliding into a ditch.

I stuck on the interstate for an hour in Chattanooga after leaving work early because they didn't treat the interstate and by the time they decided to do something, no one could make it up the ridge cut without getting stuck. Plows finally came through and shut it down so they could plow lanes up it. Most everyone was handling it well and giving plenty of room in the bad conditions we don't normally see in this area.

This time has a lot to do with complete lack of preparation. I had no idea it was even suppose to snow that day and conditions were fine by the time most of us went to work, no one had any idea it would actually stick to the roads and get to a level of it actually being packed snow on the interstate. The meterologists missed it completely. By the time they realized this, it was too late to stop the chaos that ensued.

I actually prefer running on snow, to trying to stay in track bare areas of the road. Most people don't seem to understand that traction is better on snow, packed or otherwise, than it is on slush that alternates with ice.

I'm remembering back to one of my trips down to Charlotte. I started out during one of the heaviest snows we'd had in years and I was driving a rear wheel drive Dodge Dakota, with my bike in the back, on all season radials. As I headed toward the border at Niagara Falls I passed dozens of cars, and a few transport trucks, in the ditch. The only times that my speed dropped below 50 MPH was when I was stuck behind someone who was white knuckling it in the fast lane and for the border crossings.

And I'm only an average driver, at best. There are just so many people who are way below the curve.

Originally Posted by CasterTroy

The transition to Benny Hill was perfectly timed!

On a related note....the drivers up your way are complete dick-holes and several would be instances of "Shooting in an occupied vehicle" here in the south. I see why you have instituted the "Russian camera mentality" on both car and motorcycle. God bless your blood pressure!

Thanks

I'd have beaten someone to death by now or taken one of my swords to some idiot long ago, if I hadn't spent a good ten years getting my once explosive temper under control. The twenty year old me would be leaving behind a trail of corpses.

[Trip]

Originally Posted by Papa_Complex

I actually prefer running on snow, to trying to stay in track bare areas of the road. Most people don't seem to understand that traction is better on snow, packed or otherwise, than it is on slush that alternates with ice.

I'm remembering back to one of my trips down to Charlotte. I started out during one of the heaviest snows we'd had in years and I was driving a rear wheel drive Dodge Dakota, with my bike in the back, on all season radials. As I headed toward the border at Niagara Falls I passed dozens of cars, and a few transport trucks, in the ditch. The only times that my speed dropped below 50 MPH was when I was stuck behind someone who was white knuckling it in the fast lane and for the border crossings.

And I'm only an average driver, at best. There are just so many people who are way below the curve.

The problem with the ridge cut was people were driving all over it. It was mainly ice lightly covered in snow. The plow trucks dumped a bunch of sand down. Trucks were getting stuck going up it.

[Particle Man]

Originally Posted by Turbo Ghost

It always cracks me up when people from New York or Chicago, etc. Make fun of us because we had an inch of snow and the schools, etc. shut down. I like to remind them we have something here they may not have heard of. Hills!
I wish they had called it climate change from the very beginning! I think it would have been taken seriously but, considering the average intelligence of those in power, it was beyond them to comprehend what global warming actually meant!

Most of NY is (get this) hills and mountains... I love it when people from the south think that NY is only NYC

[Papa_Complex]

Originally Posted by Trip

The problem with the ridge cut was people were driving all over it. It was mainly ice lightly covered in snow. The plow trucks dumped a bunch of sand down. Trucks were getting stuck going up it.

Snow covered ice is the second worst winter driving condition. Water covered ice is the worst and on one occasion I slid something like 75 feet on it, without the brakes or steering wheel having the least effect at roughly 10 MPH. Went right over a foot tall concrete curb. I felt like a curling stone. Miraculously there was zero damage to the car. My pride was in somewhat worse condition.

That was about 20 years ago and not the sort of situation that we see much, up here.

Originally Posted by Particle Man

Most of NY is (get this) hills and mountains... I love it when people from the south think that NY is only NYC

NEW YORK CITY!

Isn't that where they make that salsa stuff?

I can't remember; are you up in the Watertown area, or closer to Syracuse?

[Gas Man]

Originally Posted by CasterTroy

I'd like to see YOU drive on a 1/2" of solid ice when your state has no salt, sand, and more 1976 caprice classic on 26's trying to get to the social security office to pick up their check than you can shake a stick at!

See ATL

It's easy to look down off a thrown of hard packed snow that even a baboon could drive in and judge!


Ya bastard

Hey this year.. right after NYE... we got 16" of snow then temps into the negatives and wind chills of -45. They salted and when their slush was on the road and the temps dropped... Everything turned to ice. The highways were a sheet of ice and the spots that weren't, were still a road of brail ice (not really any better). The highwas were down to a crawl.. I'm talking average speed 20mph.

The bottom line is that your southern states aren't prepared for it. Nor do any of the drivers have the skill set.

Certainly there are the ones that Trip speaks of, but those are everywhere. The 4x4 anything are usually the worse offenders. But that being said, there are the few that, like Turbo said, are great in the snow. My wife's new fusion WITH snow tires is AMAZING in the snow. I bet it's better in the snow than most trucks.

Originally Posted by Papa_Complex

"Could I give you some money and we forget about reporting it to insurance?"

WOW... how many times did that happen before you got the camera?

[CasterTroy]

Originally Posted by Gas Man

The bottom line is that your southern states aren't prepared for it. Nor do any of the drivers have the skill set.

Yep...that's part of the problem.......but the BIGGER picture is: 16" of snow tells even the most retarded of drivers





But when facing 1" to 1.5" Home grown southerners first empty the milk and bread then go straight home for hibernation with their milk sammiches.....but then you have the "go getters" (mainly northerners, because when you grow up here you KNOW that no matter what depth...it's ALL gonna end up as compacted ICE on every road we have) ...that decide to run here and there at mach speed like they're use too on the roads up north, before settling back at home thinking 1" ain't shit. They're use to pre-treatments, trucks, salt, sand, plows....all the things no state south of Maryland wastes more than $100k budget on for the WHOLE STATE.

This storm was different though. The southeners who normally ride out such a "storm" by the fire, sucking down milk sammiches, were told to send their kids to school and go on to work....but then told at 11am to "come git ya damn kids"
Everyone (including the salt trucks) were released on the ALT hiways at 11:00 AFTER it'd already become a sheet of ice. And fuckery ensued.

[OneSickPsycho]

[Turbo Ghost]

Originally Posted by Particle Man

Most of NY is (get this) hills and mountains... I love it when people from the south think that NY is only NYC

Yup! I took vacation several years ago and went mountain biking in the Adirondacs up around the finger lakes in Old Forge.

We only refer to NYC because the rest of the state has some sense about it. No sense making fun of people that know what they're doing! The city folks however.....