Portland drivers

[mountainmatt]

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[Cobra_Commander]

oh man, is it that bad out there right now

[murraysovereign]

COOL!! Road Curling - what will you guys think of next??

 

But seriously, that second vehicle, the van, just started sliding straight sideways from a near complete stop. If the road's that slick I don't think you can really blame the driver.

 

And that first one must have had something jamming the throttle open. Either that, or the driver was doing it on purpose.

[Chad_A]

Portland drivers aren't the best I've seen in general...but most natives that I talk to blame it on the Californian transplants

[JosephH]

Don't get me started. When it snows in PDX you should have to produce an old drivers license from the Midwest in order to drive...

[gslater]

Anyone can drive in the Midwest in snow. It's totally flat, and usually very cold, so the ice/snow is grippier.

[Chad_A]

Anyone can drive in the Midwest in snow. It's totally flat, and usually very cold, so the ice/snow is grippier.

 

Anyone? There's alot of people here in Portland that couldn't.

 

Three basic rules apply.

 

#1. When the road is slick, and applying the throttle makes the wheels spin.....applying more throttle isn't going to help. The wheels just spin faster.

 

#2. Leave more than 5 feet between you and the car in front of you (as a matter of fact, leave multiple car lengths open in front of you). This leaves adequate time to stop. For people waiting to get into traffic, this doesn't mean that you can try to squeeze into this space.

 

#3. When braking, and the car starts to slide, turning the wheel to one side and locking the brakes doesn't help. Not going 5mph over the speed limit helps, but if you must, then pumping the brakes generally reduces braking time.

 

Class dismissed.

[mountainmatt]

Tell that to the person in the SUV that seems to keep flooring it.

[JosephH]

Driving in the snow is a combination of skill and attitude. And the midwest isn't entirely flat, certainly not in the river town suburb of Chicago I grew up in. Hell, since 1905 they have had an olympic size ski jump bowl with several big jump ramps going down to the river that serves as a balloon port in the summer. And part of the deal in Chicago and elsewhere in the Midwest - summer or winter - is that folks always simply remember they are attempting to get somewhere, deal with everything matter-of-factly, and maintain an awareness beyond their windshield at all times. Simple and effective but the difference / result between here and there is quite stunning.

 

 

Hey, that's just a pissant no-name midwest suburb neither you nor anyone else has heard of, where's the Oregon Cascades ski jump center...?

[ClimbingPanther]

But seriously, that second vehicle, the van, just started sliding straight sideways from a near complete stop. If the road's that slick I don't think you can really blame the driver.

 

If it's really so slick that your car isn't capable of safely navigating the road, then you shouldn't be on the road. Everyone knows regular cars can't drive on lakes, and people usually don't try. Why then do some attempt true ice without traction tires? Definitely the driver's fault. I'm an expert with my FWD Buick w/ radials, but it has its limits and I know them.

 

Thanks for the vid, matt! That was a hoot!

Edited January 26, 2007 by ClimbingPanther

[Jens]

When I drive in snow, I pretend I have a raw egg (in it's shell) in between me and every contact with my vehicle.

Midwest and Rocky mountain snow is easy to drive in. Our snow may go through thirteen different freeze-thaw cycles in one day.

It's kinda like skiing, we go to the rocky mountain areas and we rule the hill.

My only correlation is this: No matter where you go, the subaru drivers are the worst snow drivers of all. I'll defend this satement until I'm blue in the face. Next time it snows here in Seattle, watch!

 

[olyclimber]

I'M RICK JAMES BITCH!

[tvashtarkatena]

Whenever I drive anywhere, I hold a raw egg between my groin and my anus. Anytime I get the urge to flip anyone off, or scream and the top of my lungs with my windows all the way rolled up, like some kind of epileptic mime, or pull the .357 from the glove box and shoot every moving target within my field of view, I can't, because how am I going to explain that persistent, oozing stain to those waiting for me at my destination?

 

No. Instead, I drive in a hyper-conscious fashion, eyes in the boat, concentrating like a laser beam on the delicate relationship between that every so thin egg shell, my underpants, my tires, and the fickle road.

 

That is all. I hope this helped.

[JosephH]

Well, there are two explainations that no one in the Midwest would understand or relate to. Folks would just shake their heads and go WTF and say 'over thinking'. And trust me, the Great Lakes generate every conceivable kind of nasty frozen precipitation from coating everything with two inches of ice to burying the known world in deep snow of every stripe. Nothing happens here that doesn't happen there at some point. It's just 'drive' - summer, fall, winter, and spring - no one really sweats the distinction when you live and drive ass deep in snow for a good chunk of the year.

[Cobra_Commander]

folks from minnesota are some of the most notorious drivers in portland.

[JosephH]

We still consider folks from Minnesota as being Midwesterners even if they plug their car in at night and can walk from one end of downtown to the other without ever going outside. But hey, anyone who fishes all winter long gets to be in the club.