04
Oh my god. It's snowing! Again! In Rochester!
The first big snow of the season is upon us here in Rochester, NY. As I get out on the shitty roads and hope that no one barrels into me driving at 65 in their Range Rover, I can't hope but notice a certain pattern that occurs at this time: confusion. It seems that people in this area get confused by snow this time of year. I guess I could understand that; I could understand that if we were some place like southern California or Hawaii. The sad truth, we're not.
This sort of thing just keeps happening. It's like the wind, rain and gloom of fall cloak us in some kind of memory eating haze. "Wait, is that...is that snow? Quick, get the camera!"
Yesterday, it snowed...ALL DAY. All day. And yet the roads were not plowed. There was no salt thrown down, no. Instead, all the plows and salt trucks started heading out when people were leaving work for the day. I wonder how they thought THAT was a good idea. "Oh yeah, we'll just wait til everyone leaves work, because that'll make plowing easier. You know, with all those extra cars on the road."
It really baffles me how year after year, the same things happen and nothing changes. Not only do we have the idiots that don't maintain the roads, we have the idiots that don't know how to drive on them! Apparently this logic seems to work for people:
It seems that everyone has a big car and of course this means it's safer to drive. Hmm, let me talk some sense into you. I know I may like physics, but here's a lesson for everyone:
That concludes the physics for idiot drivers lesson of the day.
One last thing; if you need to drive in shitty weather there are only a few things you should be doing:
Thanks for reading and drive safe
This sort of thing just keeps happening. It's like the wind, rain and gloom of fall cloak us in some kind of memory eating haze. "Wait, is that...is that snow? Quick, get the camera!"
Yesterday, it snowed...ALL DAY. All day. And yet the roads were not plowed. There was no salt thrown down, no. Instead, all the plows and salt trucks started heading out when people were leaving work for the day. I wonder how they thought THAT was a good idea. "Oh yeah, we'll just wait til everyone leaves work, because that'll make plowing easier. You know, with all those extra cars on the road."
It really baffles me how year after year, the same things happen and nothing changes. Not only do we have the idiots that don't maintain the roads, we have the idiots that don't know how to drive on them! Apparently this logic seems to work for people:
dry/warm -> good driving conditions -> faster driving speeds
cold/wet/icy -> bad driving condition -> faster driving speeds
It seems that everyone has a big car and of course this means it's safer to drive. Hmm, let me talk some sense into you. I know I may like physics, but here's a lesson for everyone:
big car = lots of weight
lots of weight = lots of momentum
lots of momentum = hard to stop
icy ground = low friction
low friction = hard to stop
low friction + lots of momentum = really hard to stop
That concludes the physics for idiot drivers lesson of the day.
One last thing; if you need to drive in shitty weather there are only a few things you should be doing:
- Maintain a good distance from the car in front of you. I'm talking like a LARGE distance.
- Don't drive fast if you don't need to. Let's face it, unless you work as a firefighter, ambulance driver, or pizza delivery guy...scratch that last one. If you don't work as anyone who fields emergencies, you don't need to drive fast.
- Keep your car clean. Cleaning your car makes it easier to see people as well as making your lights more visible to others.
- Lastly, let off the gas first, then gradually brake. Too many people try to slow down by hard braking. This is not a good idea because when you hard brake you're trying to use the friction of the road to stop; this doesn't work so well when the friction is so low because of ice.
Thanks for reading and drive safe