Slow down Minnesotans!! (construction, live, prices)
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I could not believe how many horrible driver were out the passed few days. Witnessed one person in Woodbury hit a stalled car, Saw a pickup truck blocking the left lane on 494, what i really hate is the people who get upset at me when im on the freeway going 50 like everyone else and they try to pass me and end up fish tailing almost running (innocent) me off the road
Excuse me for the Rant/Rave lol but did anyone else witness any accidents?
Btw im not saying everyone who got in a accident is stupid, sometimes you can press the break pedal just slightly and end up fish tailing and losing control
Tell me about it man. We went up to Duluth to watch my son's college hockey game in November and it started snowing on the way back. It was snowing pretty heavy, 35 was getting slick and visability very limited. I have an AWD SUV and felt that 45-50mph was the max safe speed.
Well, every kind of car you can imagine passed me like I was standing still. We get close to Hinkley and the traffic was completely stopped. We sat in one spot for over an hour. We finally got to move and they detoured us through Hinkley. We stopped and ate and after that the freeway was open again.
I saw at least 2 of the cars that passed us I saw on flatbed trucks being hauled away. A 22 car pileup on a day where if everyone would have just slowed down a little we would have all got back at a decent time.
Some lady in her SUV almost took me out in my car a few years ago in Bemidji. It was snowing, so I was driving slow, and I saw her in the in the mirror change lanes to pass me. Then she started fishtailing and went skidding in the ditch. There's a reason someone is going that slow.
I can attest to this: Duluth drivers are better in snow. I think it's a little bit due to the bad roads, weather and hills. It's trained them to be more attentive and reactive rather than proactive. They seem to be better prepared too - with snow tires and cars/trucks/SUVs in winter. Like Subarus! So many of them are up in Duluth. Plus more people drive trucks. I always get a good laugh at the white collared pansy from Plymouth on 494 with his white knuckles from driving his cute little Honda Accord
Hehe... I am originally from a rather hilly part of St. Paul, but I have to admit to being a bit scared when driving the hills of Duluth in the winter.
I'd like to see those studies. During a recent trip to the Twin Cities I was actually happy to be driving there instead of the Kansas City area. It was like night and day. My blood pressure dropped significantly. I rarely got tailgated in Minnesota, people actually used their turn signals and I don't even recall getting cut off by any of the drivers that I encountered. Here in the KC area those are common occurrences along with many other terrible habits that I have to contend with on a daily basis.
A few years ago two separate studies said that Missouri was the most expensive state to own a car. Since this is not due to higher car payments, higher property taxes or a higher labor rate at car repair centers I could only attribute this problem to the fact that there are more crashes here than in other states on a per capita basis leading to costly repairs.
3 inches of snow and over 500 accidents... That says enough
3 inches of snow and over 500 accidents... That says enough
A few years ago while I was driving I 80 west through Iowa and then south on I 35 to Missouri I saw over 50 cars off the road in a similar snowfall event.
I can recall when living in New England and upstate NY that even a foot of snow would not lead to so many accidents.
Location: Mableton, GA USA (NW Atlanta suburb, 4 miles OTP)
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Originally Posted by WILWRadio
A few years ago while I was driving I 80 west through Iowa and then south on I 35 to Missouri I saw over 50 cars off the road in a similar snowfall event.
I can recall when living in New England and upstate NY that even a foot of snow would not lead to so many accidents.
The way that the snow falls makes a big difference.
If it's hovering around freezing and you have wet snow falling first and creating an ice layer below colder snow, that makes driving a lot harder than a foot or more of dryer powder because you have that slippery layer underneath, and wet snow calling first followed by dropping temps can really cause issues.
The timing of a snowfall event is also important ... I think the first snowfall or the year (or the first few) brings out the idiot in a lot of people because they've simply forgotten how unforgiving ice can be.
I drove through that freezing rain one time on Highway 2. I got behind this dump truck who was driving about 20 MPH because of the ice in the highway. It took about 2 hours to go the 50 miles into Bemidji. I was moving and I could tap the gas pedal and the tires would spin. I turned off at Bemidji, and I looked back to see about a mile worth of cars behind me. That dump truck driver saved alot of accidents. This was Thanksgiving weekend of 2005 I think.
Freezing rain isn't the same as a meager snowfall. Either is a snowfall in Missouri. This is Minnesota. One should expect and be accustom to poor winter conditions. Those lists are all worthless too and while I haven't driven outside of MN as much as i have inside MN, I can attest to a lot of things that are increasingly frustrating to deal with. One is the inability to merge or exit the freeway. I don't understand why I often find myself on an entrance ramp behind some fool going 45 MPH. They finally hit their blinker too, at last minute and use the first 1/4 mile getting up to a nice comfortable 68 (in a 70). Same thing goes for exiting. Why do I find my self so often in the right lane of the freeway going 64 (in a 70) for a mile before an exit to the right, I hit the exit ramp going 50, when I should have hit it going 70.
Why do I often find myself behind some bone-head slowing down for no apparent reason, just to quickly turn? (There are things called blinkers). Why do I find myself stuck at a red light that has just turned green for a painstaking amount of time? (hit the gas when it's green, after looking both ways!). Why do I find myself stuck behind some moron going 63 in a 70 and when I pass I see them on their Cell Phone? (ban texting, cell phone use, smoking, eating, drinking, and radios in cars).
How about the person who goes flying by you in the left lane on the freeway, only to force you to hit your breaks when that person cuts across your lane and the next to make their exit.
It's like how much time did it save to pass those last few cars and cut them off, rather than laying back for the last mile, and safely merge?
I grew up in the lake effect snow belt in upstate New York. When I moved to the Twin Cities it was shocking to me how people here drove in the winter. I think Minnesotans (or at least people in the Twin Cities) might be the worst winter drivers of all the places in the US that have real winters. So many people here drive like maniacs on ice and snow.
And 4 wheel drive isn't going to keep you out of the ditch when you are driving on ice!
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I rarely got tailgated in Minnesota, people actually used their turn signals and I don't even recall getting cut off by any of the drivers that I encountered. Here in the KC area those are common occurrences along with many other terrible habits that I have to contend with on a daily basis.
