What the #$%@ is wrong with Denver drivers when it comes to snow? (Georgetown: transplants, home)

[Brian_M]

So my wife decides she'd rather ride to work than drive this morning, which means I get to be chauffeur for her. After shoveling, I had to decide between a FWD Jetta with brand new snow tires and a 4WD Toyota truck with 5 year old all-season tires... I go for the truck strictly because we have some side streets to navigate and the car has really low clearance, no desire to high-center it.

Get out on the roads, and they are just a Touch slick, being made worse by the morons who are spinning their tires (seriously, do you not know this makes everything WORSE?) and slamming on their brakes. If you're spinning/sliding, you're generating ice. Then there's the "lane identification" issue, I had the great pleasure of following someone, at 5mph (I was honestly idling, no gas input at all) down a 4-lane street because they were straddling Both lanes. It wasn't hard to see the doted while line if you bothered to look, go the speed you're comfortable, but get outta the way, wouldya? It's not like I was even getting TO the speed limits, I was 5 under (on 25mph side streets) to 15 under (on 45mph, unplowed main roads), and even at those speeds I was running away from the packs. You know that Packs of cars are the most likely place to have an accident, right?

And speaking of slow speeds, I took the truck OUT of 4WD once we hit a main road... so I'm in a RWD truck, with nothing but snow in the back, on 5 year old all season tires and I can accelerate to 25~30 without spinning, and stop without sliding (no ABS to rely on). It's not like this is the first snow of the year, and the majority of drivers were fine. It's just 1 out of every 20 I saw this morning that were driving in a way that they should have their license pulled until they had winter driver training. The sad thing, 90% of those BAD drivers were in 4WD/AWD SUVs and cross-overs. Trying to buy a car to be a crutch instead of just learning to drive in this stuff is bad news (heck, it's bad news in ALL aspects of life, learn to do something Right first, then add in redundancy for a larger cushion if desired).

Bah, just baffled at the poor driving here. I know there are people from all areas of the country that move here, and it's not a city that gets much snow driving experience because of how little it snows here. But come on, it JUST snowed 2 weeks ago, if your tires sucked then why didn't you change them? If you've never driven in snow before, that should have popped the cherry. And if you're just That Scared, none of the buses I saw were even Half full.

[Vision67]

I used to have a 4WD "OJ" Bronco. It got 12 mpg. In 1990 I switched to a FWD car with Blizzaks. The car was much better than the truck for getting around on snowy roads as long as it didn't get high centered.

Problem is that most people are not skilled drivers. Many think a 4WD SUV is invincible. Truth is that the brakes stop the wheel, the tires stop the car. It's best to avoid driving on snowy days if you can. There will always be incompetent drives made worse by a lack of training.

[jazzlover]

Two easy answers. A huge chunk of the metro population are recent transplants from areas that see little or no snow. Also, there is little, if any, driver training on how to drive in winter conditions. So, people either learn from experience or they never really learn at all.

[Shuffler]

I enjoy driving in the snow...but traffic is only as fast as the slowest white-knuckler out there, either due to lack of skill, not having proper equipment, or most often a combination of both. Throw in a few impatient drivers and it turns into a real circus.

Hoping to get up to Steamboat with the wife to do this, just for fun:

Why Choose Us | Bridgestone Winter Driving School

[Katarina Witt]

I don't blame it all on "recent transplants", especially when so many of them are from the midwest, which gets plenty of snow for learning to drive. I've known many a CO native, including some who grew up in the mountains, that didn't know as much about snow driving as me.

Additionally, I don't get angry at anyone for taking it slow. If I feel I can drive safely a little faster than the guy ahead of me (happened yesterday on the way home from church), I wait until I can pass them.

[soscrewed]

Originally Posted by Shuffler

I enjoy driving in the snow...but traffic is only as fast as the slowest white-knuckler out there, either due to lack of skill, not having proper equipment, or most often a combination of both. Throw in a few impatient drivers and it turns into a real circus.

Hoping to get up to Steamboat with the wife to do this, just for fun:

Why Choose Us | Bridgestone Winter Driving School

I'm sure the the class is great, but are you kidding me? $480 for 4 1/2 hours of track time?

Go to Georgetown and do the ice races. Much cheaper. Find an unplowed parking lot and do donuts. Free.

I'll let all the flatlanders in on a little secret. While you are screaming at idiots in front of you and going 20 under the speed limit, people in the foothills are flying along. People up there learn to drive, and have proper vehicles, or perish. Sure, you'll get trapped behind a Texas plate once in a while, but at least you won't be behind two dozen transplants who tremble at the sight of a snowflake.

[Cupcake77]

Originally Posted by Katiana

I don't blame it all on "recent transplants", especially when so many of them are from the midwest, which gets plenty of snow for learning to drive. I've known many a CO native, including some who grew up in the mountains, that didn't know as much about snow driving as me.

Additionally, I don't get angry at anyone for taking it slow. If I feel I can drive safely a little faster than the guy ahead of me (happened yesterday on the way home from church), I wait until I can pass them.

Don't forget about a lot of young drivers as well on the roads.

[Katarina Witt]

Originally Posted by soscrewed

i'm sure the the class is great, but are you kidding me? $480 for 4 1/2 hours of track time?

Go to georgetown and do the ice races. Much cheaper. Find an unplowed parking lot and do donuts. Free.

I'll let all the flatlanders in on a little secret. while you are screaming at idiots in front of you and going 20 under the speed limit, people in the foothills are flying along. people up there learn to drive, and have proper vehicles, or perish. Sure, you'll get trapped behind a texas plate once in a while, but at least you won't be behind two dozen transplants who tremble at the sight of a snowflake.

o. . . . M. . . . G!

http://www.9news.com/news/article.as...4703&catid=339

Motorists are advised to take it slow and give themselves double their usual commute time.

[CosmicWizard]

I think it comes down to a lack of experience driving on snow packed roads. For most of the winter, the Denver area roads are dry. People never acquire day in and day out experience driving on snow covered roads over the course of an entire winter. When I lived in Anchorage, many years ago, the city streets were snow packed most of the winter, which gave people an opportunity to get comfortable with it. In Colorado, unless a person lives in a higher elevation mountain town, or travels frequently in the mountains, the roads are free of snow and ice most of the time, so the majority of Colorado drivers simply don't get much practice driving in the snow. Newcomers to the Denver area from the New England states or the upper midwest are likely to be far more experienced driving on snow covered roads than most longtime Denverites.

[EscapeCalifornia]

Originally Posted by soscrewed

I'm sure the the class is great, but are you kidding me? $480 for 4 1/2 hours of track time?

I believe that price is for the whole day: 1/2 day in class and 1/2 day behind the wheel. You're also paying for an experienced instructor to ride shotgun with you.