Maybe it is due to peoples inability to drive accordingly to the the road conditions.
With an increase in collisions in bad weather would you rather no advice given?
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Iâm sure youâre spot on there, since accidents have clearly happened.
The advice should target the problem though - reminding people (they shouldnât need it, but it seems they do) to be aware that the road surface might be icy, to drive more slowly if the conditions are bad, to leave more room between themselves and others, to use their lights sensibly and to check their car is in good shape (windows clean and clear, washer bottle full and anti-freezed) before they even start driving.
The trouble with giving advice appropriate for this
when what youâve actually got is this
is it makes the advice sound hysterical. Once theyâve stopped laughing, people will switch off. Theyâll only listen to so much crying âWolf !â.
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Fuck ! That road looks really flooded in the second picture! 
But ⌠but ⌠itâs on the map ! I thought we could take this blue short-cut, no ?
(If Iâd wanted to illustrate âunbelievably tiny amount of snowâ I shouldâve just posted the pic with the Freelander in it, I guess .)
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I would rather drive on snow than black ice.
What gets people at the moment is lots of rain and then a cold snap that turns the water into black ice.
Or simply advise not to drive unless necessary.
Indeed.
Given the choice, I would too. But if itâs been wet or snowy and itâs now been below freezing for an hour or two I just assume there will be ice of one sort or another.
Mrs VBâs daily commute used to take her through quite a bad frost pocket. In wintry weather Iâd sometimes share the first few miles with her and half the time Iâd drive. Thereâs a right turn on the edge of town with an adverse camber and the feel of it through the steering gave a really clear indication of road surface conditions. If the car was a bit twitchy there then youâd have to take all the later twists and turns very gently indeed. We didnât turn round and go home though, nor did we ever end up seriously losing the carâs grip.
If the advice had been âEssential travel onlyâ then weâd have had to have asked ourselves âWhat does essential mean ?â. Is work essential ? Is checking up on an elderly relative essential ? Is going for a dental checkup essential ? I mean, none of them is life or death, is it ? So weâre going to put practically everyone into lockdown (and proper lockdown this time, not with relaxations for work, or non-vital medical stuff, or exercise etc) because, surprise, surprise, January seems to have happened again.
My workplace used to be out in the country and significantly elevated, so ice and snow did happen. They had a rule. You could stay home if the works buses (there were fifty-odd of them) had been unable to reach the site. Buses are heavy, stubborn things, so that rarely happened.
Yes. Buses can be right cunts to drive as there is fuck all weight on the front axle compared with the rear.
So once black ice happens, thatâs pretty much it.
Quoting from the ITV report:
A South Western Ambulance spokesperson said: âPlease take care while travelling this morning, the conditions are extremely icy due to the freezing overnight temperatures and residual water on the road from the past weekâs wet weather.â
Good advice.
Googleâs just found me this pic from the winter of 1963
Itâs where I used to work. It was a government lab, so the buildings never got refurbed. Thatâs the Rec Soc building looking just as it did 25 years later. It contained the only bar on the site, so obviously theyâve had to dig the path out to it .
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Which makes me wonder why youâd drive if itâs not necessary? 
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Essential then.
If I can drive my diseasal torque monster to and from school on building site roads that have never seen a gritter in their life and only traffic âin the knowâ without flipping the cunt then itâs fine.
Fucking namby pamby twats with their front wheel or 4 wheel drive, tyres with tread on or âwinterâ tyres. Grow some bollocks.
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Are you okay?
Sounds like good advice to me. Why risk it?
When my mum was still alive, but elderly, she used to enjoy visits from me, and I used to enjoy going.
When I was at work we liked to feel that the work we were doing was worthwhile and that we at least owed the taxpayers (who were paying us) some commitment to get on with the job, even if that meant going to work on days when the weather wasnât warm and dry and sunny.
When I was first with Mrs VB she used to come down to visit most weekends, but she had to be back in Leamington Spa on Sunday evening for work there on Monday morning. When such a fuss was being made about the weather yesterday she reminded me of a time, probably in early 1985, when I travelled back to Leam with her because sheâd been a bit unconfident about the road conditions. Sheâd only passed her test a year or two before. She was driving a small car (second-hand, bottom of the range VW Polo) and there had been snow (not a dusting, weâre talking proper snow). So we put a shovel, a couple of sleeping bags and flask of hot tea in the car and headed off. This was before the M40 which meant north of Banbury you took the B4100. At Warmington thereâs a 1 in 9 hill. When we got there the traffic, maybe with some help from a snowplough, had cut a narrow trough, barely two cars wide. The snow either side was so deep it was as high as the car. She was driving on compacted snow. She took it slowly, and gently, and calmly and ⌠it was fine. As it was for everyone else we saw.
What were we back then ? Were we supermen ? Were we equipped with superhuman capabilities ? I donât think we were.
We have become very, very, very risk averse. If we let our fear choke us then slowly, perhaps, but inevitably it will finish us off. And we will deserve it.
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I know youâll have a very long-winded retort and absolutely will not stop until everyone else loses the will to live, but thatâs called survivor bias.
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Well, the combination of hard packed snow and a top dressing of ice on an untreated country lane caught FoL#1 Ellie out this morning, She was on her way from Uni to meet me at Arley Hall in Cheshire for a Falconry experience day. She was doing about 15-20, went around a bend to find a stationary car in the road, far enough away that she would usually have been able to stop or avoid it, but she touched her brakes and skidded, side swiped the other car and buried the front of her car in a hedge. Fortunately no one was hurt, so itâs just a matter of metal and money.
One Toyota Aygo is off to the scrappy very shortlyâŚ
Good that no-one was hurt Rob.
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Smaller lighter cars with narrower tyres seem to work well in those conditions
Citreon 2CV, Nissan Micra Fiat 500 all seem to get around OK.
BMW and Merc behemoths are best left in the garage
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