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Comment by peterjlee | Hacker News Reader

As a human driver in California, I honestly don't know how to drive in the snow.

Most human drivers in Michigan don't know how to drive in the snow either.

That's because the best way to drive in the snow is to not do it, yet that doesn't stop plenty of sport compact cars without properly rated tires trying to take on steep grades in sub-zero temperatures while its snowing sideways. There's no skill that's bailing that person out.

Ah people love to hate "sport compacts." Really, the worst offenders are SUV drivers with AWD who think that they can take their bald-ass no-season tires and get anywhere just because they have the appearance of ground clearance and an extra traction wheel. Last time we had a major snow, I took my "sport compact" car with proper tires and ran circles around the clueless SUV drivers who were spun out in the middle of the highway.

The best way to drive in the snow is to get out and do it at a time when there is light traffic. Go find an empty parking lot. Learn how your car handles, learn to rock your car to get unstuck. Learn about gearing, learn what no traction feels like. Learn what a skid feels like. One day, you might not have a choice but to drive in the snow, so you might as well spend an hour or so working on your driving skills. Not to mention all these skills translate to making you a better driver all the time, and could help you some day avoid an accident.

I mentioned SCC because I used to drive autocross with an SCC and cared after my cars. In reality it's everyone, as you noticed, but plenty of my dumb friends were running their customized SCC cars into snow banks due to Z-rated tires on during snow season.

I was driving my Subaru through Idaho on I15 during the winter. Going down one pass, I put my car in first gear and prayed because even though I had AWD, no snow tires or chains meant I was in for a hard time.

> The best way to drive in the snow is to get out and do it

In Sweden, before you can get your driving license you have to take a course where you spend an hour on a skid pan, taking corners too fast and emergency braking (a "moose" shows up out of nowhere) so you know how it feels and what kinds of distances and reaction periods are involved.

Also in winter, snow tires are legally required between december and march (and this is enforced with random DUI-checkpoint-style stops)

In reality most Americans cannot afford snow tires- the ones that do tend to be upper middle class skiing folk, in my experience.

Winter tires are not expensive at all, and anyone who can afford a car should be able to afford one. You can get 4 Continental (best in the market) for less than $200 (15 inches size).

>and anyone who can afford a car should be able to afford one.

Allow me to add the obvious implication

>anyone who can afford what I consider to be the minimum car worth buying should be able to afford one

Plenty of people drive cheap junk they bought with their tax return and pay insurance month to month. Those people deserve to get to work and the grocery store without having to violate any laws. The damage to our society from not requiring people to use snow tires is far less than the damage to our society that would be done by a huge chunk of people in violation of a law for a good chunk of the year.

Laws are how we quickly and easily categorize what a society finds acceptable and unacceptable.

Laws are not how you determine what is and isn't acceptable.

Our society does not require snow tires for part of the year. If this is so abhorrent then write whatever elected official represents you or move to northern Europe.

> That's because the best way to drive in the snow is to not do it

Good luck with that if you live in a northern climate. Modern life would essentially stop functioning here in Minnesota during the middle of winter if no one drove because of snow or ice.

Between the efforts of the DOT (plowing, deicing) and following some common sense (slow down, increase your following distance, avoid sudden changes in direction, anticipate stops, ensure your lights are not obscured by snow etc) there are only a handful of days when travel is not advised (usually due to blowing snow).

In part because I mostly don't commute these days and generally have a fairly flexible schedule around most things, I've been able to mostly avoid going out in snow in all but the rarest circumstances. I don't miss it.

Human drivers in Seattle have trouble driving in snow, rain, and sun. Subarus are still useful, regardless (more so before AWD was so common).

Snow Tires, and drive 10 miles below speed limit.

I drive much slower than 10 miles below the speed limit when when its snowing sometimes. During a bad storm highways can slow down to ~25mph.

This guy gets it.

Source: New Englander

Ignore the speed limit. Go however fast is reasonable for the conditions.

Going 35 on a road that's marked 45 but usually driven at 60 in good weather isn't going to give you time to stop short for something so you might as well go 45 if that's reasonable and piss off an order of magnitude less people.

Source: New Englander sick of being stuck behind people like you.

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