This is about as bad as it's got so far in Brigg - the middle of a late afternoon mini-blizzard, viewed from King's Avenue. Yet some drivers seem to be treating the main roads as though we are in Siberia, Norway or the Alps.
It really shouldn't take an hour to get from Brigg to Scunthorpe along the A18 when there have been neither accidents nor vehicles abandoned/broken down. But yesterday (Thursday) morning it took me that long to get from Bridge Street to the centre of Scunthorpe. It was also bad for drivers coming into Brigg.
I have a deserved reputation in our family for being a slow and ultra-cautious driver, having been in a minor five-car shunt on Mortal Ash Hill some years ago. But there seem to be some folk on our roads at the moment who make me look Formula One material.
Let's all drive with every care, especially on the minor routes. But on treated A-roads there's surely no need to crawl along in second gear for mile after mile.
From Derbyshire CC Website:
ReplyDeleteDoes gritting always work?
No. Despite the best efforts of gritting teams our success in tackling ice and snow problems depends on many outside factors.
Although we receive regular and detailed weather forecasts predicting conditions on Derbyshire's roads, ice can form on a road surface before the gritting has been completed. Early morning frost is particularly hard to predict.
Gritting is done when it is not raining to avoid the salt being washed away. If the rainwater freezes quickly, ice can form before gritters have completed their routes. If rain turns to snow during the morning or evening rush hour, it is very difficult to grit roads because of traffic congestion. Rock salt has a limited impact on icy surfaces when temperatures drop below minus eight degrees centigrade.
Trusting that roads are safe simply because they have been gritted leads to major accidents such as those on the A180 last week.
Local temperatures have regularly dipped below -5C (the temperature at which the effectiveness of gritting is reduced) and have passed -10C on occasions (the temp at which gritting is virtually useless).
Our European cousins have the mindset of using one set of tyres for summer and one for winter, some even using snow specific tyres (studded). Studded tyres are illegal for road use in the UK because of the damage that they make to the cheap rolled surfaces that are used.
We have too much weather......I blame the government.
ReplyDeleteWe need to have border weather controls so that only benefical warm sunny spells are allowed in.
Snow blizzards are taking over our climate.
Keep British weather British!!
There is no foolproof speed to drive at in these conditions ,but it is true that it can be harder to drive at 15mph than 30 mph in snowy conditions.
ReplyDeleteHowever the one speed you can do on the roads that is completely safe is 0 . Stay at home is the way forward.
psssst.....Nigel Mansell, I've got a F1 Farrari for sale.....with wet weather tyres. Interested, Our Nige??
ReplyDelete