jan 17 monday
driving in snow

vocabulary

"Black Ice": Where snow melt or other water has run onto the road, it may freeze, matching the road color. This type of ice is very hard to see, particularly at night. If you don't know the road condition, SLOW IS BEST.

spin your tires:
(1) your tires are spinning at the stoplight.
(2) DO NOT SPIN THE TIRES. This makes the tires hot. The heat melts the snow which then places a layer of water between the tires and the packed snow: a very slippery condition.

to get stuck:
(1)did you get stuck yet in any snow or on some ice?

to free yourself:
(1)one way to free yourself is to put a piece of carpet in front of the wheels.

rock back and forth:
(1)you can try "rocking" the car.
(2) sometimes gently rocking the car back and forth by shifting between forward and reverse gears will help you get over a little hump.

rear- and front-wheel drive

When you are front wheel drive you are asking the front wheels to pull, steer and brake. When you are rear wheel drive your front wheels steer and brake and your rear wheels push.

question: How good is rear-wheel drive in handling snow and ice?

Rear wheel drive vehicles do not perform as well on snow and ice as do front wheel drive counterparts, however adding weight to the rear of the car can help this situation. The addition of studded snow tires or snow chains improves this problem greatly, although in some states studded tires and chains are only legal for seasonal use. Chains can also be difficult to install but offer the best traction for a rear wheel drive car in winter driving. If either of these two options are not feasible and you do not have access to a front wheel drive car, the very best option is to go with a tire optimized for winter driving and choose the one with the narrowest width. The skinnier the tire, the greater pounds per square inch the tire has on a surface and this will reduce wheel-spin and increase the coeffecient of friction the tire has to the surface you are driving on. Any configuration of drive wheels is very limited on pure ice as it offers almost nill traction and should be avoided in any car without chains or studs.

news report

A powerful line of snow squalls shocked commuters Tuesday, leaving behind a
thin coat of snow and black ice that ... His 30-mile drive to Boston took more than four and a half hours. "I could almost get to Las Vegas faster than I ...