The Snow Transport Chaos.

You might find studded tyres are illegal in this country.
Authorities that ignored the weather warnings and failed to grit/salt ARE at fault IMO.

I am suggesting it as an idea! Not suggesting that it is legal today ...

I suspect that it can never happen as the so called snow events of significance are less than once a decade!

It would solve the problem, salt shortage or no ...

ATB from George

When I lived in North Yorkshire in the late 80s, a friend purchased some snow tyres thinking it would be a good idea seeing as we were posted oop north. In the three years he had them they were used for about 2 days. Where would most people keep them? Wheels and tyres are huge items.
It looked to me that a lot of the problems were caused by jack-knifed lorries and stuck buses blocking roads. Maybe we should sort that problem first.

Yeah, if we had this problem every year of course we would sort it. 5 days or so in 18 years? Naaa.

Tony

At least there are some alternatives for salt being considered.

Tony

My colleagues in Germany say it's normal for them to have two sets of wheels for their cars - nice smart ones for most of the year, but for the winter, they change to steel wheels with chunky grip tyres, but not as extreme as nobbly ones. I can't imagine the climate is so much different to ours (this is in Aachen) - maybe it's an idea.
What concerns me about using snow chains or snow tyres is that our already crumbling road surfaces will end up completely trashed - the state of our local roads this morning was dreadful

Studded tires are illegal in Germany to. They use winter tires that are made for mid European conditions, lot's of rain and an occasional snowfall. Could be useful in Brittain to.

I use that kind of winter tires to, as I live in the south of Sweden and don't se much snow on the roads. There are non studded winter tires made for northern scandinavain conditions. DON'T use them if you don't live there, they are made for snow and ice and are actually extremely bad on anything else, particulary in wet conditions!

Only two centimeters of snow here / JohanR

If I had bought snow tyres for our cars when we returned to the UK in December 1999, I'd have spent about £500 initially, then about the same again to replace them after their useful life had passed (approx 6 years). I would have used them for about, guessing here, six or seven days? I'd rather be safe and stay at home.
As insurance companies found in this country when cars started to sprout 'safety' features like ABS, airbags and 4WD, people just drove faster to bring the danger level back up. I should think snow tyres would turn some British drivers into McRae wannabees.
Lets leave it up to the individual.

Tony

quote:

As insurance companies found in this country when cars started to sprout 'safety' features like ABS, airbags and 4WD, people just drove faster to bring the danger level back up. I should think snow tyres would turn some British drivers into McRae wannabees.
Lets leave it up to the individual.

My mate worked for a national co and the first ice/snow after the directors had their shiny new 4WD limited slip diffs and ABS etc AUDIs, nearly all of them fell off the road or rear ended some one because they thought that (epecially ABS) would over come every thing the roads could throw at them.
Probably says more about the execs than AUDI.

I have a spare set of wheels for my 4x4 with winter tyres on them. They do make a difference, but one still needs to be careful even a 4x4 with these tyres is difficult to stop. But we have cold weather for at least 5-6 months of the year and as long as the average maximum temperature does not exceed +5 then winter tyres are OK, it's just popped down to -15 here at the moment.

Cheers

Tim

P.S. It's also a different type of snow :-)

Yes it does Big. My Audi A6 3.0 TDI Quattro Auto has managed all of the recent bad weather, including a visit to Dr Peter! It's not the weather, it's the drivers!!!!!

quote:

features like ABS, airbags and 4WD, people just drove faster to bring the danger level back up

Totally agree!! On news clips of bad road conditions I noticed MOST drivers where far too close to the vehicle in front. I noticed drivers leaving a one-second gap. Should be two-seconds in ideal conditions let alone icy/snow!!!!

quote:

Originally posted by Symonds14:
Yes it does Big. My Audi A6 3.0 TDI Quattro Auto has managed all of the recent bad weather, including a visit to Dr Peter! It's not the weather, it's the drivers!!!!!

I didn't say it was, it just happened to be all AUDIs. People are told these items are the answer, they still have to have SOME traction to work.

I think the issue is with areas that don't normally receive a lot of snow and aren't really geared up for a once in an 18 year event. (Which also explains the media blah blah).

Areas of the UK that do expect snowfalls are more used to this happening.

I've got an Audi A3 Quattro and whilst admittedly it is a lot better in these conditions than a 2WD it will still skid/lose grip as it only has road tyres. A friend of mine has a Quattro with snow tyres and his is considerably better.

In Canada, I have winter tyres for winter and summer tyres for summer and its worth it.

Here in the UK it simply isn't worth it....the "extreme" snow just isn't frequent enough.

Same applies to the highway authorities/train companies/airport operators......the expense of gearing up for a 1 in 20 year event isn't a rational, justifiable decision.

The headline figures in the press last week of how much the disruption cost us, is just that - headline figures. By the end of this week most businesses will have "caught up" with their production and overall cost will be a lot less than the headline figures quoted last week.

ISTR the figures were £4bn. With a population of 60 million, that's about £67 a head or £150 per car in a two-car family of 2.4. As George indicates above - not worth spending good money on pointless tyres. And just the same with snowploughs and gritters.

Cheers

Don

Dear Don and Tony,

You have both come to same conclusion that I think is right about it simply not being worth spending money from the tax take on significantly better public provision of snow clearing equipment.

My allusion to running a separate set of winter tyres was to show that most people have already made this sort of balanced decision for themselves, even if they have not thought it through ...

ATB from George

Dear Avole,

Your wrote:

Not sure I understand what you're saying here - could you elucidate?

Hope this helps:

If people think it is not worthwhile to invest in the most effective way of dealing with snowy conditions at a personal level - buying snow tyres, because snow is so rare as to make it an irrational use of money - then it is no more sensible to spend extra tax-take money for the public authorities to have larger, better, and more expensive snow clearing programmes than the ones already in place.

ATB from George

Yes, that's what I think. I'm not willing to let my local council spend millions on more gritters, storage for more grit, replacement of more out of date grit... just in case. They won't be handing out free ice creams if have a blazing summer this year. Although I might hang up the bunting!!

Tony

We Britz bleat about how some snow brings the country to its knees while in civilized, continental Europe & US/Canada they cope. A fairer comparison is how well both places cope with the once in 20 years extreme events - I suspect in both cases there is severe disruption.

Ian

(- looking forward to going skiing at the weekend )

Dear Ian, Quite agree!

There fell acouple of centimetrs more snow here in Sweden on wednesday. Everyone has to have winter tyres, but it didn't stop the traffic turning into a chaos!

JohanR