Very dodgy driving conditions tonight !
Discussion
pernod said:
outnumbered said:
The A road between Charvil and Twyford was very icy... be careful out there folks.
Twyford was a mess when we went through it earlier - one giant ice rink instead of a town!VerySideways said:
Everything was a total ice rink last night - including the A329M!
Didn't seem so bad this morning, though local side streets are pretty shocking.
well two of the girls in my office aren't coming in this morning due to there OH's having quite nasty (separate) accidents around High Wycombe this morning. Didn't seem so bad this morning, though local side streets are pretty shocking.
supposed to be getting more snow this week too so take care boys and girls.
I think what we are seeing is following hard work by gritting teams on the main roads there seems little follow up gritting.
Side roads and still some bus routes not done.
Paths and footways near essential places like doctors surgeries, post offices schools etc etc.
Not many years back you would have teams (gangs) with a small tipper truck
attending to these areas, with extra grit for footpaths and problem areas.
I went to two local grit bins one was empty apart from scraps which was enough to do the approach to my drive and the other was full of rubbish and leaves, not been touched for years
I am not have a dig at the crews and highways guys more much higher up the chain of command.
This sort of operation is a 24hr one.
A mate does this for Wokingham area highways and he has been out for over 24hrs.
One observation.
Nice to see the rapid response guys in their Yellow Sprinter tucked up the the nice warm cab back off the main road at Lightwater looking like they were asleep - get off your fat asses and do something.
At least go looking for any problems.
Side roads and still some bus routes not done.
Paths and footways near essential places like doctors surgeries, post offices schools etc etc.
Not many years back you would have teams (gangs) with a small tipper truck
attending to these areas, with extra grit for footpaths and problem areas.
I went to two local grit bins one was empty apart from scraps which was enough to do the approach to my drive and the other was full of rubbish and leaves, not been touched for years
I am not have a dig at the crews and highways guys more much higher up the chain of command.
This sort of operation is a 24hr one.
A mate does this for Wokingham area highways and he has been out for over 24hrs.
One observation.
Nice to see the rapid response guys in their Yellow Sprinter tucked up the the nice warm cab back off the main road at Lightwater looking like they were asleep - get off your fat asses and do something.
At least go looking for any problems.
SVT Rick said:
Stuff....
tbh i was surprised to see them doing the paths outside my work by hand yesterday although very slowly. atleast they where doing them in some areas but only on the main high street not outside the schools or local surgery that i nearly fell over outside of several times.and waitrose had 2 staff walking around throwing grit around by hand in the car park which was a good idea as its leathal.
Edited by Rich VRS on Wednesday 4th February 10:13
WTF is it with people driving along at 30mph+ this morning on sheet ice?! Saw several idiots sliding out of side roads onto main roads looking totally surprised and shocked that their cars didn't stop when braking on sheet ice at 30mph.
And then the best bit after safely depositing kids at school; a roundabout in Theale had white OBVIOUS ice on the approach and despite 2 people already stopped and out of their cars after slamming into the verge and barrier, I watched 2 more follow them in and pile into the already crashed cars and each other...?! I was behind the 2 cars and had slowed to a crawl as soon as I saw the crashed cars ahead - it's not fecking rocket science to work out that 40 mph, white sheet ice and a 90 degree bend with barriers was not going to end well!!
Needless to say that as a responsible driver I stopped. Laughed. And continued my journey.
And then the best bit after safely depositing kids at school; a roundabout in Theale had white OBVIOUS ice on the approach and despite 2 people already stopped and out of their cars after slamming into the verge and barrier, I watched 2 more follow them in and pile into the already crashed cars and each other...?! I was behind the 2 cars and had slowed to a crawl as soon as I saw the crashed cars ahead - it's not fecking rocket science to work out that 40 mph, white sheet ice and a 90 degree bend with barriers was not going to end well!!
Needless to say that as a responsible driver I stopped. Laughed. And continued my journey.
Edited by john_r on Wednesday 4th February 11:33
I got back from work last night ok, Guildford to Woking. Although I did get stuck for a bit trying to rescue some guys at work - they got stuck in a iced up carpark when they went somewhere for lunch. Sweedish car, I'll be fine! Err, P-Zeros on the wear indicators seem to be my downfall, and I got stuck.
Left work 1 hour later than I wanted, and the temperature was dropping. I had to move a car load of stuff, so when I got home, parked up and made sure I could reverse out. Load car and 40 minutes later try and move off. Nope stuck again, as it had iced up under my front tyres. I try and bust up the ice, and get some help from my Eastern European neighbours "those tires don't work in these conditions, you need winter tires..." no st sherlock, thanks Finally got the car reversed out, and turned around.
4 goes to get out of my close, uphill, and with black ice, 25 minutes after I started the attemped to get out. All the roads to my mates house across Woking where iced up. After 2 runs moving stuff, I parked the car around the corner, downhill. Didn't want to go through that again first thing in the morning.
john_r said:
Tale of the spacktards
Love it! Luckily the snow/ice around this way has practically cleared up.
I remember about 7 years ago I was driving my old Mini along in the snow (which as it happened had amazing capabilities in the snow) taking it at a steady 20mph as I feared I wouldn't be able to stop if the moment arose, added to the fact that I had an alarming amount of snow collected under the front numberplate and didn't want to rip it off.
Anyway, I had a guy in a Chavalier up behind me flashing his lights and throwing his arms around and eventually he overtook me and pulled in very aggresively causing a tank slapper moment..right when he went between width restrictors causing a fair amount of damage.
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