Tales From the Milk Drinker

It's storming out pretty good right now in Waterloo and I just drove home from the gym. This is going to be a post of me venting my frustrations about things I see on the roads here this winter. I have developed a theory that people who grew up in places with lots of snow make good winter drivers and people who grew up in places with little snow do not. My disclaimer is that most of you reading this blog are from PEI, maybe a few blue nosers or haren chokers also, and I'm not mad at your driving I'm mad at other people's driving.

1. Be Gentle for crying out loud!
Those of you who took a physics course sometime probably remember that for an object of fixed mass (your car) bigger acceleration requires bigger force. The snow and ice in wintertime basically means you MUST expect your car to have a lower maximum gripping force on the road. Simply put you must be GENTLE with your moves. Expect to speed up, slow down, and turn at lower rates than in dry weather.

2. DON'T SLAM THAT FU*$ING GAS PEDAL!
EVER!
DON'T DO IT!
This is EXACTLY the same as point #1 but it's the most important point and I think it's possible my physics talk could confuse some people so I'm restating my point in non-science lingo. "Your car WILL NOT grip the road as well if you press the gas hard" You should press it softer than you do on dry roads. BECAUSE I SAID SO DAMB YOU!

3. You do not "need" a big truck or an SUV. What you need is a set of good tires and some driving lessons. If there's more than a couple hours per year when you can't get where you're going it's because you suck at driving, not because you drive a small car. I had a 4 wheel drive truck in high school and now I have a small compact car and I can still go where I want to go.

"It's slippery out, I better smash the gas pedal really hard so my car can push itself forward better"..... Smart like a box of rocks.