So unprepared....

John R

seamus wrote:

The increased engine breaking caused by lower gears can cause the wheels to lock, and the vehicle to skid. A higher gear, while you have a reduced effect of engine breaking, you're once again less likely to spin out on a corner if you need to ease up on the throttle.

A higher gear allows a little extra room for inexperience and basic human error. "Drive better" is all well and good, but ultimately not the best advice.

Drive in a higher gear may well be the technically correct advice to give out but with the wholesale lack of driving knowledge of the general Irish driver giving it out as advice is incorrect. Many of them will not understand the reasons for it and assume it is ok to continue to speed up in the higher gear.


The only advice that should be given to drivers in snow/ice is SLOW DOWN.

It really doesn't matter much what advice is given because the idiots who do all these stupid things are obviously too stupid to pay attention to any advice in the first place.

Blitzkrieger

Kell wrote:

The weather has been sub zero over night for several nights and I havnt seen one gritter.

K-

I saw one the other night on the dual carraigeway. It was doing about 40 in the inside land and some plank was passing it out at 45 getting sprayed with ****e. Women drivers :rolleyes:

BrianD3

ambro25 wrote:

That's all fine and dandy - but not everyone is blessed with your level of coordination or mine, particularly in hazardous driving conditions (refer. the 'panicking' comment above for people experiencing driving on snow for the first time, or just of a nervous disposition in such situation). So "drive in the highest gear possible" is excellent advice, to prevent people from:
1. driving as they normally would, on a surface with a subtantial amount of traction to which they are used (dry / wet)
2. in this respect, accelerating 'off-the-mark' as quickly (and therefore gathering momentum faster than cautious in slippery conditions)
3. over-torquing too 'dramatically' when just past the traction threshold (with an immediately-very fast wheelspin) as opposed to suffering a much slower and easier to correct wheelspin (since the higher-gear / lower torque engine revs results in slower wheel revolution).

Not sure about point 1, but points 2 and 3 are spot on. However you are talking about accelerating/pulling away rather than slowing down/stopping. For every inexperienced driver who spins the wheels through accelerating too hard in a low gear, there's another inexperienced driver who applies the "use highest gear" advice to all situations and tries to drive down a steep icy hill at 20 mph in 4th gear.

Which of these drivers is more likely to cause a serious accident?

Sorry, my bad - rephrasing required:

Failing to slow down = people having been over vigorous with the throttle before failing to slow down, no?

Clearer?

OK But improper use of gears can have a similar effect to improper use of the throttle. Going back to the previous example if a driver tries going down a hill in 3rd or 4th gear where 2nd or 1st would be more appropriate, he won't even have to touch the throttle to get himself into serious trouble. OTOH the guy who goes down in 2nd or 1st will have a much more controlled descent if he's careful with the throttle. If he's not, he'll get himself into just as much trouble as the guy descending in the higher gear.

The increased engine breaking caused by lower gears can cause the wheels to lock, and the vehicle to skid.

Yes, very severe engine braking (eg very abrupt downchanges without matching engine speed to road speed) could cause the wheels to lock, however if the engine braking takes the form of very gently lifting off the throttle in a lower gear and letting the wheels turn the engine then I don't see how this could possibly cause a lock up. This engine braking would be so progressive that your passengers should not notice any retardation. And there certainly shouldn't be enough weight transfer to unsettle the car/cause a spin.

Maybe different on a motorbike though

BrianD3

AMurphy

Nuttzz wrote:

I was amazed this morning at how many people thought the could drive as if it were a summers day this morning. I witnessed 3 accidents, had to contend with numerous idiots driving up my rear and trying to overtake despite the road being white with frozen snow, one of which spun at a roundabout in front of me after overtaking.

...

Sounds like a wet day in CA.