After watching Highway Thru Hell...WTF?!

[Arseen]

I've been watching Highway Thru Hell and two thing springs to mind: What the fuck is wrong with the Canadien drivers and highway maintanance?

1: the drivers:

1-3 inches snow and they are stuck...
No studded tires even when they legal (I did check Canadien highway code and nearly every place allows so called Nordic Studs some even heavier studding).
SO CALLED FRICTION TIRES ARE USELESS IN NORMAL CARS!!!
Especially if there is ice underneath the snow.
And if you don't bother to change them when treads are almost gone.

I can easily drive thru 8 kilometers road that has 5-6 inches of snow with my Volvo 940 with snow in constants contact with the bottom and exhaust dragging thru the snow.
It does not even have traction control and is backwheel driven.
No chains just normal studded (the before mentioned Nordic Studding) winter tires with recommended 4mm groove depth (I have done that with 2mm groove tires with over half of studs missing).
And the road has quite a few very steep hills.

That is if needed (has happened to me 3-4 times, all unwarned storms), which brings me to the point 2:

the highway maintanance:
Why the fuck don't they clear the roads before trucks get stuck.

Law here says highest level roads must be cleared with-in 30 minutes or more often needed.
Second highest 2 hours.
And even low level 6 hours.

My road is on the lowest on public road scale, but on normal even it had been cleaned before I went to work in the mornings.

Here trucks don't get stuck even though they don't use chains but friction winter tires, rarely studded.
Some Russians even use just summer tires when they drive on flat roads.

[Oobgarm]

It just annoys me that they call the trucks "sem-ees" instead of "sem-eyes".

Must be weird Canadian talk.

[Hesch]

It just annoys me that they call the trucks "sem-ees" instead of "sem-eyes".

Must be weird Canadian talk.

A Sem-ee is a term for an erection. A Sem-eye is a truck. What is wrong with those people?!

[Arseen]

It just annoys me that they call the trucks "sem-ees" instead of "sem-eyes".

Must be weird Canadian talk.

A Sem-ee is a term for an erection. A Sem-eye is a truck. What is wrong with those people?!

It seems my English is better than I thought as even I knew that distinction.
Then again I'm only half Canadian (in reality even less).

[sheep2001]

In England we would never say sem-eye.  Semi is always pronounced sem-ee.  It’s all about context.  When talking about a penis, it’s half erect, not an erection.

[amace04]

In England we would never say sem-eye.  Semi is always pronounced sem-ee.  It’s all about context.  When talking about a penis, it’s half erect, not an erection.

I'm Canadian and I never call it a sem-ee.  It's called a half-chub

[Arseen]

I'll change my view a bit after driving our work car.

I think there is more to blame with modern cars with tracktion control than shit tires.
I was driving in a roundabout with said work car with very good studded tires and tracktion was so shit as the slid control kept coming on and THUS car was loosing it's grip.
I was driving 20km/h side ways!!! In clear weather with just perfect amount of ice for studs to grip, yet no matter how carefully I tried I was going side ways. 4 wheel drive coming on as well.
With my own car (Volvo 940, 1994 model) I can drive same roundabout in worse weather 50km/h without any slipping.
My car has no tracktion control nor ABS breaks, just normal rear wheel drive.

[wiggy]

There are no laws regarding when snow must be cleared from public roadways here in the US. At least not in Ohio.  They clear em when they clear em. And that often means waiting until it stops snowing, depending on the municipality.  I’ve never needed studded tires.  My wife and I both run snow tires during winter months though.

[TDIRunner]

We don't get quite enough snow here to justify snow tires, although I would much prefer to have them.  I would prefer rear wheel drive with snow tires over all wheel drive with all season tires.  But regardless, with the minimal snow we get here, my 4x4 pickup gets me where I need to go, and my wife doesn't drive in snow ever, so I don't have to worry much about her van. 

When I say "minimal snow," I mean that we rarely have it more than a week or two out of the year.  When we get snow, we can sometimes get over 12 inches (real inches, not my fancy fish ruler inches. )

[marioxb]

There are no laws regarding when snow must be cleared from public roadways here in the US. At least not in Ohio.  They clear em when they clear em. And that often means waiting until it stops snowing, depending on the municipality.  I’ve never needed studded tires.  My wife and I both run snow tires during winter months though.

Definitely don't miss those days. My wife and I moved from Ohio to South Carolina for exactly that reason. We never had snow tires, or even 4 wheel drive. Always all season tires. I've lived in Ohio almost all my life, so I was used to it, but my wife is from Orlando and got tired of the snow. Funny thing is, it actually snowed about 2 inches for one day this January in Hilton Head Island, SC. People say it hasn't snowed here since 1989, I guess my wife and I brought it with us. Since it snows so infrequently here, they closed all the schools, all govt places, most stores, bridges, all for 2 inches of snow. They didn't even attempt to clean the roads of the slight ice. Just waited until it melted. Most gone by next day, all gone within a week.

[TDIRunner]

They didn't even attempt to clean the roads of the slight ice. Just waited until it melted. Most gone by next day, all gone within a week.

If they haven't had snow since 1989, I'm guessing the city didn't even own snow removal equipment.  That happened to Las Vegas several years ago.  They were shut down from basically a dusting, but they had no way of treating or removing it. 

It'a all about where you live.  The people up North tend to laugh when cities in the south are shut down from a dusting of snow.  However, on the flip side, if their temperatures up North ever hit 100, they wouldn't know what to do about it.

[Arseen]

If they haven't had snow since 1989, I'm guessing the city didn't even own snow removal equipment.  That happened to Las Vegas several years ago.  They were shut down from basically a dusting, but they had no way of treating or removing it.

Street sweepers...

It'a all about where you live.  The people up North tend to laugh when cities in the south are shut down from a dusting of snow.  However, on the flip side, if their temperatures up North ever hit 100, they wouldn't know what to do about it.

Well it's how you take it.
Hottest here has been around 37C (so about 99F) in shade, so more in direct sun.
No problems we just made sure people (especially elderly) drank enough and stayed cool.

Coldest bit more than -40C (same in F) and add to that modest wind.
No problems either.
Our houses have triple glased windows and good insulation.
Many houses have fireplaces or better yet old fassioned wood burning bread ovens.

[wiggy]

They didn't even attempt to clean the roads of the slight ice. Just waited until it melted. Most gone by next day, all gone within a week.

If they haven't had snow since 1989, I'm guessing the city didn't even own snow removal equipment.  That happened to Las Vegas several years ago.  They were shut down from basically a dusting, but they had no way of treating or removing it. 

It'a all about where you live.  The people up North tend to laugh when cities in the south are shut down from a dusting of snow.  However, on the flip side, if their temperatures up North ever hit 100, they wouldn't know what to do about it.

There really isn't much to do, except sweat.  That, and turn on the AC.  The upshot is that heat doesn't impair one's ability to travel.  We don't get a ton of 100°+ days in Cleveland, but when we do, it's not entirely unexpected.  It just sucks, especially with the 100%+ humidity.  Thanks to "lake effect" for both a lot of snow AND often miserable humidity.

[TDIRunner]

There really isn't much to do, except sweat.  That, and turn on the AC. 

Except that in some parts of the country, some people may not have AC.  It's the equivalent of some areas not having snow removal equipment.  They choose not to make the investment for something that rarely happens. 

[Arseen]

Watched Canada's Worst drivers and learned few thing relating to this topic:
You don't have to proof that you can drive on ice to get driving lisence in Canada!??
And not parking exam or reverse driving?
Is that true?
Is is it true in US as well.

Here in Finland winter driving or driving in dark are not part of the driving exam (unless you take the exam in winter) but we get extensive winter driving and driving in dark lessons while in driving school.
But both reversing and parking (both parallel and normal (both head on and in reverse parking) are.
And at least in the school I took they insisted we kept practicing until we knew what we did and they offered more (paid of course) lessons until both the driver and teacher were happy.

So how about in your country.