It's just an early and robust snow fall, we've had.  Nothing to really write home about if you have proper tires on.  Yet people are talking (and driving) like it's a natural disaster!  How does traffic moving down a section of fraser highway today at 20 MPH where the road has been plowed, salted and cleared of snow, slush and ice, strike you?  Of course every radio and TV announcer is dutifully spouting the mantra, "Take it real slow!", with which of course no socially sensitive person could interrupt to quibble.  I see it like this: THE GENERAL PUBLIC HERE JUST HASN'T ANY CLUE HOW TO DRIVE!  in spite of the fact, judging by comments by phone-in radio-talk-show callers, that the innumerable opinionated slow-poke driver population out there all seem to think they are among the worlds most skilled drivers, and that when on the road, anyone who chooses to pass them rather than tediously follow slowly behind, is a total "idiot".  These very same people have been spouting over the airwaves such advice as, "Don't use your brakes to slow down.  Shift to a lower gear instead."  While in fact this can be a useful technique when used by a driver who knows what he's doing AND HAPPENS TO BE DRIVING A REAR-WHEEL DRIVE VEHICLE, it is ignorant and dangerous to advise all drivers to be doing this.  Most vehicles on the road today are front-wheel drive.  As any professional driver knows, shifting to a lower gear to slow down in slippery conditions while driving a front-wheel drive vehicle is a good way to slow only the front end of the vehicle so that your back end comes swinging forward, throwing your vehicle out of control.  But hey, these "go slow" experts know it all, and they dominate traffic flow on our roads while the authorities almost commend them for doing so (although merely by default, since obviously if your planning on having an accident, it's true that the closer your speed is to 0 k/hr the less potential kinetic energy there will be to be destructively unleashed at the time of impact, duh; which is statistically good for ICBC and company), even though drivers who follow their example routinely precipitate accidents (albeit, less costly low speed ones) due to their lack of true essential driving competence.  BTW, a low speed is all you need to hit and kill somebody.  The trick to avoiding such a scenario is to avoid hitting somebody in the first place, at any speed.  But the skills required for that cannot be communicated in a mere (over-simplified) sound bite.



Well, that's my editorial for the day anyway.   J

Ken Moiarty