[JonB]

Just a heads up for anyone that may be affected but the roads are bedlam shall we go with. I've just come back from work at the college to top end of Chatsworth Rd and taken my 45mins or so. Town centre is backed up in all directions mainly due to Sheffield Rd being standstill towards the ground from town so its back up onto the donut, along Saltergate and round past Eyres and down past Spa Lane. Mate from work walking home to Inkersall and said Crem Hill was solid as well.

Chatsworth Rd is solid towards town from Storrs Road up past Holymoorside but seems to be moving out of town.

If you can stay at work etc for a while i would do as the forecast is for rain from 4ish, although i think its started already, so an hour or so of steady rain may clear things up a bit.

This post has been edited by JonB: 08 February 2024 - 02:10 PM

[1982Spireite]

Never known anything like it from such a small flutter, like you say, every incline has cars on either abandoned or just wheel spinning. Mental.
Normally wouldn’t have bothered but figured I’d nip and get the little one from school before it got too bad… didn’t quite work out like that

[clarevoyant.]

Trouble is you can only drive as good as the person in front of you and a large majority of drivers nowadays have very little experience of such conditions.

[JonB]

Part of the issue i had trying to leave college was getting up the incline on Wharf Lane but then people kept blocking it at the top going along SHeff Rd so we then got stuck on Wharf Lane. One was a big truck and trailer that shot across the junction to block it but then couldnt pull away again up sheff road so he just backed everything up further.

[isleaiw1]

No snow where I am but part of the problem these days is the tyres fitted to normal cars. Pretty much everything has low profile summer sports tread tyres, and they are the worst thing ever. I never knew Ashgate Road was on a hill till i had an MSport BMW back in the day that got stuck at The Crispin.

If I still lived up north I'd be putting winter or all season tyres on any normal runabout to improve my chances in the bad weather. Winter are only really good in snow and below 7 degrees C but all season are a revelation - not just for grip to go, but steer and stop too...

ETA also traction control systems - if you are slipping on a small amount of snow, you need to let the wheel slip until it gets down to the tarmac. But traction control systems on modern cars stop it and so you lose momentum... learn where the off switch is (but put it back on again when moving )

This post has been edited by isleaiw1: 09 February 2024 - 01:08 AM

[JonB]

I'd got our little, well no car is little really these days but compartively, electric corsa for work yesterday and it coped pretty well with issues mainly coming because other drivers were doing things that caused issues. I needed a shove from helpful passers by on Wharf Lane to get onto Sheffield Rd because of people not thinking ahead about what other cars needed to do. I inched up the incline letting the car with the intention of not having to stop as people looked after each other by letting cars out onto sheff rd only for a bloke in a big artic to block the exit onto sheff road so we all had to stop on the incline then he got stuck trying to pull away up sheff road towards the donut. By the time there was a gap a few of us couldnt pull away so we helped each other along with some bystanders to get folk moving as others just drove around people.

When i got to near my road which is in the dip up the top end of Chatsworth Rd there were trucks coming into town that were stopping on the down slope so they could then have a run at the uphill bit the other side of the dip towards Brookfield School but cars behind them would then overtake them, narrowly miss causing accidents with traffic coming the other way and then cause a backup of traffic on the up slope so the truck had to wait longer.

Also saw plenty of folk rattling around in their big 4x4s which normally see parking on a grass verge as off roading deciding to blast around because they could causing issues by spraying around snow, water etc to anyone nearby.

[whittman]

what didnt help the traffic flow imo was letting the schools shut around midday when the conditions were at their worst because the roads hadnt been gritted or the snow wasnt deep enough for a snowplough

at normal school closing times the conditions had eased and traffic was flowing more easily

i wonder what the schools in Sheffield were thinking this morning as well when they announced yesterday that they were going to open later today because of the snow

[JonB]

Yep my daughters school up at Holymoorside said they were staying open but if any parents had concerns about being able to get kids home they could collect them....this then meant that a raft of parents descended on the school causing carnage in Holymoorside. Fairly sure the majority would have been fine to be collected nearer normal school end time when conditions were better or could have walked back if need be. We left our daughter in as we arent that far away and my wife walked up with another mum about 2:30pm to get them and then walked back the longer way round so the kids got a bit of fresh air and a play in the snow.

[JonB]

Half the issue here is we dont generally get snow so people dont have to deal with it very often. Saw loads of people on social media yesterday saying it doesnt cause chaos in other countries like it does here....then listing countries in places in Scandinavia, Eastern Europe where every year you get plenty of snow and freezing temperatures so its part of life and folk are used to it.

[dart in the crossbar]

Quaker, on 09 February 2024 - 11:38 AM, said:

Many moons ago I competed a winter driving course down in the Bavarian Alps around the Obersdorf area, a real eye opener it was. Driving successfully in snow comes down in most part to technique. Using the vehicle and how it travels across snow and ice to your advantage is a skill but its also a bit of common sense. We did our course using a Bedford 4t, a Land Rover Safari but the most fun we had was in an ordinary saloon car.

What I remember from mine with a saloon was to use a higher gear than you'd think, to plan well ahead and syau away from anything that you don't want to hit, to move your steering wheel as little and as slowl as possibley, not to brake or accelerate unless it's essential, where necessary reverse uphill in a front wheel drive vehicle with the engine in the front, to stop over as long a distance as possible. And to use a light car with narrow winter or all-weather tyres, given the choice