This was the scene at the Oshawa GO Station parking lot for much of Friday afternoon and evening.
Unlike other drivers, I had no trouble driving my car out of my spot and out of the lot. I was on daycare pickup duty for both Thursday and Friday, otherwise, I would have been on the bus.
It shouldn't matter what kind of car you drive, whether you have snow ties or not, although snow tires play a very important part in winter weather, what should matter is how much patience you have coupled with a little winter driving skills.
Granted, my Ford Flex has all wheel drive (AWD) but despite its CUV size, it's still a car. I put the transmission in the lowest gear, kept my wheels straight, gave it a little gas and out I went - smooth as whistle. Other people didn't have much luck - many making the mistakes of turning their front wheels right or left, and pressing hard down on the gas, resulting in no traction and a lot of spinning in ruts. I hopped in the driver's seat of two stranded motorists and got their cars out - the first being a manual Audi sedan [AWD] and the other a Chevy Equinox [two-wheel, front-wheel drive, no 4x4 or AWD]. Both were driven by men who doubted my ability to rescue them. This annoyed me but whatever, I'm here to help, right?
I got the Equinox out by reversing the vehicle back into its original spot and driving it forward, no angling of the wheels and only a little bit of gas. The driver told me he figured momentum would do the trick. I told him not from a stand-still position. You people are cray-cray.
The Audi on the other hand ... the owner had almost 169,000 km on it and the original tires. I told him to buy new tires. He told me there was nothing wrong with them. I gave him the eyeball and a shrug. I really doubted his tires were fine because despite being an Audi where all-wheel-drive is standard, his car wouldn't budge. I asked him to get his floor mats out of the car and I positioned them in front of his front tires. I got him out but it took almost 10 minutes of reversing and driving forward inch by inch - rinse and repeat - on the floor mats. What I found funny is as I was leaving, I noticed a young woman getting her floor mats out of her car to use them for traction. That's a good girl.
It would also help if people carried shovels. It would also help is GO plowed the lot.
ReplyDeletePlowing proved pointless for a lot of plow operators with the wind blowing it all back from where it was plowed.
ReplyDeleteIt also pointless to move snow off the driveway it means shoving it in front of the cars.
ReplyDeleteNB: I was taught that in icey conditions, you should use the highest gear possible to reduce wheelspin. (Unless you have something very expensive with wheelspin control)
Plowing would have just pushed all the snow in the lane ways right up to your car. Thinks about what happens at the end of your driveway.
ReplyDeleteThe ride home on Friday was VERY entertaining! My favorite was the guy digging around his car with a coffee cup!!
ReplyDeleteDoes any know if there was any particular reason why Go didn't bother to plow/shovel/salt the platforms?
ReplyDeleteI was told, like with most businesses and municipalities, the wind was too overwhelming and the efforts were fruitless at times. The snow was light and would just blow back.
ReplyDeleteMost places waited until late Friday night/early Saturday morning to do clean up.
It's difficult to clear a lot full of cars and drifting snow can make it seem impossible.
I see you caught me digging out my car! As most stood around wondering what to do, I pulled out my shovel and got to work. 20 minutes and I was free. Meanwhile there was a group of guys going around pushing people and one lone GO contractor with a shovel offering to help. Didn't people listen to the warnings? Don't they carry a winter emergency kit?
ReplyDeleteGood Taylor. Good!
ReplyDeleteEveryone should carry a collapsible shovel.
My hubby and I own one. Too bad we left in the garage!
One year at Christmas my parents put together a winter survival kit for all of our cars. It includes the usual: food, water, candle and matches, blanket, sterno, falres, poncho, notepad and pencils, playing cards, socks, etc. It even has money in small bills. The best part of this kit is that they added a collapsible shovel. Before that, I was using a small kid-sozed shovel from the dollar store. That sucker broke the third time I used it.
ReplyDeleteWhat surprised me was the number of people on my street that didn't change how they drove and got stuck. One even did the "pedal to the metal" and wore a nice ice patch into the road and it stunk of burning rubber so badly I could smell it 20 feet away!
You got mad skills girl!
ReplyDeleteThey were attempting to shovel the platform when the delatyed 2:13 hit oshawa. Unfortunately it was one guy doing it.
ReplyDeleteThe snow was sure crazy, wasn't it? First time I tried to drive in the foot-high snow on Saturday or whenever it was, I got stuck in the snow leaving the driveway and ended up burning the clutch. My dad had to fix it for me and then I got back into the driver's seat and we drove around the neighbourhood and he taught me how to not get stuck and all that other good stuff. (I've got my G1 and have been driving for all of seven months, so the snow is very strange to me.) Granted, we were driving a 4WD manual. There were a lot of other people in our neighbourhood who got stuck, and my dad said that without 4WD that would have been us.
ReplyDeleteTomW: If you're driving a manual, I don't really think that that's going to work? I drive manual transmission, because that's what my parents own (and I love it!!!). There were a couple of times when I had the engine in the second gear and, after turning a corner, had slowed down so much due to the snow that the thing just stalled out on me. I can't imagine the massive fail that would occur if you tried to start in deep snow in fifth gear. You just don't have the power needed to get it moving - and riding the clutch is baaad, and especially in snow.
On days like that it's every commuter for him/ herself. You can't count on GO. Don't even bother - just stay home.
ReplyDelete