Look - I know it's cold outside - it's winter. Things ice up. Car windows especially. But if your windows are completely iced-in, please don't be a danger to yourself and more importantly, everyone else on the road. The photo here was taken this morning. I followed this guy to work - we never went over 15mph and he slowed down further every time anyone passed us coming the other way. He had the letterbox-sized clearing in the front and rear windows, and the side windows were completely iced up. Less than a minute after I took this, he crashed into the red Jeep on the left of this picture. It wasn't a high speed crash - again he was dithering about at 15mph. But he crashed nevertheless, and now his reckless irresponsibility has caused inconvenience (and injury?) to two sets of people. And why? Because he couldn't take the extra couple of minutes to clear the ice off his car properly. I suppose if you ask, these people all come up with the same excuses. "Ooooh it's so inconvenient. I'm in such a rush." Or "I'll let the heaters do their job." By all means let the heaters do their job, but do it while you're parked, before you leave. If you don't, the first five miles of your drive will be like this tool in front of me.
This leads me to another peripheral observation : people who are surprised that their cars get stolen from their driveways in the winter. These are the ones who are
trying to be responsible but still don't like the inconvenience of a cold morning. So they turn the car on, heaters on full blast, then go back into the house to wait. A running car, keys in it, owners inside their house? Easy money. You might as well leave your keys in the car at the petrol station while you go inside to pay ..... oh wait ..... they do that around here too.
It's winter. It gets cold. You know this - you live here. Man up and deal with it. Don't be a dick by driving with iced up windows.
3 comments:
Anyone that does this 'viewing slit' BS is just proving they don't deserve a license. All the safety features in the world cannot help you drive if you can't see. If you're worried about being late, think of it this way: five to ten minutes to clear the windscreen is better than sitting at the shoulder for half an hour trying to explain why you didn't to the other person you just hit. Which scenario is going to be more easily forgiven by the boss who probably called in himself?
Also, don't try to use your windshield wipers to clear the ice, even if you think you've scraped it all. One little band of stuck ice and you've just gouged up the cold, brittle rubber and can say goodbye to visibility come the next rain, until you replace them.
A little trick I picked up just recently at work: if you know ice is coming, raise your wiper blades from the windshield once you're parked, that way they aren't frozen to the glass, and you can have an easier time clearing off the ice. It should go without saying, but put the wipers back down before driving off. Better yet, if you have it, put a tarp or plastic down so the ice sticks to something easily removed, instead of the glass.
I use "Rain-X Ice" in the winter. That's stuff's brilliant. It's bright orange and it freezes at something like minus a billionty degrees. So the washer nozzles never freeze and if you spray it on an iced up windshield, it clears the ice.
Post a Comment