Am I going to die driving in the ice and snow for the first time?

Question

I was born and raised in so. cal. I will be driving from chicago to madison. Am I going to be able to drive on the roads if they are icy? I have no experience in the cold weather.

Answer 1

Well, I really hope you have a car with either front wheel drive or all-wheel drive. Plus some good tires! Be sure to go slow if the weather is really bad. And if there is snow on the ground, I would actually suggest driving not where everyone else's car tires have been. Snow actually gives you more grip than a wet road... which is also probably turning into ice.

No one is a good driver when it comes to hitting an icy patch, just remember to go slow, be careful and keep plenty of room between you and the car in front of you.

Answer 2

I too was raised in sunny Southern Cal and was transferred to Fort Carson Colorado in the middle of the winter. I went out and bought the studded snow tires, the deicers, the engine block heater, etc. None of it mattered. I crashed two cars before I figured out that 15 mph was too fast under certain conditions. If it is your first time just be aware that you should travel at the speed you want to crash into the car ahead of you, because the brakes and steering will occasionally not do a damn thing while you watch impending doom get bigger and bigger. See if you can't practice some short trips before you venture out on the interstate. The more experience you have the better prepared you will be.

Answer 3

Just remember that you cannot drive like you do in California.
You have to rethink how you get from one point to another and do not drive faster than you can maintain control of your vehicle.
And even if you have 4-wheel drive,it is true you can go like the wind just like it was dry pavement, but you CANNOT STOP worth spit on ice.
You will be just as helpless as the guy in a 2-wheel drive vehicle.
I have driven for over 40 years in all kinds of weather including ice and snow and 99.9% of the accidents that I have seen are because of SPEED.
You just can't drive like a bat out of H... and expect everything to go right, because if something happens up ahead of you, it's all over and you will lose control. I have seen it hundreds of times.

Just be careful. And leave earlier than you need to. Then you don't have to worry about speeding.

Answer 4

ya, when we were coming back from reno to the california coast, it was snowing big time, everything was white there was so much of it, going over the pass sucked so bad. my dad told the people @ the checkpoint we had snow tires when we soo didn't so ya that was pretty scary. we had to go really slow, but since it'll be your first time i think your def gonna need snow tires (chains or w/e) and ya just drive really slow and you reeeaaallly have to drive for everyone else. make sure you're ahead far enough of the people behind you @ all times and that your back far enough from the person ahead. and keep track of where everyone around you is the entire time. and i think we stayed in the person in front of us's tracks. or maybe it was the other way around. :) well i guess you'll just have to see! ;)

oh, and make sure there are other people on the road w/ you. we had to pull over and we ended up separated from everyone. so we were all alone. scary! :)

nope we didn't stay in their tracks. so no, don't do that. it'll help, but also make sure you don't like tick of any other people trying to drive in it haha

Answer 5

Only if you drive like an idiot. Start off slow and easy leave plenty of distance in front of you. Go to an empty parking lot and practice driving in the snow and ice there. Be careful

Answer 6

I run studded snow tires,its good for black ice. Just drive no faster than you want to slide.

Answer 7

You should be okay if you know how to drive.

Answer 8

you will be fine as long as you go slow and be very careful