Why do cities in the UK come to a standstill when it rains a little harder than normal or if 1in of snow falls

Answer 1

Because the country is run by muppets.

Answer 2

By and large it's because people can't drive in such conditions.

In Scotland where it snows more often people are used to such conditions and are able to drive in them. Snowfall that would see London grind to a halt would have little or no effect in Edinburgh for example.

You only have to look at the M25 / M11 a few years ago - a small amount of snow on an virtually flat motorway and there was complete chaos. At the same time, ten times the amount of snow on the A9, A82, M74, M8 in Scotland and not a problem.

It takes just a little practice to drive in the snow but if someone doesn't know what they're doing then they'll lose momentum and start sliding all over the place. When one car does that every car following behind has to stop and if it's uphill then nothing can get going again. Only takes one novice to bring the road to a standstill.

Answer 3

I initially laughed at this question, because it is so true, but then I realised that there must be good reasons.

Thanks to the combined disaster of out-of-town living, centralised institutions and American-style retail-parks, the roads of Britian are extremely crowded.

I'm not sure if this IS the rain-answer, but on motorways, due to heavy traffic, the visibility is dramatically reduced and vehicles then require more in the way of a safety-zone.....hence more road.

It could be a simple as that, because the capacity of the roads reduces in direct proprtion to the amount of vehicle-space needed.

Snow is another problem entirely, and I am old enough to remember serious snow in the northern hill regions, where I still live. Young people to-day just do not believe me when I tell them that I have driven to work after digging the car out, through snowdrifts 10ft high. On numerous occasions, I have had to take survival equipment with me, and a few times, almost needed it when the weather turned extreme. A set of winter-tyres was an absolute priority back in the 1960's and 70's.

Part of the problem today is the use of very wide tyres on cars, which makes the contact area of them very light. Thus, there is much less grip.

However, the type of snow plays an important part also.

I can be exact enough to quote the date of a remarkable snow in the UK, during February 1981. This was the winter when, for a short period, we had temperatures of -25C and very cold, powder snow straight from Siberia. I ran a Golf GTi at the time, on relatively narrow tyres, and what a joy that snow was to drive on. There was bags of grip, and driving on it was not unlike driving on a sandy-beach.....absolutely beautiful......so I went out for a long drive to hone my snow-driving skills.

Skiers will probably tell you this, but the WARMER snow gets, the more slippery it becomes, as ice starts to turn to water. It is lethally dangerous; especially in combination with wide tyres, and even on a flat road, many modern cars just sit there spinning their wheels.

Add to this the fact that most drivers today have little or no experience of proper winter-weather, and you have a situation where traffic grinds to a halt.

If it's any consolation, I can tell the questioner that, as a professional night-trunk driver, I have never been held up by the weather, and the post has always arrived on time as a result.

I love driving in snow!

Answer 4

Same thing happens here in the states but it depends on where you live. I used to live in St. Louis Missouri and there the weather changes rapidly and can get very hot in the summer-above 100 and in the winter below 0. It snows but not deep usually. One year we had a "blizzard" because we had a really fast snow of about 18 inches. The snow plows couldn't handle it and small streets became impassible. I was dating someone from Wisconsin-far north to me. I would be wearing a ski jacket, he would have a light jacket open, with a light shirt and neck open because it was so warm. Now I live in south Texas and when it rains everybody runs into everyone else. If it gets close to freezing, they close the roads because no one here has seen slick ice or black ice. It snowed Christmas two years ago and families were out at 2 am dancing and playing in the snow because NOONE had ever seen it in their lifetime. So I guess it just all depends.

Answer 5

It all depends on what you're used to. We lived in England for 3 years and I can only remember one real snow, and we are from Michigan originally so we know what real snow is. But the whole town came to a standstill, as you said, businesses were closed, no cars on the roads, etc. In the UK, for the most part they aren't prepared for it, they have no snow removal equipment, the roads in the towns are usually quite narrow, people have no experience driving in it, and so on.

Answer 6

Britain is full of office workers and softies, they lack the toughness of the previous generations, and are unable to cope by themselves. If snow falls, they automatically panic, blame the government, stockpile food, skip off work, and drive more quickly in treacherous conditions. We have lost contact with the world outside the office, unable to cope with nature, we blame, blame , blame.

Answer 7

the southern jessie cities do but not the northern ones - its the drivers that cant cope with it - everyone should be made to pass a test about how to drive in the snow

Answer 8

properly its no longer pathetic particularly. Its because of the fact we don't get common snow. In scandanavia it buckets down yet then they rigidity around with snow chains on. We dont because of the fact it does not ensue and we are purely no used to it.

Answer 9

Its our small way of contributing to a decrease in CO2 emissions. You see, we know that it's Work that is the greatest threat to our future, so it only takes the slightest prompting for us to go out and do something more useful and more enjoyable than commuting to and fro into pointless and repetitive employment.

Answer 10

Do you know I think that is a really good question and the next one should be why is there always hosepipe bans when it hasnt rained for a week?

Answer 11

Equipment to deal with adverse weather conditions is provided by the lowest bidder.