To wish people would stop bloody moaning about a bit of snow

[Ryoko]

Seriously in London we get like 2 inches and everyones moaning, the news is full of exclamation marks in triangles and moaning about how are people going to get to work and talking to moaning idiots in the streets complaining that it's cold, (people wearing skinny jeans, fashion boots and normal winter jackets, idiots!).

Anyway too much moaning, too many idiots looking for any excuse to close schools and stay home, too many people who want to moan about it being too cold to go out instead of investing in some proper winter gear and letting some air out the tyres.

And why do we still put up with this countries reliance on out dated third rail systems that grind to a halt at the slightest thing, no one else in the world is still using that 80 odd year old system, they realised it was crap, so why are we still using it?.

I can't help but wonder why year after year we are like this, countries are laughing at us, nation full of lazy moaners.

Ryoko - so you have no street cleaners, parks, leisure centres, libraries, social services, police etc in your area then if yours only pays for the refuse collection

ahh - see I was a bit slow on the uptake there

ryoko, I used to live in central london and be like you. now I live in kent, fell & broke my wrist in snow on tuesday (typing this v slowly left handed!), at home with 2 dcs off school, dh stuck in london, cant get home, about a foot of snow here. lots of people have it much worse than u (and me!)

The snow itself isn't bothering me much, have been out walking the dog as usual with no problems etc, the main roads are clear and safe for driving. It's the public transport that's been the problem for me, e.g. it took me 2 1/2 hours this morning to do a journey that's usually not about 45-40 minutes, due to trains and tubes breaking down, signal failures, points problems, it was like everything that could have broken did.

It's not even very much snow! I don't get how it causes so much disruption.

are you ok ryoko, you sound a bit tense today

[puts hand up], can I quietly put right some misconceptions about winter tyres. You don't put them on when it snows and then take them off again. That's snowchains, or actual studded snow tyres, which are only used in deep and/or compacted snow.

Winter tyres perform better than regular tyres below 10 degrees c, and central european countries have them on from November to March, as this is when the temps are likely to be lower than 10 degrees c.

Because of winter tyres, most countries who have more snow and ice than we do, actually need to use chains relatively rarely, as winter tyres do a pretty good job in icy, slushy and 'slightly' snowy conditions (which comparatively is what most of the UK have right now, with the exception of a very few rural areas). So the lack of predictability and fluctuation in our weahter isn't a reason not to have them, as that's not how they're used.

I will keep my winter tyres on until around the end of Feb, and looking at how many cars didn't make it up our hill last night, that I tootled straight up, I feel like they were a good investment.

D

How much is a set of winter tyres D?

I know exactly what I'm talking about.

The news is full of doom, gloom and moaning idiots, the trains are buggered again, theres fuck all snow out there, there is no grit on the roads, it's all brown slush/ice. and I pay £200 in council tax a month for what exactly?.

I will be going out shortly to play in the snow, in my fluffy socks from Primark, 17 year old Doc Martens that are excellent in this weather and my snuggly warm £35 ski jacket :p.

And I'll be going shopping as well, by some salt for the stair well.

Deliaskis interesting post re winter tyres. Two quick questions. Are they terribly expensive and would the tyre place look like this if I asked about them?

(I use my car for work, visiting patients, some in rural locations so I don't often have the luxury of choosing whether to drive or not hence needing to be out in night last night. Obviously if I was completely snowed in then I couldn't have gone, but I do have to drive on thick ice which I hate)

"there's fuck all snow out there" - do you think it is all a big lie/con then Ryoko? The Northerners are having us on are they?!

Have a lovely afternoon out, the fresh air will do you good. :)

Ryoko - is there anything else wrong that you're unhappy about - surely this sort of angriness isn't just because we've all had a bit of a collective moan about snow.

altinkum But will it get bad enough in the northern home counties to justify me buying and fitting winter tyres (about £500 per car according to the AA)? I'm prepared to come back and eat humble pie if it does but in my experience this area doesn't usually suffer too much.

What I was getting at was that, as we in the UK can't actually do much to prepare ourselves for short periods of cold weather, all we can do is put up with it.

I will add though that I think those who are worst affected (not me, I've been fortunate so far) are probably entitled to a moan.

Another (possibly silly) question about winter tyres. If one was to buy a set, and change them say in March back to "normal" tyres, could they be used again next winter ?(assuming there is a proper amount of wear left in them). That way the £500 per car doesn't sound quite so steep.

Baroqin - i agree that the councils here are better prepared but it gets a bit tiring to hear from the British government every time there is snow how the country wasnt prepared for the snow!

but dont dismiss the efforts from the public - winter tyres make driving safer therefore less accidents and the traffic flows easier. People and communities clearing the pavements and at times the streets means less accidents and allows schools and businesses to stay open.

But think street clearing happens in Britain too - well thats what it looks like on my friends FB photos!

The last time we had "serious" snow was last year. 2009.

I remember it snowing (seriously) once in my life time prior to that (1975).

It snowed the year of my birth (1962).

It's a bit of snow. We're not used to even a "bit" of snow.
We're not Russia,Scandanavian or Canadian.It usually pisses it down in Britain this time of the year.

The infra structure isn't geared to snow; nor should it be.

The snow causes delays for commuters.

Delays on trains, tubes, motorways day in day out; without snow, are the real issue.

If they can't get it right on a "good" day; there's bugger all chance on a "bad" day.

We have an appalling transport network in the first place; it just gets worse in snow.

Well said PTD.

Our winter tyres were £180 for a set of 4, which for the wheel size is roughly the same as regular tyres.

There is the initial outlay, as obviously you have two sets of tyres, but then of course they both wear half as quickly, as the summer ones don't wear at all whilst they're sat in your garage!

Our tyre place stores our other set of tyres while they're not in use, and we pay £20 at change of 'season' to get them all changed. It's just a little back street place so I'm sure the big tyre providers (Kwik Fit etc.) will also do them.

It is a bit more expensive to run two sets of tyres, but not a lot overall (mainly the changing fees after initial purchase), and it means I can get around in all but the very worst conditions. I also have chains but have only used them about twice (and once was kind of for fun!).

Tyre places shouldn't look like if you asked about them, ours has leaflets out on the desk advertising them. Some sizes are hard to get hold of, but on the whole it's a pretty easy process.

I started using them after I used to live in Austria and realised when a difference they make in cold temps as well as in ice and snow. If I was driving around rural areas and untreated roads for my job, I think it would be a good investment.

In my car park today at work (which is on a hill), you can tell my tyre tracks from the others, as there are far more 'horizontal' tread marks on them (as in those that go across the tyre rather than round it), and the tread is much deeper.

Don't keep them on all year though, as they are softer, they do wear quicker, and the tread makes them slightly noisier.

D

What police, they are too scared to come round here, don't go the library it's getting smaller by the year and more and more full of computers, don't see no street cleaners the wind does that job and it's us residents who chuck buckets of bleach down the stairs to clear the shit, what leisure centre? council leisure centre? what the hell is that?, only thing called a leisure centre I know of is in Brentford and they charge an annual fee, theres an over priced swimming baths in Acton does that count?.

I did get asked by DS1s teacher whether we have special snow in the UK, that brings everything to a halt, I actually thought I had misuderstood her, apparently it even makes the news here in Belgium, and according to pil the news in the Netherlands.

onepiece - you use the tyres till they need changing! so i bought new winter tyres (they come with wheels) last November (cost about 350?) then put my summer ones in the garage. Kept them on till end of March then put my summer ones back on and put my winter tyres int he garage. Then did the same swap over at the end of October. they make such a huge difference to driving - its -11 degrees outside with lying and falling snow and i didnt skid at all!

We considered winter tyres this year (went for snow socks instead) Do they have speed limits on them?

I meant in dry non icy conditions of course :)

People in Iceland, canada, Scandinavia etc know the snow is coming.

It hasn't snowed like this in November for 19 years here. We cannot budget for massive snowfalls every year if, 19 times out of 20, it's not going to happen. Those machines cost money. Grit storage costs money. We are in a recession!