To be terrified of the ice?

[MissLucyEyelesbarrow]

Is this just me? Everywhere I look, people are marching confidently around on the ice. Meanwhile, I have just binned off meeting a friend for coffee because I am too scared to walk a couple of hundred metres on icy pavements. I haven't got osteoporosis or any particular reason to be frightened of slipping - I just am. (To avoid drip-feeding, I do have a disability that affects one leg, but I don't think this is the reason - I would be scared anyway.)

What makes it even more pathetic, is that I grew up partly in a country with much more snow, and go back there regularly. It's different there though - in the middle of winter, the snow & ice are deep and packed, so you can wear walking spikes on your boots, and I am fine there. Also, they are much better at clearing pavements whereas, in the UK, we only seem to care about cars slipping, not pedestrians.

Does anyone have tips for getting my head around this? I feel really pathetic.

Literally kept DD home from nursery yesterday because there was no way I was risking it. I have just ordered myself some of the grips for my boots, I cant hide away all winter!

I got my youngest DS to come meet me from my mums on Sunday as I was too scared to walk home in the ice weather, I just followed where he walked.

I've just been speaking with my neighbour. She told me her daughter went over yesterday, hurt her knee and spent six hours in A&E, before giving up. Her boyfriend bought her a compression bandage, on the way home!

I feel for you, OP, but I'm an old crock with a leg full of metal because some fool ran me over a couple of years ago

Although never really into winter walking, I now can't afford any further damage so avoid it completely

I wear walking boots when weather is bad, solid ones that can even take crampons (though never needed them except in the mountains). There's no ice here thankfully, a chilly +1 degree on the coast

I'm the same but I do have osteoarthritis and have recently had both hips replaced so I'm even more scared than I used to be!

I'm scared on the ice as well. I only go out when absolutely necessary.

Loathe it. Especially in the afternoon when it’s dark and you step off a main road into the Olympic ice rink. Missed a hosp appt yest cos the buses were screwed and walking from tube too risky in dark.

I'm also originally from a country with more snow for a long time each year but it's totally different because pavements are properly salted/gritted there. I don't understand why the council can't send
street sweepers out to grit the pavements they would normally keep clear off litter etc.

I also wear Yaktrax although they are best when there's a little more ice/snow they can grip into and not just sheet ice.

I hate it. Had to carry my toddler downhill on an icy pavement with all her nursery stuff. She was very encouraging but a small child cooing 'You can do it, mummy, don't fall over!' with occasional face strokes really didn't help.

The more naturally you can walk the less you will fall over. If keeping your feet close together, and directly underneath us, was a good idea then we'd do it when it wasn't snowing as well. But the further apart your feet are, the bigger base you have, with a lower centre of gravity and you'll feel more stable.

YMMV

My car skidded into another car on monday, it was such slow motion I think I could have jumped out and watched but there was nothing I could do. The road was pure ice and on a camber and the other car was parked illegally on the corner.

My own pathway/road (we have no actual paths, houses open onto the road) is pure ice. Terrifying trying to walk or drive on it.

Don't blame you. When I was a kid (in my 50s now) they used to routinely grit/salt pavements. It was clearly considered necessary then so why not now? I fell the other year. Not ice but it was an injury that put me out of action for months. I won't go out on the ice if I can avoid it. It's just not worth it.

BBC London News are doing something on this tonight at 6.30pm and how its an equality issue.

twitter.com/livingstreets/status/1602717485236506624?s=20&t=iU-jpiJTscyZM9tAGJ-RsQ

After
all the protect the NHS rhetoric we have had over the last three years (some of which came from councils) you would think they would grit the pavements to protect the slips and falls that will add to NHS pressures.

Local Government Policy: We want to encourage more walking and less driving.
Local Government Action: We'll clear the roads of snow for motorists but won't touch the pavements.

I can't even get to my car. Live in an apartment and my space is the other side of the street (not just across the road IYSWIM)
My neighbour now doesn't drive but won't swap spaces with me and has left his undriveable mouldy car in his spot for 5 years now eyesore

Its sheet ice all across the road so I'm not even sure if I could get the car out even if I can get to it and I need to get a prescription

Here is part of it (I’ve photographed the other side as my car reg was on it otherwise!)

Another vote for yak trax! I put them straight on my boots even when it’s just frost.

They're absolutely fine on the pavement where there's no ice but you can't wear them in a supermarket or train station. Anywhere with very smooth flooring as you'll go flying.
I wouldn't be without mine and wear them ever if it's just frosty and not very icy. Don't like taking the risk.

Does the socks over your boots thing work Ive got an old thick pair of socks i could use if it does. People are very quick to say that patients who dont turn up to NHS appointments should be billed but it never seems to be suggested when its other organisations causing the problem. Perhaps the highways agency should be billed for the 15-20 patients mentioned upthread.

I fell once in it. It was about 20 years ago. I was getting the bus to school. I honestly fell so hard and couldnt steady myself for what felt like an eternity. Its left me very nervous on snow and ice still now. Its thought of falling and breaking something and being stuck in the cold getting really sick too.

Oh god im so sorry,this is awful

I also get nervous on ice. I broke a wrist in icy conditions once before, so I wear snow boots and snow grips. I am shocked by the state of pavements at the minute.

We had one night of snow on Sunday and our pavements are like ice rinks at the minute. No attempt to clear the pavements or grit them appears to have been made, even around the town centre. My Scandinavian friend thinks it’s really dangerous. They get lots of snow where she’s from and pavements are all cleared after any snow fall. She said they’d never let their pavements get as bad we do.

Lots of people I talk to seem surprised that the snow hasn’t just “melted away by now”, they don’t seem to grasp that it won’t melt unless it gets warm enough to melt it. Very odd.

Don't push down on your heel. Walk on the front of your foot