Am from sunny California and am moving to Boston soon.

[NEexpat]

^Fortunate.

My niece got her license a year ago, and got herself a car at the end of last winter. I told her that first time we get any kind of appreciable snow this year I will take her to the big parking lot and the industrial park and we will practice in the snow.

I think new/young drivers get what new pilots get - Goitis, gotta go no matter what. Trust the equipment, trust the machine, trust the technology, absolutely. However nothing beats experience and time in the seat. (Well how do you get time in the seat if you don't go?) Thats it right there, knowing when.

I think as you get older you're/me are less inclined to go. Leave earlier, go slower, if you must.

In my hometown there is no ryhme or reason to it, sometimes the my street gets plowed every couple of hours, and sometimes not once, I'll drive on fresh snow all day long, it's usually the second day after the sun has hit unpaved streets and then the temp drops, winter ice festival/demolition derby.

There are some steep, very steep hills here that all seem to end at a stop sign or light, in the winter I avoid them at all costs, driving out of my way in order to do so.

I guess I'm getting old.

Now get off my lawn!

[nookandcrannycar]

Originally Posted by NEexpat

Leave earlier, go slower

I think this is helpful in all climates. I see people driving like a bat out of h***, and I shake my head. I also shake my head at my younger self. However, some people never learn. I don't think my mother was ever on time in her life, and she didn't get that from her parents, nor from my father. My mother was a very genteel person, yet she failed to grasp how rude it is to be late. My uncle (my mother's sister's husband) and I have a running joke (but it really is the truth) that we both have to fight to keep from being early. The most embarrassing moment of my life was at my father's funeral. My uncle (my father's brother) had made the funeral arrangements (hundreds of guests, mostly there out of respect for my uncle/hadn't seen my father in decades) at a church in a hard to find location in San Francisco where some relative of my aunt (my uncle's wife and mother of my cousins) was way up in the hierarchy of the church. My mother was running late. I couldn't leave her.....she had no idea how to get to the church. We arrived at the church. I opened one of the two huge doors to the church. Hundreds of heads turned around, almost in unison, to see the only child and only wife (ex-wife, but still only wife) this man had ever had late to his funeral....and we were the only people who were late.

P.S. Read this after posting,. Thought some might think my mother = a crazy driver. I don't think my mother ever went more than 5 MPH over the speed limit, nor ever got a speeding ticket in her life. She was usually already late before she left ( in a way that one only can with a parent).