It's happening already.........

[PIGINAWIG]

QE2 Bridge, M25 only just opened - it was shut whilst gritting operations took place.

What a shower of ste the Highways/Councils are. A few inches of snow and a bit of ice and the UK's busiest road has to be closed for gritting.

Someone needs to find a new job - how hard can it be? Send the gritters out every hour if need be, the bridge is over 5 lanes wide.

Probably something to do with budgets. No excuse, f'kin useless pricks.

[lescombes]

I am afraid that sadly this is the case in the UK.... if we all used Winter Tyres then gritting isn't such and issue and roads etc won't need to be closed....unfortunately drivers expectations and distance commuting to work just exacerbates the issue as more require the routes to be clear and safe....hence why HA & Councils close stretches of roads...

[Whitean3]

And to be fair- bridges are the worst places in cold, icy conditions- much lower temperatures means greater risk of ice forming (no "heating" effect from the ground beneath the road). The last thing you'd want would be a patch of black ice up on the QE2 bridge- I can almost imagine the carnage!

[JMGS4]

And I'll bet the gritters didn't have any winter tyres on it?!?!?!
Remember coming up the A2 from Dover, years ago, in heavy snow with my german Audi and logically winter tyres and seeing the gritter in front of me leave the road at 35mph and crash into the ditch as they had summer tyres on it... feckin eejits!

[IainT]

Queues last night sounded horrific.

This morning they're saying the queues are ~3 hours+ to cross North to South, that was at 7:45 so I can only imagine how bad it'll be now!

[davidjpowell]

They would have to close it to grit. Difficult to spread at 0.01 mph I would imagine.

[hombrepaulo]

You sir are what is wrong with this country. Its all me me ME!

[Hitch78]

JMGS4 said:

And I'll bet the gritters didn't have any winter tyres on it?!?!?!
Remember coming up the A2 from Dover, years ago, in heavy snow with my german Audi and logically winter tyres and seeing the gritter in front of me leave the road at 35mph and crash into the ditch as they had summer tyres on it... feckin eejits!

Summer tyres? On a gritter? I call bullst.

[PIGINAWIG]

To summarise then....

We, as a nation, are totally ste when the weather turns for the worse.

[Jasandjules]

PIGINAWIG said:

To summarise then....

We, as a nation, are totally ste when the weather turns for the worse.

Pretty much.

[ludicrous speed]

It's great though, bit of chaos, carnage and that.

[kambites]

Good excuse not to go to work.

Given the number of days with significant amounts of snow on the ground in southern England in the last, say, twenty years, it would be interesting to know whether putting better infrastructure in place to deal with the problem would have been a net benefit or hit to the economy.

[jimbobsimmonds]

kambites said:

Good excuse not to go to work.

Given the number of days with significant amounts of snow on the ground in southern England in the last, say, twenty years, it would be interesting to know whether putting better infrastructure in place to deal with the problem would have been a net benefit or hit to the economy.

my arguements exactly...

but honestly i do not know the answer... Me and a few of the lads tried to work it out and for example, if Bluewater closes (as it pretty much did last night) at this time of year. If 300,000 people visit and spend £100 a time thats £30 million... £30 million buys a fair few gritters i would imagine... but then when staff training, fleet maintenance in the summer etc etc comes in who knows?

I would have thought if it was such a massive net detriment to the economy somebody would have done something about it by now. after all, Money talks...

[R1 Loon]

Hitch78 said:

JMGS4 said:

And I'll bet the gritters didn't have any winter tyres on it?!?!?!
Remember coming up the A2 from Dover, years ago, in heavy snow with my german Audi and logically winter tyres and seeing the gritter in front of me leave the road at 35mph and crash into the ditch as they had summer tyres on it... feckin eejits!

Summer tyres? On a gritter? I call bullst.

+1

It was more a "look at me, I've got winter tyres on my car, don't I feel smug" post.

[C8PPO]

300,000 punters a day? Time I built me a mall.....

[Fats25]

I don't have winter tyres on either of my cars. I live in Kent, it snows a maximum of 2 weeks a year, and if the car don't move, I will find an alternative way of getting done what I need to, or I don't move. Simple.

However I was thinking about this - I know some Alps resorts have mandatory snow chain laws. Do other countries have mandatory winter tyres? What about these snow sock things? Do they work? Would it be beneficial to throw a set in for free with your car tax? Or have them required to pass an MOT?

I have not really thought this through - but believe they are around £50 - would it not be worthwhile stating they are mandatory for anyone attempting to drive in snow type conditions? Especially if Insurance companies refused payments if they were not used and you had an accident I could see them taking off.

[AndyDRZ]

jimbobsimmonds said:

my arguements exactly...

but honestly i do not know the answer... Me and a few of the lads tried to work it out and for example, if Bluewater closes (as it pretty much did last night) at this time of year. If 300,000 people visit and spend £100 a time thats £30 million... £30 million buys a fair few gritters i would imagine... but then when staff training, fleet maintenance in the summer etc etc comes in who knows?

I would have thought if it was such a massive net detriment to the economy somebody would have done something about it by now. after all, Money talks...

I think that logic sounds good but falls down when you take into account that people will still buy what they needed to buy. So the money will be spent closer to home (if essential) or once the roads are clear again... so it only delays the spending.

[Mazdarese]

Fats25 said:

I don't have winter tyres on either of my cars. I live in Kent, it snows a maximum of 2 weeks a year, and if the car don't move, I will find an alternative way of getting done what I need to, or I don't move. Simple.

However I was thinking about this - I know some Alps resorts have mandatory snow chain laws. Do other countries have mandatory winter tyres? What about these snow sock things? Do they work? Would it be beneficial to throw a set in for free with your car tax? Or have them required to pass an MOT?

I have not really thought this through - but believe they are around £50 - would it not be worthwhile stating they are mandatory for anyone attempting to drive in snow type conditions? Especially if Insurance companies refused payments if they were not used and you had an accident I could see them taking off.

I think the problem is education. I imagine 95% of the driving population do not know that winter tyres exist, let alone the benefits of them, and just assume that the 35 profile tyres on their car will be ok in all conditions. My next-door neighbour has an E90 320d with 18" wheels, and she is considering selling it because to her it is too dangerous in the snow after the last winter we had.

I know we don't generally have really bad snow over here, but I think some kind of awareness campaign and maybe a partnership between a few of the tyre places and the Government to provide winter tyres at reasonable prices might help.

[Bill]

davidjpowell said:

They would have to close it to grit. Difficult to spread at 0.01 mph I would imagine.

Particularly as you'd have a load of car shaped ungritted patches I don't think the OP has thought this through...

[Engineer1]

Jasandjules said:

PIGINAWIG said:

To summarise then....

We, as a nation, are totally ste when the weather turns for the worse.

Pretty much.

And not unreasonably, we don't on average get enough snow and ice often enough to warrant a massive investment in winter equipment, if this weather continues for many more years then there starts to be a requirement. For what will probably be a 2 week wintery snap there probably isn't a need for more gritters.

I suspect the cost to the economy is bks as well, a lot will simply be delayed or shifted elsewhere, if you need to buy gifts for 10 people you will buy gifts for 10 people, if you can't get to the shops on Monday then you will keep an eye on the weather till it allows you to go out to the shops or you buy online.