They fail to cary sand, traction adders, emergency first aid kit. Do not cary food,water,blamkets in trunk. Most do not even cary warm cloth's, boots, head gear and mittens. Do not even ask about snow chains!!!
Every winter I go to a deserted parking lot late at night or early in the morning and practice my winter driveing. I leave myself a lot more time to drive to work so I am not driveing like a moron to try to get to work on ice and snow covered roads. I carry and a small shovel, a small amount of sand, a gallon of water, dryed food for 3-4 days, a pair of insulated boots, wool socks,matchs,mittens and a Balaclava. I also have a two way radio. I also carry jumper cables and a snatch rope.
If it is RWD I try to add some weight to the rear. If have $11 a tire that I can aford to spend I like to get my tires safety siped! It improves wet and dry traction.
Too be honest I think that most drivers I share the road with here in the United States drive like complete morons!! They drive with bald tires, no-weight in the rear if rwd, drive way to fast for conditions, do not drive deffinsively, tail gate, do not know how to modulate their brakes if not ABS, fail to understand that you can steer or stop but not both if not abs, eat while driveing 90MPH, put on makeup at 90MPH, talk on their cell phone going 90MPH, are reading a book or map at 90MPH. I once past a guy in the mountains that had a TV set duck taped to his dash watching a football game.I see it all the time here in Michigan. Sorry for run on rant! In America everyone takes driveing for granted like it is a birth rite.The testing is so easy that anyone can get a liscense.
When I came back from Germany and had to get my American driver lic. I was amazed at how easy it was. I read the 16-32 page book sitting in the parking lot. I took the test in 15 minutes and only missed one. The test was on the front and pack of a single piece of paper. I had to drive 1 miles down the road turn around and drive one mile back and park it.They did not make me drive around the city. They did not make me paralle park. I did not have to demonstrate high speed driveing skills. I did not have to drive on the HWY etc...... When I went for my CDL with all endorsement other then Hazmat I read the book over the course of two days and then took the written. I did not miss a single question. I then started driveing with my Tip and went for a road test real soon. The CDL road test was a good test but was not hard at all.
I once had to run 18 miles under blizard conditions to get help. I almost got frost bite. I had on a leather wind breaker and my Matterhorn insulated boots with jeans and a cotton T-Shirt. The other two people with me had on even less and weight so little that they would not have made it. The girl weighted 90Lbs and my best friend was 6'10" and weighted 140Lbs both had on jeans, running shoes and nylon wind breakers. The storm was unexpected, it was nice when we left and we did not know how remote the area was that we were headed too. Most of the way the snow was up to my knee's and in some places it had drifted waist deep. I was not prepared that night but I try hard not to let that happen again. The Boy Scout motto of "Be Prepard" is a good motto.
