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Weather warnings and common sense


Asthehills

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8 minutes ago, CallMeCurious said:

 

As for the snowflake signs 😁 they are probably intended to warn you the twisty downhill section ahead might be slippery so mind your speed and braking. However, as is always the way, no-one in the government can even be arsed to put a little blurb or reminder in the Courier as to the purpose of them. So they may indeed be the wrong way round. It's the DoI who brought us the red zebra crossing so who knows.  
 

Honestly anyone who needs a warning that it might be slippery deserves to be taken off the road and do the rest of us a favour.

People seem to just expect to able to drive on perfect roads regardless of the weather these days, like a bit of grit/rock salt is a magic cure all that can be deposited on hundreds of miles of roads and paths in a couple of hours at no cost just so they don’t have to think about their own driving.  Perfectly evidenced above by complaints that a roundabout was slippery and nobody from government had made sure it wasn’t 🙄

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It continues to worry me that many ( possibly most ) people on island seem unable to cope with winter weather. A sprinkling of snow, temperatures a degree of two below zero, and things grind to a halt.

The failure of Highways to grit and Airport to de-ice is symptomatic of a a malaise. But the lack of preparedness of individuals is inexplicable.

Ive got my all weather tyres on the car. I’ve a folding shovel ( not that I can use it ) and a couple of fleece blankets. I’m about to swap to winter tyres as I’m off to the Pyrenees and then the Pirin & Rhodope mountains in the new year. The antifreeze is topped up in the radiator and the windscreen fluid is one that has a low freezing point.

I’ll be driving in snow. Inches, or feet. Not the light covering that causes chaos here. Drivers need to be able to judge conditions, and their ability to drive to them. There’s really no reason for the Sloc, or the mountain, to be closed at present, apart from some people going out when they shouldn’t. They then don’t control their vehicles, abandon them, get stuck, and the emergency services don’t like being called out.

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14 minutes ago, John Wright said:

It continues to worry me that many ( possibly most ) people on island seem unable to cope with winter weather. A sprinkling of snow, temperatures a degree of two below zero, and things grind to a halt.

The failure of Highways to grit and Airport to de-ice is symptomatic of a a malaise. But the lack of preparedness of individuals is inexplicable.

Ive got my all weather tyres on the car. I’ve a folding shovel ( not that I can use it ) and a couple of fleece blankets. I’m about to swap to winter tyres as I’m off to the Pyrenees and then the Pirin & Rhodope mountains in the new year. The antifreeze is topped up in the radiator and the windscreen fluid is one that has a low freezing point.

I’ll be driving in snow. Inches, or feet. Not the light covering that causes chaos here. Drivers need to be able to judge conditions, and their ability to drive to them. There’s really no reason for the Sloc, or the mountain, to be closed at present, apart from some people going out when they shouldn’t. They then don’t control their vehicles, abandon them, get stuck, and the emergency services don’t like being called out.

Completely agree.

I went over the sloc a few times on Friday no problem at all by driving smoothly, and sailed past people who in theory were in much more capable vehicles.

The danger with all these warnings and road closures is that people then assume if a road is open that it is perfectly safe to drive on.  Like the idiot who was up my arse through the 40 heading out of Douglas through Groudle at about 18:00 last night.

His headlights in my mirror briefly pointed 45 degrees towards the sea from his line of travel then towards the tram lines.  He slowly fell further and further back from there on.

Edited by Asthehills
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1 minute ago, John Wright said:

It continues to worry me that many ( possibly most ) people on island seem unable to cope with winter weather. A sprinkling of snow, temperatures a degree of two below zero, and things grind to a halt.

The failure of Highways to grit and Airport to de-ice is symptomatic of a a malaise. But the lack of preparedness of individuals is inexplicable.

Ive got my all weather tyres on the car. I’ve a folding shovel ( not that I can use it ) and a couple of fleece blankets. I’m about to swap to winter tyres as I’m off to the Pyrenees and then the Pirin & Rhodope mountains in the new year. The antifreeze is topped up in the radiator and the windscreen fluid is one that has a low freezing point.

I’ll be driving in snow. Inches, or feet. Not the light covering that causes chaos here. Drivers need to be able to judge conditions, and their ability to drive to them. There’s really no reason for the Sloc, or the mountain, to be closed at present, apart from some people going out when they shouldn’t. They then don’t control their vehicles, abandon them, get stuck, and the emergency services don’t like being called out.

I think it's a vicious cycle. Inexperienced drivers (and we all were once) have an accident in icy or snowy conditions. Ergo, nanny state eventually closes the roads at the drop of a hat. Fewer people get experience of driving in poor conditions, so more inexperienced drivers....so government shuts road 'just in case'..

 

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22 minutes ago, John Wright said:

The failure of Highways to grit and Airport to de-ice is symptomatic of a a malaise. But the lack of preparedness of individuals is inexplicable.

But they aren’t even giving you enough info to be prepared. I could have had an extra hour and a half in bed this morning but it even seems to be beyond the airport now to provide a website that allows any airport users to actually access accurate (or indeed any this morning) information so that they can even prepare for traveling. 

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I think Nobles Hospital will be very grateful if the elderly take note of these warnings and stay in they can do without a flurry of broken limbs or hips.  I was out last night and there was an innocuous looking pavement which was sheet black ice it is very deceiving.   The young can pick themselves up and carry on most of the time but not when you are old with the brittle bones that accompany old age.

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1 minute ago, hissingsid said:

I think Nobles Hospital will be very grateful if the elderly take note of these warnings and stay in they can do without a flurry of broken limbs or hips.  I was out last night and there was an innocuous looking pavement which was sheet black ice it is very deceiving.   The young can pick themselves up and carry on most of the time but not when you are old with the brittle bones that accompany old age.

Are the elderly using everbridge though? Another white elephant gov project, an foi showed it has 36 users at one point 

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25 minutes ago, hissingsid said:

I think Nobles Hospital will be very grateful if the elderly take note of these warnings and stay in they can do without a flurry of broken limbs or hips.  I was out last night and there was an innocuous looking pavement which was sheet black ice it is very deceiving.   The young can pick themselves up and carry on most of the time but not when you are old with the brittle bones that accompany old age.

If you are old, you probably have the life experience to know when it might be icy without a government warning 🙄.

Oh, and know to wear the appropriate footwear.  A young woman went arse over tit on Ramsey harbour side yesterday, weakening heels ffs.  I suppose someone should have told her to wear something with grips.

Edited by Asthehills
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