Breaking News: Snow and Ice are Slippery!

Okay, so it just started snowing a few days ago, and I’ve already witnessed my share of people driving like idiots on the snow and ice, then seeing them a few miles down the road in the ditch. I must admit, it makes me smile when I see stupid people learn a lesson, but it seems like it takes at least a month after it starts snowing for some people to comprehend the fact that it is indeed snowing, and snow is slippery. More specifically, it’s these guys in their 4×4 Chevy Avalanches, Dodge Rams, and other various big trucks and SUVs thinking they’re invincible because they have a “4×4″ sticker on the back, or simply because it’s a big vehicle.

What these geniuses don’t understand, is that even if you have more traction than the Honda Civic next to you, you are in a much larger vehicle. The larger a vehicle is, the more momentum it has, and the faster you go, the momentum increases exponentially. That means that it’s much harder to stop in a given distance, and on snow and ice, that’s a bad thing. Hopefully, this will help you understand:

Momentum = Mass × Velocity

Velocity is how fast you’re going (specified by a direction, for those of you who were going to tear me apart for definition.) The bigger and heavier your car is, the more mass it has. This means that if you and a compact car are next to each other going 80 mph on snow and ice, the smaller car will be able to stop before you, because it has much less momentum.

Don’t get me wrong, I know that drivers of large vehicles aren’t the only culprits here; there are a lot of other ignorant people who drive the same way in smaller cars, and they need to take a look at the equation above too. The difference is, they’re just being stupid. I’m trying to point out the fact that drivers of large vehicles are under the wrong impression that they can drive faster over ice and snow because of the size and (wrongly) perceived safety of their vehicles.

Will this article dissuade anybody from driving like an idiot in slippery conditions? Probably not. But if one person reads this and slows down a little bit next time he’s driving his Escalade 80 mph over ice, I’ve done my part.

[…] Winter has finally arrived in some parts of our fair continent, with a vengence in some parts of the States. With the onset of the snow and ice, comes the realization that there are a lot of really dense drivers out there. Egon at Automoblog is trying to give SUV drivers a bit of a high school physics lesson. Momentum = Mass × Velocity = Escalade in the ditch. […]

I can remember being passed on a long, frozen bridge south of Cleveland by a small AWD AMC station wagon. I was able to see the expression of fear in the drivers eyes. He was going backwards. Only his dry cleaner knows for sure, but I don’t recall that he hit anything, finally plowing a deep furrow in the snow past the bridge.