Snow??

Having lived in northwestern BC, the lower mainland, north-central BC, as well as a few months in Edmonton, I've seen a lot of snow... and a lot of driver reactions to snow! Living in the north, we would always laugh ourselves silly over the Vancouverites and how 1 or 2 cm of snow would turn Vancouver into a snarling mess of traffic with cars in the ditches. "Those Vancouverites... they don't know how to drive in snow... they don't have snow tires!"...

Wellllll... here in Calgary yesterday... we looked a lot more like Vancouver than a city that knows how to drive in snow!! A little skiff of 1 to 2 cm of snow turned the streets into skating rinks. Collissions galore, cars in ditches, people abandoning their cars and walking home, hilly roads closed because they were too slippery (yes Calgary does have hills)... This is a city that gets snow, knows snow... and drivers presumably have winter tires and all that good stuff...

But... it is pretty much the first snow of the year (first weekend in October has already faded from people's memories)... and the first snow is always a shocking wake-up reminder to city-dwellers that we do live in a cold, relatively northern climate. People still think they can drive at their normal speed in these conditions and it takes a while for them to realize... "ah... it's winter!"... Sadly, one young man was killed yesterday on Highway 2 north of Calgary... leaving his vehicle and trying to get to the safety of a ditch.

People... slow down!!!