Snow and Travel Woes

[Gavin Scott]

Getting a little tired of hearing about this "frozen Britain" stuff. Not so much the weather - which is pretty extraordinary of course, but this endless weariness and kvetching from commuters and holiday makers.

The Beeb are now inviting those stuck in airport terminals to call in and whinge about their delays (obviously Sky will be too - but I don't watch that channel); and the more I hear the more I think, "well, what exactly do you expect people to do?".

If they can barely get fuel to petrol stations, then why do they expect they will make their flight? Isn't it a fair assumption that anything you're told is, at best, a guess and is subject to change?

My postman has just been in and he's getting fed up with people wanting their Amazon and Tesco deliveries.

Wouldn't this whole thing be easier to manage if people would just lower their bloody expectations to something approaching realism?

[Sput]

Oh god I know what you mean gav. I actually turn off my TV when they get to "karen mcbullshit has been stuck in gatwick for 3 hours" sort of nonsense. Do they think it's in some way trivial to hurtle hundreds of tonnes along a finite runway at a hundred miles an hour? Same when motorists take the lead from the media and expect that road grit is in fact magic dust that clears all roads instantly. And why the did the Scottish transport minister resign? Because he's not effing psychic beyond actually quite good forecasts?

[m-in-m]

People seem to forget that the snow we have experienced in England (I can't talk for Scotland) is not levels that we are setup to deal with. It will therefore impact on us - perhaps we should take it as a reminder that we cannot control everything on this planet. Maybe if we spent more time checking on friends and family and less on moaning we might find we enjoy the snow a little more.

[Gavin Scott]

Oh god I know what you mean gav. I actually turn off my TV when they get to "karen mcbullshit has been stuck in gatwick for 3 hours" sort of nonsense. Do they think it's in some way trivial to hurtle hundreds of tonnes along a finite runway at a hundred miles an hour? Same when motorists take the lead from the media and expect that road grit is in fact magic dust that clears all roads instantly. And why the did the Scottish transport minister resign? Because he's not effing psychic beyond actually quite good forecasts?

He resigned because Alex Salmond gave him the "I fully stand behind and support my colleague" kiss of death; and the fourth estate ran ridiculous headlines about him being on a knife edge, unprepared, failed to warn when he learned of bad weather, etc.

Its so silly. Even with a month of notice, there's nothing you can do about 6" of snow in 2 hours coupled with -10 degree temperatures. Grit won't look at it, ploughs can only be in one place at one time.

The airport situation is the most tiresome. Even bright and logical pals on facebook are screaming, "FFS you knew this was coming, why weren't you ready?! - My parents can't arrive from New York for Xmas" diatribes this morning - addressed, presumably, to the chief execs of BAA, although it seems to me that's absorbing most of the vitriol.

These are the same folk who will then be shocked if a plane were to skid off the tarmac - probably the same ones who got cross when their pilots wouldn't fly through an ash cloud earlier in the year.

They expect to be able to hop around the planet at will, and drive around the country getting to their pressing appointments totally unaffected.

Its disappointing to have a jolly cancelled, and its stressful to not be able to reach your work - but really... did we really all sign up to social networks just to listen to you all state the bloody obvious? Is your stress more important than mine - to the extent that you feel compelled to tweet about every leg of your journey all day?

Put a thermal sock in it for God's sake.

[Ebeneezer Scrooge]

Not to mention of course that the response to such weather isn't simply down to the authorities, but us as citizens too.
Granted, we can't pop out and clear an airport, but one of my colleagues commented the other week that this isn't really unusual weather. Yes it's all appeared in one go which is unusual, but the more unusual weather is the mild stuff we've got used to over recent winters.

Before that burst of mild weather, people were generally aware that when snow was on the way, we'd have to do a bit of shoveling, change our driving style and possibly tyres (at least get a set of chains where you're in an area that's more likely to be heavily hit). I was out helping an elderly neighbour clear his driveway during the first lot of snow and he mentioned that when this happened previously, neighbours would all be out at some point to make sure that not only their driveway was clear, but that the footpath in front of their house was clear too. It doesn't take a great deal of cooperation to make sure that this kind of thing is easier dealt with. Helping clear a bit of snow before it ices up, helping the action of the salt on the road by not following in people's tyre tracks (while it is safe to do so)... every little helps!

[Chie]

The simmering saucepan of war threatened to boil over and erupt on the Korean Peninsula last night and still the British weather was all the BBC could talk about. What will it take? There's all kinds of important stuff going on across the world right now. Heathrow's frozen runways have taken priority every hour for the last three days!

[Gavin Scott]

Not to mention of course that the response to such weather isn't simply down to the authorities, but us as citizens too.
Granted, we can't pop out and clear an airport, but one of my colleagues commented the other week that this isn't really unusual weather. Yes it's all appeared in one go which is unusual, but the more unusual weather is the mild stuff we've got used to over recent winters.

Before that burst of mild weather, people were generally aware that when snow was on the way, we'd have to do a bit of shoveling, change our driving style and possibly tyres (at least get a set of chains where you're in an area that's more likely to be heavily hit). I was out helping an elderly neighbour clear his driveway during the first lot of snow and he mentioned that when this happened previously, neighbours would all be out at some point to make sure that not only their driveway was clear, but that the footpath in front of their house was clear too. It doesn't take a great deal of cooperation to make sure that this kind of thing is easier dealt with. Helping clear a bit of snow before it ices up, helping the action of the salt on the road by not following in people's tyre tracks (while it is safe to do so)... every little helps!

I was solicited three times to assist drivers by pushing their cars out of their parking slots into the road - once on the day of mum's funeral while I was wearing my suit.

All three times I ended up face down in the road, soaked, and with skinned hands for my trouble.

All so someone could meander off to Tescos (or somethwhere equally trivial).

Good Samaritan and all that, but I won't be doing it again. The last occasion some young lady with bone dry Ugg boots and freshly blown-dry hair do didn't so much as shout "thanks" out the window before she drove off - leaving me picking myself up.

[WillPS]

The stuff about postmen is just typical of people - my Dad gets it all the time, people wanting to know where their stuff from QVC and Amazon is, as if he can just whip out some kind of terminal with all that information on (if the information even exists!). It's similar to when I used to work at Sainsbury's Local and I'd get customers asking me why prices are going up as if I had any part to play in the decision making process, or worse still when I worked in a toy shop and customers vilified me for selling them toys which were later recalled. Idiots.

[Ebeneezer Scrooge]

I was solicited three times to assist drivers by pushing their cars out of their parking slots into the road - once on the day of mum's funeral while I was wearing my suit.

All three times I ended up face down in the road, soaked, and with skinned hands for my trouble.

All so someone could meander off to Tescos (or somethwhere equally trivial).

Good Samaritan and all that, but I won't be doing it again. The last occasion some young lady with bone dry Ugg boots and freshly blown-dry hair do didn't so much as shout "thanks" out the window before she drove off - leaving me picking myself up.

But that isn't necessarily what I'm talking about. In your examples it wasn't a matter of people cooperating, it was (apparently) unprepared people asking you to get them out of a hole.

I've been driving for a smidge over 3 years, but I took it on myself to find out how to drive in the snow. With the relevant knowledge of what to do, I've not needed to ask anyone for help to get my car moving and keep it moving safely. After a recent midwife appointment, I managed to get our car out of a carpark that slopes fairly severely, navigate past somebody who didn't have a clue what to do. Park up on a clear stretch of road and go back and help her. Naturally, from that point, my experience matched yours. Although I didn't injure myself, there was not a word of thanks - but then she probably thought she had a right to be angry about the council allowing the snow to be so slippy this year...

[DVB Cornwall]

The main gripe I have is that there is little to no reporting of the similar and indeed worse conditions in continental Europe. Even Switzerland isn't fully coping, if they can't, it shows the severity and related issues connected with this met. incident.

[Gavin Scott]

But that isn't necessarily what I'm talking about. In your examples it wasn't a matter of people cooperating, it was (apparently) unprepared people asking you to get them out of a hole.

Well I did the path outside my flat - actually as my neighbours had done both adjoining pieces, so to not do mine seemed a bit selfish; but I live in the city centre of Edinburgh. Best bus service in the country (apparently - voted year after year), and yet knob heads who own cars would never dream of getting on one. For one day (at the peak of the last snowfall) the bus service was cancelled - there was a further few days of route diversions, but for the most part you can get anywhere in the city for £1.20, even on days like today.

If we lived in the States I could understand why people would insist on driving themselves, but not here. Cars that attempted and failed their journeys last week were the ones that prevented routes being gritted, because they were left abandoned at pavements and even the middle of the road for the best part of 5 days.

Its not Government ministers who were at fault - it was selfish lazy fuckers who decided that a 5 minute walk to and from a bus stop was beneath them.

I know all about countryside dwellers - they're not the ones I'm talking about. Of the half million who live in the city, probably half of them also work in it, and like to take their cars from, say, Granton to Leith, or Morningside to the new town.

There's no excuse for it.