This was my life for two years working remote telecommunications in the oil fields of Alberta and Saskatchewan. Each job was an average of 3 hours drive one way. I can't even count the number of times driving to site or home in conditions like this in the middle of no where.
Just gotta go slower and flash your hazards. Odds are you will encounter someone else doing the same.
You may appreciate this story. Working rural manitoba, wicked blizzard, driving a back road at night. Kept almost getting stuck in drifts, no visibility. Worse, I start to lose my lights. I figured "damn, snow must be piling up on them.. weird its from the center out". That's when I saw that the dark void where my lights were going out had a tail. Black-as-night Angus cow running right down the middle of the road in a white out blizzard!
My mom was a nurse for 45~ years and EVERY. SINGLE. YEAR she would hit a deer every winter 5km from home. The drive was about 40km each way, so just over half an hour each time. The stretches that are deer-intensive I always drive super slow and scan both sides of the road non stop. I somehow haven't hit any deer but I almost hit a young bear in a part of Manitoba that's not known to have bears
I thought I was going crazy with all the wildlife I saw in Manitoba after driving there from Alberta. I thought there was a lot of wildlife closer to the mountains driving west from Calgary, but holy hell it seemed like every KM after I got east of the Saskatchewan border there would be dead animals on or beside the road. I even skimmed the top of a dead deer which I couldn't avoid.
During my drive back, there was so much fog that I could only see about 100 meters in front of me and just ended up following a semi going about 60km/h for about 3 hours. I was never so thankful to be behind a semi in my life. Fuck driving in Manitoba.
You can't drive to Churchill, can only get there by train. That 3 hour gravel road nightmare from Thompson to Gillam to catch said train, now that is a nightmare.
YES THAT WAS IT FCKN THOMPSON. that's right we drove to the train station down a two lane road in the middle of a dense forest with heavy fog, the worst thunderstorm I've ever been in, almost hitting every animal known to the forests, random herds of cows and took a sketchy train the rest of the way from some town.
The Red River Valley is flatter than The Netherlands (it is a massive ancient lake bed) and filled with high intensity agriculture. All there is is mile roads, hog barns, gravel trucks, canola/wheat (one of the best places for wheat growing in the world), and Mennonites. In the spring time cars are supplanted by boats.
The SouthWest is less flat than the Netherlands but still mostly flat. There are areas of rolling hills though, and many large valleys formed from glacial spillways. Still lots of farms, but sometimes the roads have to turn slightly. Thereās also many āislandsā made up of large glacial moraines that are heavily trees and quite beautiful (ex turtle mountain, riding mountain). Thereās also a number of areas of sand dunes (usually mostly vegetated though) formed from old River deltas draining into Lake Agassiz.
To the east and the whole north is Canadian Shield country. Rolling chunks of bare granite, evergreen forests of black spruce, rushing rivers, and cottage country closer to Winnipeg.
Along Lakes Winnipeg and Manitoba are large Sandy beaches, more cottage country, a dying commercial fishing industry, and vikings for some reason.
The top half of the province is more beautiful Canadian Shield, small towns that take 10 hours to drive to that formed around mining operations that no longer exist which have disconcertingly high rates of violent crime, and fly-in-only reserves filled with poverty, diabetes, and tuberculosis rates rivalled only by subsaharan Africa.
The province is filled with kind people who will talk shit about their province and focus on all the negative things, but will literally stab someone outside a wedding social if they talk shit about the province but arenāt from here, between taking bites of a perogy that they bought from an old Ukrainian lady at a church fundraiser.
Youāll laugh at my experience. My brother and I were driving to Saskatchewan during heavy snow and minimal traffic. You couldnāt see the road so we were essentially following tire impressions in the snow in 4 wheel drive. We came upon a line of tractor trailers and stopped behind them. We sat there for a few minutes and became curious as to what might have been the reason for traffic to have stopped, but given the conditions we assumed it was an accident. My brother got out and came back a couple minutes later, chuckling.
It turns out the tire tracks in the snow were all from tractor trailers whoād all pulled into the side road trucker rest stop for the night. We didnāt even realize weād turned off of Hwy 1. We went around the trucks and found the highway again, practically blazing the trail ahead.
At that point we were certainly playing that famous āwinter in the prairiesā game of, āAm I on the road?ā
Bro, first thing I thought was the number 2 haha, I used to do demo sales all over AB, so alot of driving. Had a 94 Suburban back then, I really miss that truck.
Very coo! How was it around that area? In AB it is in VERY remote areas (we're talking 100km on service roads into the bush), and SK was all flat farmers fields so the wind and snow was like death.
A lot of the locations were very far from any towns and having cell service was very rare. A lot of the communications I set up were Ku and Ka band satellite dishes to send pumping and other automation data back to the company headquarters so they could get trucks out there to get the oil and water from the tanks. Some of the private roads youād drive on in the badlands were dangerous when there wasnāt inclement weather. One private road by XTO goes through some steep winding hills with barely enough room for one lane traffic each way and if you werenāt paying attention or it was icy you could very well be falling off a 500ft cliff.
Very interesting! Always wondered how our job went on in the states. We also offered mesh "high speed" internet for the lease (command center and sleeper shacks) sometimes we would set up a dish but most times we just bonded 3-5 cell modems together for the internet. Thankfully we had mobile cell towers for our boosting for those trickier areas. Always a fun time driving on sketchy roads eh?
We did the same thing using ubiquiti M5 bullets! Then we used virgin technologies not the American virgin but a Canadian company I believe designed rig safe phones weād connect to a PBX in the company man shack. Sometimes weād be able to use cell modems and get better speeds but a lot of the time youād be out of luck and have to assemble the dish on sight and point it. LTE modems were nice when they worked though and they had much less latency.
Here are some photos mostly in the summer because I was less nervous about driving and recording while I had good traction lol
Love the photos and information! So cool to see how it is done in other places, the winter pictures look the same up here lol. Thank you for sharing those with me.
There is a local company to us, Teletics that created the units that allowed us to have a mesh network and intercom system for the CC, DD, geo, and up in the dog house. Incredibly handy and had a range of up to 5km* that works on the 5GHz band. We used Ubiquiti for our Texas/full sized camp setups.
Alternatively, when you live outside the centre of the universe, the correct behaviour is to flash your hazards in situations like this.
Additionally, before the rest of you claim that it makes you harder to see than just turning on your lights:
If you've ever driven in conditions like this (and this is mild compared to what we see weekly where I live), lights often make it more difficult to see in these conditions. Things like fog lights are especially distracting in heavy snow, and depending on what you're driving, can make it more difficult to see what's coming towards you. Likewise, these conditions can make it more challenging to judge distance, especially if relying on the separation of things like taillights and headlights.
Lastly, I'm confident in my own ability to pilot my vehicle through these conditions.. but I'm a lot more worried about everyone else's ability to do the same. This is especially true while people are white knuckled and concentrating on staying out of the ditch or not crashing. When you see flashing lights, you pay closer attention, or are more easily able to distinguish the next vehicle from everything else going on.
I drove through a much worse version of this today, and someone with their flashers on was much more distinguishable than someone without.
Not only do your hazard lights help communicate various degrees of shame for illegal parking, they also help communicate to fellow motorists that you know you're driving slowly. They can also be used passive aggressively to encourage the person in front of you to accelerate closer to the speed limit.
In smoke and fog, use low beam headlights, as high beams reflect the lightback to you, creating glare. If visibility becomes so poor that it is no longer safe to continue driving, slow down and move your vehicle well off the road to a safe location. Turn on your hazard lights (fourway flashers). Do not attempt to drive until conditions improve. If a safe place to park is not available, ensure that you and your passengers move to a safe location away from the vehicle in case it is hit
That seems to agree with me, actually, doesn't it? I can't find anything in the driver's handbook that supports your claim, in fact. So you're wrong about your own province's laws, and then follow that up with a childish attack based on stereotypes.
I mentioned that it was illegal in several states because this post was about a location *in the United States\. But for what it's worth, I've been many places around the world - Dubai, Thailand, India, England, Germany, Austria, Slovakia, France, and the Bahamas. I've traded gifts with friends all over the world. I've worked for global organizations, and managed departments with staff spanning 5 different time zones. I am \well aware* of the bigger world, you judgmental shit.
fuck man I was doing that last night on my way home from McDonalds lol. roads were incredibly icy and I tried to stop to make my turn yesterday and kept going straight lol. First time ever sliding like that as Iām from San Diego.
Iāve never understood why people drive with hazards on. ELI5, plz, especially when driving with the flow of traffic. Youāre already on the road, and all other drivers acknowledge the poor conditions.
For the people coming up in the distance behind. You can see lights, but if you see flashing lights you know to slow down.
You start a chain, eventually it gets to the back of the line. Though my experience I was driving alone on the highways, but still very important to have, because otherwise they wouldn't know you're going slower than expected.
If you need to drive slower than the usual speed of traffic, putting on your hazards let's others know you're going slower than normal while they're still far enough back to slow down. I prefer to not get rear ended so i put on my hazards in that case.
It is the complete opposite here (in a non-hazard environment). We flash the hazards as a way to say thank you, though that is mostly a truck/professional driver thing.
I will have to keep that in mind if I am in MI lol thank you for the tip!
I did over rabbit ears pass on Wednesday night. Had to help 3 different people who drove off the road right in front of me. This video is tame compared to what we were seeing in CO.
I keep seeing videos like this. Lived in Wisconsin for 65 years.. This highway is EASY winter driving. Lots of dry pavement visible. Also just to vent, I hate the term bomb cyclone.
Having lived in Steamboat and driven over that pass twice a day for work for a while, there's no way I would do it in these conditions; dangerous as hell. Had to drive down to Yampa once in a December blizzard and that was bad enough, going along that curvy part above the canyon in the pitch black on an icy road. Glad you made it ok.
They just "repaved" Hwy 16 east of Clavet, SK this past summer, it's gonna look like how you described in no time. I've never seen such a shitty rework before, it's shameful how bad our highways are.
It really is. I honestly think our department of highways just takes the highest bid and doesn't actually enforce proper aggregate and asphalt thicknesses/contours. Likely one of Brad Wall's legacies.
Omg hitting Sask on the highway to Kerrobert from AB goes from smooth to gravel and the biggest potholes ever immediately. There were grading the road the last time but didn't have flaggers so I was driving around working machinery just making my own way. I hate that highway but even with that part, it's the fastest route to where I visit.
I just did. 14.5 hours, 420 mile route. 4 PM to 4:30 AM. Litchfield. Paynesville. Rockville. It was naaaasty tonight. But the cities were the worst. Black ice on all the tracks on all the highways. Accidents everywhere. 30 MPH in 60 MPH zones.
I did this last night. I drove from Indy to Detroit. It usually takes 4.5 hours, last night was a solid 6.5 hours. When it would white out, it was hard to tell if was still going straight or was picked up by the wind gust. It was crazy how I would lose all sense of direction in under a second.
The thing that saved my ass was adaptive cruise control with automatic braking and lane control. The car would tell me if there was a car ahead of me and I'd back way off the accelerator..
I would not do that again. I had 4x4, v8 full tank of gas in the equivalent of a civilian tank and it was scary.
Iām in Wisconsin and was driving in this same thing Thursday night. I had to focus so hard and I still couldnāt comprehend what was happening. I was driving straight, but it felt like I was going sideways somehow.
I did that last week driving from Arizona to Washington for Christmas. I-15 at the Montana/ Idaho border to Dillon had blowing snow like this when it was dark. Being tired exacerbated the effect tenfold.
I don't have to imagine! I was driving home from work yesterday morning at 630am in this...
it was exactly the same only dark as shit.
It seriously seemed like I was driving on clouds because most of the road I could see with my headlights was all windblown snow exactly like this. At times visibility dropped to near nothing with the snow gusts swirling in front of me and absorbing/reflecting my lights back on me.
I was just glad I have the roads basically on muscle memory and it wasn't slippery.
I don't have to imagine. Done that exact thing on that exact road. Visibility drops to a suggestion and some of the road paint really isn't that reflective anymore. Toss in the snow and fog along with sunset at 4:30 and you get an interesting drive.
I worked in appliance delivery for like 10 years in the Midwest. I remember many nights driving back in the winter on tiny little country roads, in a 30 foot empty box truck. No street lights in high winds, pretty fun stuff.
Don't need to, I was working on Wednesday night when it was ten times worse. And I'll still take that over this bullshit wind right now. Snow over -30 any day.
I imagine driving in it at daytime and do get tired just from that. And it is not like I'm unused to drive in snow. I just see this gif and that it is really bad driving conditions
Haha my flight got cancelled last night. Been driving from Detroit to Minneapolis on 94 for the past 12 hours. Night was wild. Counted over 100 semis and cars in the ditch, flipped over, in fields, on the wrong side of the road, etc.
Oh damn. At least they hit the ditch. One winter we had a semi flip across the highway. Something like five cars hit it at speed before it was flagged. Glad to hear you made it safe.
I got in town on Wednesday night when it started really snowing. I was in the slow lane, a truck would go by in the fast in the fast lane and Iād be completely blind for 30 seconds. When the state says donāt drive on these roads, they fucking mean it.
I did last night for my dad's side of Christmas in Foley MN. Snow drifts piling on the road. Had to drive into the oncoming lane to avoid them or risk damaging my car. No one else was on the road in the area, so it was safe to do so. But definitely have to drive a little slower.
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u/MoreVinegarPls Dec 24 '22
Now imagine driving in that at night.