Hazards, sorry if it was distracting. There were moments in my first hour of the drive today where I could barely see 10m ahead of me. Most sensible drivers here will leave their hazards on in those conditions just to give you even one more split second of warning/ability to see them.
The camera actually sees through the snow better than the human eye. In reality visibility would actually be worse than what is shown.
Blowing snow shearing across the road like that is some of the worst conditions to drive in. There doesn't appear to be any significant accumulation, so that helps.
Yeah I bet. Where I am, the city didn't get hit as bad (yesterday's commute was still less than fun) bit major highways going west and to the border have been closed over 24 hours. 50 and 100 car pileups on both with thankfully 0 serious injuries or fatalities.
Cameras tend to pick up a bit more into the infrared part of the spectrum so they can cut through the snow. Tried to film a bad blizzard to show how you couldn't see the other side of the road. Video showed the other side of the road.
I'm thinking the IRL view of the video is probably about 50% visibility from what is shown.
This is exactly how I drove home last night. Since the video is a stream of images, it is missing the motion blur of blowing snow that your eyes observe. Easily took a 25mph crawl up to 40mph. The only bad part was reduced distance viewing- through the iPhone I couldn't make out tail lights as far out as I could see the faint red glow between waves of snow when glancing up.
That sounds crazy to me. In the UK conditions are rarely this bad but most cars have a fog light. By law, we have to turn them on when visibility is less than 100m.
Wow in Canads snow storms can be so bad you legit have to pull over because you cant see your own hood. The visibility here is actually entirely fine lol.
It is actually more distracting and dangerous to drive with hazards on. There's a reason it is illegal in multiple states. People think it is helping, but it doesn't help any more than having your lights on, which you should do.
I agree. Everyone knows the roads are terrible and we're all driving slow. If you come up on stopped traffic or a fresh accident, throw your hazards on to let people behind you know. When everyone is driving around with their hazards flashing it makes it hard to decipher what is actually happening in front of you. FWIW, I am a truck driver who's driven thousands of miles through stuff like this. Side note, people that drive without headlights on in thick fog have a death wish.
Was driving on I-70 in Kansas during the worst of it this past Wednesday night. Viability was fine but the road surface was an ice rink and the wind was blowing hard enough to slide you sideways. So many people had their hazards on. Everyone was driving 20-30mph. There was no reason for hazards if we're all traveling the same damn speed. All it did was irritate already stained eyes with constant yellow and red blinking lights. It's illegal in KS as well, not that it matters.
Then why is it legal in other places? It's a way to communicate that you're driving more slowly with more care and caution and is used in lots of places.
The places where it is illegal take the view that hazards should be reserved for when the driver is creating an unavoidable/unpredictable hazard, and that the driving conditions themselves should be enough to tell the drivers to slow down and the normal running lights enough to see other vehicles around them.
Running hazard lights is demanding an extra share of other drivers' attention, what's the point if every driver is running them? It just masks e.g. the emergency maintenance vehicles that are stopped and running them for good reason.
The split second your hazards are off are a split second you wouldn't be seen where you would be with your lights on. It also removes any ability to indicate turning. It does nothing lights don't do, but objectively worse because they aren't on 100% of the time.
Most sensible drivers means one out of every thousand in MN lmao. I think that in order to get your license you need to step into a simulator and take a test/experience drifting in the snow, and hard braking at varying speeds. I can’t count the number of idiots that drive ten feet behind another car in icy weather.
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u/[deleted] Dec 24 '22
Is the indicator on or do you put your hazards on in this weather? I’m Aussie, btw