Coldest winter in 100 years on its way!

[Tarrel]

Not making excuses or anything; some of the incompetence we've seen over the last 2-3 years is inexcusable. However, we do get pretty rotten conditions here in our maritime climate. Temperatures hover around freezing, resulting in thaw and re-freeze conditions, whereas the Scandinavians (often cited) tend to have dry, hard-packed snow to drive on.

Winter tyres make a huge difference, and we seem to be waking up to that here, slowly.

Road design here is appalling. There doesn't seem to be any attempt to take winter driving conditions into account. Housing estates have winding roads and pinch-points. There are roundabouts everywhere. People are allowed to park on the street, restricting the traffic flow to 1.5 lanes. All of this conspires to create snarl-ups and accidents in snowy conditions. In Canada, road junctions have traffic lights, not roundabouts. Roads are in straight lines, and on-street parking is in designated bays, allowing traffic to flow freely in both directions (or the street is made one-way). Oh, and it's a legal requirement to clear the snow from the sidewalk in front of your property. If you're too old, or can't be a**ed, you have to pay someone else to do it.

At the end of the day, it's difficult to ignore the "return on investment" issue with regards to winter preparation. Our winter season is pretty short compared to many of the countries we compare ourselves to. We're simply not going to get the return on investment (in terms of maintaining productivity) for long enough each year to make it a financially sound proposition to invest in huge amounts of equipment. There probably is an argument that says; "Let the country grind to a halt for a few days each year. It makes more financial sense". Unless the Gulf Stream grinds to a halt of course..

In the final analysis, I think a lot of our problems are caused by too many people, driving too many cars, in too small a space.