Winter driving

Ian Wickham wrote:I guess with global warming this whole subject matter will be a thing of the past soon :-)

Who knows. If the Gulf stream shifts, you may be using chains to drive into London in the winter :lol: So many tipping points may be reached that the world could potentially look very different.

Do large cities have snow emergencies in Europe ? Here after a snow storm, Cities will announce a snow emergency. This means you can only park on the even number side of the street one night and the odd number side the next night. This allows them to plow the whole street over two nights. It's common for hundreds of cars to be towed away.

In the suburbs, there is no street parking at night during the winter to allow for snow plowing.

Fortunately the snow plowing is very efficient. It's quite impressive to see four or five plows in formation on the freeway traveling at sixty mph. This trailer plow is a new idea to get by with less plows.



Trencher

Trencher wrote:

Ian Wickham wrote:I guess with global warming this whole subject matter will be a thing of the past soon :-)

Who knows. If the Gulf stream shifts, you may be using chains to drive into London in the winter :lol: So many tipping points may be reached that the world could potentially look very different.

interesting point, have you seen much about what effect jet stream deflection is having on the current weather? it was the dominant feature of summer weather and there's some odd snow fall patterns across Europe I believe.

Trencher wrote:Do large cities have snow emergencies in Europe ? Here after a snow storm, Cities will announce a snow emergency. This means you can only park on the even number side of the street one night and the odd number side the next night. This allows them to plow the whole street over two nights. It's common for hundreds of cars to be towed away.

In the suburbs, there is no street parking at night during the winter to allow for snow plowing.

:lol: no, possibly there's not a substantial problem with cars being left on the street here though. In suburbs there'd be basically no street parking at all.

Dave Mac wrote:There is a bit of semantics here.

The bottom line is, 1 November-15 April:

If I do a car hire, do not have winter tyres, and the journey does not encounter "snow, slush,ice", then I am legal.

If, on the other hand, during the hire period, at a time when I am driving, and encounter "snow, slush,ice", then I am illegal. As a result, heavy fines or temporary loss of vehicle may be imposed for breaches of this legislation.

Do I feel lucky?

So this really does mean getting chains hired. Can be done at the car hire desk. What I do anyway, though not normally in March. Also important is understanding the road snow coverage aspect.

Dave. As an experienced Niederauer who drives from Munich in a hire car (if I read previous posts from you rightly), have you ever hired a car with winter tyres or had snow chains fitted when making the journey?

I was quoted 12 euros a day for winter tyres, which I think is a ridiculously expensive - If I had the car for a couple of weeks I would have paid for the tyres myself!

How much can I expect to pay to hire snow chains, and also from where can I hire/buy them, as I am told Avis do not rent them out at Munich airport?

ldavies wrote:Er, Dave Mac and Jan,
Given that it's bucketing down in Niederau, and Blodyn abnd I are starting our journey, Thelma-and-Louise-style, early on Saturday morning, hoping to get to Worgle by, er, lunchtime, do you think we should invest in some chains?
My plan is to telephone big Phil or Eric and ask them to come down to Worgl with chains to fit Blod's car, if the Worgle/Niederau road is iffy. L.

Phil drives a big range rover, so his chains may not be entirely suitable. Anyway, he will probably be skiing. It's Saturday, so Eric will be organising rentals. Just take a good run at it when you get to the bottom of the hill. :-)

If the road is very bad, you could take up my suggestion of plan B. Park up near the rail station. Since you are early you could catch the post bus, although between two of you, a taxi won't cost much more, about 15 Euros, and wll take you to the door of the Staffler.

Unless it is dumping down, the road should be OK. It is arrival day, so there will be buses up and down all day, also there will be big shovels in use, and probably the road will be gritted. But I wouldn't worry too much. Thelma and Louise would have talked their way through it.

If you do get stuck, and if you are still there at 4.00pm ish, we will wave to you as we pass. :lol:

Tony, I have not used winter tyres on hire cars. My land rover tyres would have qualified OK, when I have driven out. Most hire cars are fairly young cars, and have decent tyre tread.

I plan to rent chains at Munich, have done this on previous occasions. Have certainly hired from Europcar, and I think we did so from Avis too. Renting chains is a guarantee that you won't need to use them :wink:

Bit of research required methinks.