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Thanks to the recent weather covering most of Eastern Europe with snow I've had quite an adventurous trip driving from the mountains to Bucharest this morning. I'm probably in for an even bigger adventure as I head out on a 2500 km drive to Slovenia and back this weekend.
In light of all this I thought it might be a good idea to write down a few pointers about driving in the snow and on snow-covered roads.
The Basics
The first thing one needs to bear in mind when driving through ice and snow is that the main force acting upon a car is inertia. Think of your car as a big brick. You can use your acceleration to apply an impulse that can change the brick's movement vector slightly in a particular direction. Your breaks serve to slightly increase the amount of friction between the brick and the road.
One needs to always consider the movement vector of the brick and the total amount of friction that can be applied in order to shorten the movement vector. You can also consider the movement vectors of all the other bricks on the road when planning your own movements but this is more complicated and would probably be better left for Snow Driving 102 or 201.
Principles and Pointers
Plan ahead.
You should base your calculations primarily on the natural deceleration rate of your car, rather than assumptions related to your breaking capacity.
Lines created in the snow on the road by other cars passing before you will often have a bigger influence on your heading than your desire to steer the car in a particular direction.
Thick banks of snow on the side of the road can wreak havoc if you stray onto them.
Use straight bits of road with light traffic to gently apply the breaks from time to time. This causes your break discs to heat up and melt the snow that gradually builds up on them. If you don't do this your breaks will become useless after a while. Some smarter cars do this automatically.
Plan ahead!
Massive amounts of snow will gather behind your wheels, sometimes forming solid blocks of ice, and will negatively affect your steering. The same ice blocks will often be responsible for your car being unable to get back on the road if you don't choose your parking spot well enough. Stop and clean from time to time.
Always carry snow chains and use them when it gets too tough.
Carry a shovel with you at all times. I prefer the full-sized ones rather than two-piece car models. They'll save your back.
Did I mention "PLAN AHEAD!"?
After making you read all this stuff I should mention that I'm in no way an expert driver and I've had no formal training to do this. I've just done a lot of not-so-clever things over the years and learned a lot from my mistakes.
If anyone wishes to add to the list of pointers please use the comments below.
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