Be careful on snow and ice... ran a red light... hit the curb...

[Sunny]

Applied brakes at 12 sec but the ice said no way Jose and all four wheels slid for 6 seconds well into the intersection.
Couldn't stop until in the middle of intersection so went through the red light.
Thankfully, others were stopped.
2019 1228 224248 054A
Dashcam: Rexing V3

Below is where I slid and hit the curb slightly on the same day at different location to show how bad the snow was:

 

[Nigel]

No winter tyres?

Think you need to slow down a bit!

 

[Sunny]

No winter tires as snow doesn't stay that long here.
It's snow one day and sunny dry next day.

 

[jokiin]

 

[Nigel]

No winter tires as snow doesn't stay that long here.
It's snow one day and sunny dry next day.

Winter tyres are not just for snow, they are for any time the temperature is below 10 degrees C.
If you had them then you would almost certainly have stopped normally.

 

[2000rpm]

Winter tyres are not just for snow, they are for any time the temperature is below 10 degrees C.

Yes, people don't realise that 'winter' tyres aren't just for snow. They are 'cold weather' tyres.
On a cold, wet road or an icy road, the difference will usually be huge compared to 'normal' tyres.

One of our cars has Michelin Cross Climate tyres fitted year-round. Another has Goodyear Vector tyres year-round. For my local climate, usage and driving style they have a good balance of abilities whatever the weather.

 

[Nigel]

No winter tires as snow doesn't stay that long here.
It's snow one day and sunny dry next day.

So why were you driving at 36MPH in the 25MPH speed limit in the 2nd video when your tyres were not suitable for the conditions?

No point in having dashcam evidence with GPS speed display to defend yourself if it shows that you were massively at fault!

Like you said, drive sensibly in bad weather conditions, although it wasn't actually bad weather, visibility was pretty good, it was just weather unsuitable for your vehicle.

One of our cars has Michelin Cross Climate tyres fitted year-round.

A compromise all year round!

Could be a good compromise in some climates, but always remember that the car in front of you can quite likely stop quicker than you - you should leave an extra two car lengths of gap to the car in front.

 

[Gazwould]

I'm affaid to say it's poor driving skills there , OP is actually increasing speed towards lights right up until he brakes .

 

[2000rpm]

A compromise all year round!

Could be a good compromise in some climates, but always remember that the car in front of you can quite likely stop quicker than you - you should leave an extra two car lengths of gap to the car in front.

The compromise isn't much.
They're certainly as good all-round as a mid-range tyre and better than a budget tyre, which most cars are fitted with. If I were you, I'd worry more about the car behind you with budget tyres than the one with all-season tyres.
The Michelins lose about 5% on braking distance on a warm dry road compared to a premium tyre such as Continental Premium Contact. In just about every other condition they are equal or massively superior to normal tyres.
The Goodyears maybe 10% worse on a warm dry road but even better than the Michelins on wet, slushy, muddy roads.

In my experience warm dry roads don't produce anywhere near as many unexpected nasty surprises as cold, wet, icy, muddy, leaf-littered, slushy or greasy roads.
So I tilt my everyday car's abilities towards being less likely to let me down unexpectedly and horiffically.

Have a read of the autumn 'all-season tyre' test by Auto Express. They tested several all season tyres and used Continental Premium Contact as a benchmark, and the all- season tyres really compared well.

All-Season Tyre Test 2021: verdict and results by category | Auto Express

Tables show which all-season tyres performed well where, and how they compare

www.autoexpress.co.uk

 

[2000rpm]

Oh and a good video showing tyre performance at 0-15'C and how 'A'-rated grip 'normal' tyres can be downright dangerously unprdictable in cool, cold or freezing weather.
Even a professional tyre tester was caught out by premium normal tyres on a cold, damp, slippy test track.

 

[Nigel]

The Michelins lose about 5-10% on braking distance on a warm dry road
The Goodyears maybe 10-15% worse on a warm dry road

According to the Highway Code, stopping distance at 70mph is 24 car lengths, so an extra 10% would be an extra 2.4 car lengths - that is more than my suggestion, your worst case of 15% requires an extra gap of 3.6 car lengths in the dry

So for the people who use these tyres and drive down the motorway with a gap of only 1 car length total to the car in front, as seems to be quite common, if the car in front brakes hard and has summer tyres, a pileup is inevitable!

Even a professional tyre tester was caught out by premium normal tyres on a cold, damp, slippy test track.

That is exactly what we saw on Sunny's video, and why I was able to guess that he did not have winter tyres. Perfectly predictable though, in wet conditions at 0 degrees, summer tyres always do not work well.

 

[IAmATeaf]

No winter tyres?

Think you need to slow down a bit!

This, some very poor driving given that he’s driving on normal all season tyres. At one point the speed goes up to 34mph in the residential area which is just dumb given that there’s packed snow on the roads.

 

[Nigel]

This, some very poor driving given that he’s driving on normal all season tyres. At one point the speed goes up to 34mph in the residential area which is just dumb given that there’s packed snow on the roads.

It is a good thread though, the title gives a warning for the rest of us, one of the best things about dashcams is that they allow us and others to see and think about our own mistakes and thus avoid many serious incidents.

 

[TonyM]

one of the best things about dashcams is that they allow us and others to see and think about our own mistakes and thus avoid many serious incidents

I've reviewed my own driving many times. It's surprising how different a scene can look when you watch it back later, and you realise your own errors.

I used to switch between summer and winter tyres. Now I'm on Michelin Crossclimate, which I think are safer on the cold wet roads around here than my previous dedicated winter tyres. They certainly have less understeer and a better feel for the road.

 

[wozzzzza]

nice burnout conditions there, you could go all day with a burnout and not destroy ya tyres

 

[Sunny]

Yes. On the first one, I was thinking I can pass on orange but realized it won't last that long and braked and it was downhill.
Even slight downhill when icy is bad.
2nd video is icy on the first turn.
After that is fresh powder and little traffic but I agree speed is never going to help.
Fresh snow and empty road = puts on race hat.

Also, I think my tires had low air pressure when it dropped the temperature that day, good for snow but bad for ice.

@jokiin, that was funny.
SNOW TIRES...

 

[Sunny]

Btw, as per dept of transportation here, tire tread and all wheel drive is what matters in winter roads, not winter vs summer tires.
Winter tires are required for two wheel drives when driving up in the mountains and all wheel drives are required to have good tread.
I'm not in the mountains and its all wheel drive.
I have all season tires on this car.
I have never used just summer tires if there's such thing.
Of course Winter tires on all wheel is even better but swapping out tires is not cheap plus takes a lot of space to store 4 huge tires all year.

 

[2000rpm]

According to the Highway Code, stopping distance at 70mph is 24 car lengths, so an extra 10% would be an extra 2.4 car lengths - that is more than my suggestion, your worst case of 15% requires an extra gap of 3.6 car lengths in the dry

So for the people who use these tyres and drive down the motorway with a gap of only 1 car length total to the car in front, as seems to be quite common, if the car in front brakes hard and has summer tyres, a pileup is inevitable!


That is exactly what we saw on Sunny's video, and why I was able to guess that he did not have winter tyres. Perfectly predictable though, in wet conditions at 0 degrees, summer tyres always do not work well.

The car I currently have CrossClimates on previously had Continental Eco Contacts. The CrossClimates are not inferior in any way and in most respects are noticeably better.
A lot of modern cars have eco tyres. Eco = low rolling resistance = low grip.

With the UK weather as variable as it is, even having winter tyres in winter and summer tyres in summer isn't necessarily ideal.
In heavy summer rain, winters may well be better than summers. On dry mild days in winter, summers may well be better than winters.

One of my cars is fitted with Pirelli P Zero 'performance' tyres which according to tests, perform well (and I agree; handling and braking are excellent in summer) whereas another of my cars has wheels of a size where only eco tyres are available.
So that car is permanently disadvantaged by inferior grip because premium sporty tyres are not readily available in that size. If I'm behind you in my P Zero-equipped car, I'll stop a lot quicker than if I'm in the one with Conti Eco Contacts.

So, what should we do?
Change our car so we can all fit super premium sports tyres and huge race-track-capable brakes?
Change tyres each evening based on the weather forecast for the next day (and hope the forecasters get it right)?
Or fit all-season tyres so that the car can cope well enough with any conditions and not give many nasty unexpected issues?

 

[Sunny]

So, what should we do?
Change our car so we can all fit super premium sports tyres and huge race-track-capable brakes?
Change tyres each evening based on the weather forecast for the next day (and hope the forecasters get it right)?
Or fit all-season tyres so that the car can cope well enough with any conditions and not give many nasty unexpected issues?

I've never used summer only tires. I don't think they even sell those here by that name.
Next best matching is what they call 3 season tires (same thing different name?) that is good for all seasons except winter.

I have always used all seasons tire whether I was in hot Texas or in snowy Colorado.
I think that's good compromise for those of us who don't want to swap tires.

With good treads and proper air pressure, all it comes to driving according to conditions.
Snow tires will not do any good if this is what the driver thinks as @jokiin mentioned above...

 

[kamkar]

I always get my winter tires on too late, and my summer tires on too late.

My winter tires are Bridgestone blizzak-LM001, which are not a particular good winter tire, but what i can afford

Blizzak LM001

Your journey to the top is full of twists and turns. That's why our tires are rigorously engineered to perform their best when you need them most.

www.bridgestonetire.com

And to be honest driving in colder but dry weather on my summer tires or warmer dry road on my winter tires i don't have to modify my driving style.
And i often go thru bends where there is a 50 km/h advised speed at 70 and so on, and to be honest judging from review i should see a difference, but then again i don't do runs on the same day and conditions.
So i am pretty happy even if i have only seen 38 snowflakes since i got those winter tires.

In the 90ties i had Michelin all season tires on my Opel, and i ran those all the time i owned that car, and even in really bad conditions i was able to do 80 - 90 km/h on the motorway with 1 - 3 foot of snow on it, passing other cars and trucks and snow plows,,,,,, but i had to constantly operate the steering wheel or the little FWD Opel GT would have ended up in the barrier or ditch which we had separating the motorway lanes back then on that stretch of road.