Winter Driving

With the Autumn on the way and the days getting colder, we should think about the hazards in store for us in the soon-to-come days of cold and wet. If you are afraid of winter driving, don't be. Fear is not appropriate here. Fear is a paralyzing factor, it should be minimized just to the level of a healthy sense of self-preservation. Many people, myself included, find driving in the rain and even driving wet tracks, to be nice.

The first rain is the time to recheck your point of view: Do you focus on the potential skid or of the hazard of lesser grip? The two are identical, but the latter one should prove better when driving in the wet. Modern cars have very high limits to grip and, when maintained and treated according to basic instructions, will not be very easy to iritate.

If you have looked into the subject of "Effective Driving", you probably recognise the extreme importance of setting your safe and compatible driving environment before you hit the road. The way to do this is to make sure the car is fit and that the driver's enviornment is fit.

The car should be checked primarily for tires. They are the most important car part in need of steady maintainence, especially in the winter. Cheap, old, worn or badly inflated tires cost in dearly in grip levels and driveability. You will be amazed by how quickely the car reaches it's limits on bends, or how further it takes to stop it with the brakes pinched to the floor, when the tires are under-inflated! And that's without considering particularly low-friction surfaces and the extra time of perception, reaction, hesitation and car response, untill the car starts slowing down effectivelly.

Take a personal gage and check all four tires and the spare one. If the tire is hot from driving you should add 10% to pressure. If it's very cold, you actually let out pressure progressively. If in doubt, prefer an overinflated tire over an under-inflated one! The overinflated tire is stiffer (less likely to fall apart) and will penetrate the layers of water or even frost and snow that an under-inflated tire would skim over.

When checking tread depth, do not settle for the legal minimum of 1.6mm of depth (like with the "penny test"). A good depth is at the very least, 3mm. Likewise, if you do have some very worn tires, do not "put the good tires in the back". The good tires belong...on all four wheels! That's when it's time to replace the whole pack. If you put the good tires in the back, you get more grip at the back and a tendency to understeer, which is a more predictable and highly recoverable manner of road handling. But there is a catch: By reducing the front-end grip, you lose not only steerability (causing understeer) but also most of your braking force, which comes from the front wheels.

Since the average driver best deals with a terminal skid by hard braking, and since a significantly shorter braking distance might be better than stable, straight-line braking over a longer length, there is no place for compromise: The good tires go on all four wheels!

Having checked the tires, we now turn to our driving enviornemnt. This begins by driver clothing. In the postmodern lifestyle most of us manage, driving can be made into a place of tranquility and freedom, instead of bringing your stresses and noise into the cabin. When you enter the car, take off long, warm heavy clothing like coats. They interfere with concentration, steering, and with the seatbelts. When you intiatly take off your upper cloth, it feels very cold. Wait a second before you put it back on. It will become easier.

With addition to that, make sure your soles are clear of moist and mud. You will be surprised by the amounts of accidents caused by a slipping foot! Take care for your seating position, grip of the steering wheel and check your mirror adjustment. Use the A/C to reach a nice temperature, plus defume your windows and mirrors. Do not overheat the compartment: Set the A/C for circulation and keep one of the front windows slightly open for fresh air. 

So, we have adjusted our driving enviornment to suit the two factors of winter driving: The effect of temperature on the driver and the effect of weather on the road surface. However, when we do start going, we need to consider a third, perhaps most important factor -- visibility. Use the wipers and defrost to keep the windscreen clear. Having done that, we ask ourselves what can we done in real-time? Well, very little and I am not trying to be negative. My point is that we should not try to forcibly get over the problem by trying to focus our eyes on the road ahead. Alternatively, we should keep our eyes relaxes, open. This gives us a wider field of vision, and less eye fatigue. Like with taking off your clothes, it feels strange at the first moment when you try it, but getting  used to it is not too hard.

 Having done that, we need to keep our eyes UP, so that any hazard can be detected early and planning of dealing with it begins earlier. The problem is that the issue of visibility, puts an obstruction in our way: In what distance can we clearly see objects on the road? Well, that depends. Another road user on a car or bike, or even a pedestrain, can be seen from quite afar. However, another important thing to see, is the road surface itself. 

Why? Oh, just a little thing called "Reading the road surface" -- which is especially important in the winter. You should look for changes in the texture of the road to detect puddles, deeper water surfaces, glimmering greasy surfaces, icy conditions or mud, and this can only be seen at a shorter (albeit still quite large) distance. In order to combine the two, we look up to a far distance, as far as we can see road and scan the road from it towards a closer point, in which we can see the road surface for imperfections or flashes or a greasy surface.

Okay, so we established the importance of making the preperations and of looking up, but what about the practical inputs to the controls? Well, what about them indeed? Like with vision, very little. Do less with the controls and the chance of error will be less. Also, more energy will be available for mental planning of the driving. Driving in the winter, like all sorts of driving, is mental at heart. We need to create a direct link between the point the tire contacts the road, and our mind. The data should pass throughout whatever is in between (tire sidewall, steering mechanism, springs, dampers, wheel arms, chassis, steering wheel and seat, hands and legs, etc) as quickely as possible. 

The same works the other way: The driver does not control the car with the "controls" of brakes, steering and accelerator. He drives the car mentally in his mind and uses the controls as tools that aid him in getting it there. Planning is the key. If you look ahead in space, think ahead in time and plan ahead, you will be "one step ahead" of the car. This is the most effective way of how not to crush when travelling from A to B: If you see B and picture yourself getting there, it's as if you are already there.

As for practical advice: Keep your inputs minimal, accurate and smooth, but also relativelly quick when required. There is really no need to turn the wheel in an endless row of tiny hand movements. Instead, use one long, smooth but relativelly quick hand motion. Do not fight with the car. Fighting with the car through the controls is the opposite of driving it mentally. Turn the wheel in the above manner and let the car respond, even if it appears to respond slightly late or too progressively. Accelerate with particular ease and let the car pull itself onward. Brake with ease and let the car roll to a gradual stop or reduction to the appropriate speed.

It's important to manage the gap. Keep a good distance away from the car in front. The default gap is 2-seconds, but when wet it should be increased to 3-4 seconds gap. You need to make sure you measure full seconds by seeing when the car in front passes a stationary land-mark like a certain line on the road, and than count "five-one-thousand, four-one-thousand, three-one-thousand, two-one-thousand" for a gap of full four seconds. 

Emergencies

In spite of these procautions, it is important to refer to emergency situations. We cannot assume that any driver can and/or will use the above guidelines as nessecary or as effectivelly as possible. Likewise, we can assume an external factor, like another road user, has generated an emergency for the driver to cope with.

In spite of being able to break away on any surface, winter driving relates particularly to skids. If you are new to this, you should know that cars do not skid, their tires do. Therefore, any specific wheel can slide and this results in different types of sliding. If the front tire breaks loose, the front of the car is sliding. If the rear tires break loose, the rear is sliding. When refering to the responsiveness to steering, these skids are regarded as understeer and oversteer. When the front slides, the front wheels -- which are turned into corners to get the car to turn -- cannot do their job effectivelly and the car makes the turn at a far wider arc than expected or even ploughs almost straight ahead. When the rear slides, the back-end kicks away and rotates the front all too much into the corner.

The two situations can occur due to various reasons that require various corrective inputs, which can be complex to convey via writing and tenfold as complex to execute. The key is avoidance: Good car setup, mental planning of the drive, smooth and percise inputs, slow corner entry speeds. However, there are simple corrective inputs for the unskilled, average road driver to perform.

During understeer, the wheel feels numb and light. This sensation is the first sign of understeer and will come before the car actually slides out of line. The sensation alerts you via the steering mechanism, that the front wheels have little grip. Now that's WHY the car is sliding, the cause. When the car starts to slide out of line, that's just a symptom. This is important not only because it makes you feel and recover earlier, but also changes how you react. If you treat the symptom, you just turn more steering to force the car into the corner. This can work, but it is not the way to get out of understeer.

This way, you are in fact giving the front wheel additional cornering demands, making them slide MORE. Now, this makes the car slow down faster which can get it to grip again, but sometimes the car would not have the space to wipe off enough speed and even when it does grip, the wheels will be pointed into the corner with excess, so the car might over-react and spin you. This is fighting with the car.

Instead, if you focus on that feeling of numb steering, and slow down gently with the gas pedal and brakes, you will get much better a response. Try it: Go to empty lot of wet tarmac or of gravel, with two friends to guard the surrounding. Bleed out one-two PSI, turn-off any traction or stability controls. Turn the wheel 180 degrees one way and than accelerate very suddenly. You will get that feeling. Turn more and you feel the car losing more stability. Ease the gas and you will regain stability and normal steering feel.

Like with being smooth and not fighting with the car in normal driving, you should be smooth and accurate with your inputs. It's amazing how a slight touch of the brakes can get a car that formerly ploughed straight towards the gaurdrail, to tighten up the turn. So, too much of it, will get the car to "over-correct". Ease off of the throttle and touch the brakes, all without putting more steering, and when you feel (rather than see) that the car grips again, stop the recovery input. One way of achieving this timing actually comes from vision: Looking up towards where you want to go helps a lot. If you slide away from the corner and you look unto the oncoming gaurdrail, you will steer away from it. If you look into the turn, you will steer into it.

The difference between the two is the ability to measure your input accuratly. When you steer away from where you do not want to go, that's panic input. Panic input consumes all concentration and accuracy. You just steer and steer untill you get the response you want, you are fighting with the car. If you look (and hence steer) towards where you do want to go, you have a better feel as to how much steering to apply and when to stop turning. Looking further ahead, rather than onto the ground in front, will improve the accuracy and timing.  If you look five feet ahead and the car turns 10 degrees less than required, you will not feel a serious difference. If you look further, the change of direction would move your point of focus much more significantly.

So that's understeer: Practice it and focus on the feel of the steering and of where you are looking to. Using visuals targets helps with this practice. If you feel you got into a corner too fast, and the car refuses to turn as tightly as you wanted (i.e. it under-steers) you ease-off of the gas and maybe brake with ease. That's it. So, what about oversteer?

Oversteer is more problematic than understeer. Oversteer is a situation that requires a more accurate and quick correction or otherwise the car is far more likely to under-respond, over-respond or respond negativelly, to your inputs. In each case, this makes matters much worst. The problem here is that the car losses balance and attempts a spin and the way to recover from it is...(wait for it)...To pull the car ahead and back straight by using...(wait for it)...the gas pedal! This is a very counterintuitive course of action and even if you do manage to force yourself to make it, it's hard to get just the right amount of throttle and the right amount of steering at just the right moment. 

Yes, some of you might have heared about "countersteering", "steering into/against the slide" or "looking/steering where you want to go", but without throttle this is much like fighting the car with the steering during understeer. In fact, it's much worst. Yes, road speeds and the setups of some specific cars can be more forgiving, but than the car might over-respond, which is the worst-cas scenario.

So, unless you are very skilled and experienced (and one limit-handling/skid-pan course is nothing close to "very skilled and experienced"...), you should not consider such a corrective input and resort to the following action: At the moment when you feel the car sliding and trying to spin, stand onto the brakes as hard as you can, as quickely as you can. If possible, declutch and straighten the steering just after that kick against the pedal, and wait for the car to stop or straighten back up. 

This course of action is the only course of action that gaurentee's the smallest chance for error and the largest reduction of speed over the smallest length by the average driver. The reduction of speed and the slippage of the braking wheels can create a vector opposite to the direction of the slide and pull the car back straight, rather than make matters worst if you just brake without actually puncing the pedal down.

The same course action should be repeated during any emergency stop you need to perform. Some people would argue that, without ABS, this would result in locking of the wheels and in the car skidding, but:

a) Unless something is extremlly wrong with the road surface or car, the car would skid to a relativelly quick  stop and will not sway from it's straight forward direction. Even if the car loses lateral stability (i.e. you feel like it's going to spin) it normally just "rotates" by a few degrees, but the car as a whole keeps on skidding straight. On closed-compound testing, cars are made to spin because of intentional bad setup or by placing two wheels on a different, icy surface. Even than, the spinning car keeps spinning in a straight line!

b) The same people that tell you to brake hard with ABS but not without it, probably never told you about threshold braking, which is a technique that makes the braking distance shorter, even in cars with ABS. They would not tell you this because threshold braking is too complex to be applied in an emergency stop. So, why compromise with ABS, but not compromise at all without it?

c) Locking of the wheels disables steering, but you lose a lot of speed, you usually do not need to steer because the braking distances suffices, and if you do need to steer you ease off of the pedal. Remember, braking preceds veering!

d) If (a) does not hold true you probably squeezed the pedal and not pressed it as quickely and as hard as you should.

Summary

If you read this article carefully, you probably detected a certain stem to it: Driving smoothly, accuratly and decisivelly is the main thing. Looking up is a way to achieve the combination of those three treats. This is true both to avoid sliding, and to recover from a slide. 

Do not be intimidated by winter driving and do not drive out the fear of skidding. Do whatever possible to improve safety before you  drive: Plan for longer time of arrival and notify whoever might be waiting for you, check your tires carefully. Do not bring heavy and limiting clothing into the driving experience. Set the A/C to a nice speed, without over-cooking your brain. 

Keep your eyes open and look up far ahead to see cars and bikes from a further distance, and develop a scan pattern so that you look up to the furthest point where you see cars and bikes, and scan towards a closer (but still remote) point where you can see any obstruction on the road surface and back up to the furthest point. Look for glimming surfaces or puddles in particular.

Drive the car in your mind. When you look up, plan ahead by visualizing the line in which you want to drive your car to avoid the hazards. The faster you can draw that imaginary line and the closer you stick to it, the better your scanning habits and mental planning are. Drive the car smoothly, accurately and quickely when required. Do not fight with it. Be patient and keep a gap from the car in front, which is larger than three full seconds. 

If the car does not obey to your steering inputs, don't force it to turn by steering more sharply. Instead, keep looking into the corner (even if it means tilting your head slightly aside) and ahead, and slow down smoothly by easing off of the throttle and maybe dabbing the brakes. Just focus on looking in the right direction and of the sense of the steering, and your feet -- not your hands -- will get the job done.

If the car starts to rotate too much into the corner and attempts a spin, just brake hard to a stop. Also, whenever you need to avoid an obstacle, brake hard at once. Do not be afraid of: (a) sliding if you do not have ABS. (b) the rattle of a sudden stop if you do have ABS. (c) of being hit from behind. (d) of veering instead of braking.