I had a 3pm appointment to get to in Brookline yesterday, and it was snowing. Powdery, packing-snow, and some four inches had fallen throughout the morning. The City of Cambridge, personified, was offstage wringing his hands, spotlight-shy, fretting over his entrance. No plow to scrape the asphalt streets, no salt to melt the slush-mire. Through this I drove my trusty Corolla, tentative at first. All cars on the road (actually cars and not trucks, vans or SUVs: this is Cambridge) were struggling, 20 mph tops and fishtailing periodically as they hit particularly powdery, slushy bits of unplowed road. [A note from a Buffalo native: 4 inches is not a lot of snow. And yet, road conditions were legitimately treacherous, because none of those four inches had been removed from the streets.] I've been paying a bit more attention lately to doing things properly: Downton Abbey has of course inflamed nascent passions for ascots and stickpins, and I've finally broadened my collection of garishly-colored argyle socks to include tasteful colors, such as lilac. When a little depressed last Tuesday night, I set about cheering myself up by polishing up a pair of wingtip brogues and practicing a flawless full Windsor knot. So as I made my way down Garden St., skidding periodically, it occurred to me that this, too, could be done properly.
Notes on skidding well:
-Foremost, it is rude to swerve into oncoming traffic. One ought to exercise caution in one's right turns.
-When driving down narrow, winding, unplowed one-way streets with moderately expensive cars parked on either side of you, the asshole behind you honking his horn can go fuck himself.
-Turn on your headlights in daytime. This is primarily a courtesy to other drivers, as it helps to distinguish your car (moving! or intending to move when not stuck!) from cars that are parked or stranded, or when visibility is poor, from snowy expanses of empty road.
-Anticipate stops and turns. Start braking for stops earlier than in non-snowdrift conditions, as your stopping distance increases unexpectedly when tires lose traction. If possible, approach turns at a low speed and maintain that speed throughout the endeavor, so that you are neither braking nor accelerating into the turn.
-Do not forget the pedestrians. They are still out there, walking, and it is more miserable for them in this weather than it is for you.
That's the extent of my meditation on snow-driving, so here's wishing everyone a good Sunday.
-R.
