Notice how all that snow is piled on top of this person’s car? Don’t be like that. When you can get out and drive, be sure to clean the snow off your entire car. Two things can result from this type of halfway done snow removal. First, big chunks of ice and snow can fall from your car and into traffic. Annoying, to be sure, and likely to make someone swerve. Maybe not the best reaction, but certainly an understandable one.
Second, if the snow is loose and powdery, it can blow off in traffic and blind other drivers. That’s generally bad too.
On top of this, you will just look like an idiot driving around like that. You are right, it’s not as bad as the even bigger idiots who neglect to clean the snow from all their windows (yes, the back one is important too, people), but still – are people really that lazy? A coworker made the excuse to me that she could not reach the top of her car. I told her she had a size of car to size of body ratio imbalance. If you can’t clean the car off, you shouldn’t be allowed to drive it.
To be fair, some of the older folks can’t really get to that spot easily and thus hope it just comes off as they drive.
I saw an elder women try to get their snow off but couldn’t and thus drove off with some stuff on her car.
Snow on top like this is not only a potential hazard to other drivers because it might freeze and fall off as an ice missile. It can also fall forward while you are driving and block your whole windshield. If you can’t reach it, use a chair and a broom or something!
I’m feeling like that older person shouldn’t have been driving in these road conditions. That’s a good barometer: if you can’t clean off your car, you probably shouldn’t be driving yet.
I drive a pretty wee car and still have trouble getting every bit of snow off the top. That said… brooms are great and can help even the shortest of us to get the worst of it off the tops of our vehicles.
I hate when people do this. If I’m behind somebody who did not clean the two feet of snow off the top of their car I sit behind them hand just lay on the horn.
PS: My girlfriend is 4ft 10in and has NO problem getting the snow off the top of her car. What is your excuse?
Zushched, you have a good point. People who are elderly or handicapped do have special challenges with this task. However, that doesn’t make it less dangerous for everyone involved. They should take extra care just like everyone else.
It’s extremely annoying to see the legions of people out here in the burbs who drive around like that—in vehicles of all shapes and sizes. I recently witnessed two cars where the entire top of the vehicle—aside from the driver’s door and a swath of their windshield—were covered. How can people NOT understand that it’s dangerous and stupid to drive like that? I have a difficult time mustering any sort of sympathy for the elderly or handicapped, either; if you can’t clean your car, ask a neighbor or call a cab!
I’d be inclined to give people the benefit of the doubt on that if I didn’t see SO MUCH of it. They can’t all be old or infirm.
You also left off one of the scarier things that can happen – when stopping the snow can slide down and obscure the view, particularly hard stops. Like, say, when someone has to brake suddenly on the highway. The middle of a rapid deceleration is no time to suddenly be blind.
This is a ticketable offense and I wish the cops would enforce it. Yeah, it’s inconvenient, but so are a lot of other things necessary for safety.
“If you can’t clean the car off, you shouldn’t be allowed to drive it.” … I love it!
That means a huge proportion of the SUVs on the road would be gone … poof! Oh, sorry … that’s a rant for another time. Enjoy the snow!
Maybe this is a good opportunity for those of us with elderly neighbors to offer to help them out by clearing their car roofs. It will only add another 10 minutes to the effort you make in cleaning off your own car. Everyone else should employ Tiff’s broom method and do it their own damn selves. I once saw a chunk of icy snow slide off an SUV and crack the entire windshield of a tour bus in Arlington on Rt. 66. You might think it’s just snow, but there could be even more dangerous ice underneath it.
Love it, Carl! I’ve seen way too many of these folks driving around like this in the past two days!
Brian, I saw a guy this morning who had snow sliding from the roof onto the windshield so that a good portion of his view was obstructed and he did not seem to care. Just kept going. No wipers or anything.
He probably didn’t notice because he was busy texting or something.
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I think it’s amazing it hasn’t snowed in 5 days yet there are still people driving around with chunks of snow on their roof.
it’s not that hard to clean a car. My friend has a monster truck and SHE will climb on it to make sure it’s completely free of snow (except for the back, in which she piles in snow). You can climb on your car, you can open the door to one side of your car, stand up, and push the snow off the other side. For the elderly folk, help them out.
Michelle, I resign myself to calling them idiots and shaking my head when I see that sort of thing. Maybe clearing snow off a car should be part of a driving test.