WINTER DRIVING -All the tricks they don't tell you about. Written by Northerners who actually drive and survive in this weather. This book will work for you in any country with winter driving conditions.
Too many of us approach Winter driving from a macho perspective -thinking we can do it because we have a big rig or fancy 4X4. You see these people in the ditch every winter. Even professional drivers can end up in the ditch or worse in severe winter conditions. When the winter winds and snow blow and when we are faced with low temperatures and icy roads this is the time to brush up on knowledge which will help us avoid accidents and disaster.
Learn how to avoid winter accidents and injuries with real life examples. The picture below is real. We were there. It got worse! In fact it got much worse!
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Front view from our 92 Mazda MPV Feb 2009 Trans Canada Highway going East - Yes it got a lot worse!
Something they don't tell you is that in Canada there are over 160,000 vehicle accidents every year with over 2800 deaths and thousands of life changing injuries. We decided to concentrate on severe winter driving and produce a handbook which will greatly increase your chances of making a safe trip on our winter roads.
This is what the problem looks like....Yes most can be avoided and we show you how!
Canada, as you know, is a winter country. It is also a huge country with large variations in weather and climate. The Trans Canada Highway runs across Canada joining all the Provinces. Most Canadians avoid road trips on the Trans Canada in the depth of winter with majority of them either going south or staying around their urban centers. Winter or Summer a Canadian road trip driver needs to deal with thousands of miles of demanding driving. Fatigue is a huge problem and it kills many drivers every year in Canada. Some problems can be fairly easily avoided and we show you how.
All the tourism advertising for Canada shows the summer or fall months or some pretty mountains around ski resorts. All the vehicle ads trying to sell cars and trucks to Canadians show them in summer or fall but never on roads like the one above. Canada does a good job hiding the reality of winter driving from Canadians and everyone else.
After all what is reality. Tough Truck or Freaking Tough Deer? This sort of information is never shown to the driver because it is politically incorrect that the deer should take out a truck that the manufacturer pays millions to the media to tell the public how tough it is. So the driver blissfully cruises down our highways thinking that he is safe in his big tough truck. Not. Note that this is a deer strike, a moose strike would have been much worse!
My son and I decided to drive one of our vehicles from Victoria, BC to North Bay, Ontario on Feb 10th 2009. This is a distance of 4487km and we did it in 78 hours 53 minutes. Our vehicle was a 1992 Mazda MPV mini-van with 319,505 km on it that we had recently purchased for $300. We encountered true Canadian winter driving conditions from the bare and dry roads of BC to the ice covered highways in Saskatchewan and Manitoba. This was our second winter road trip across Canada eight others being made in the summer months.
When you think about it not many people really want to leave Victoria to drive in winter conditions to Northern Ontario in February! But we did.
This website likes to look at life as it is presented to us and then compare it to the actual reality. When we began thinking about winter road trip driving we realized there were big problems out there. There was a big rift between reality and what the media was trying to flog as Canada in the winter months. First of all we discovered that there was no central management of the Trans Canada highway. Each Province managed their own section of it so you had different road conditions, different levels of maintenance and ten different government departments offering advice on how to drive in the winter time. Each Province had a website that offered some information on winter driving and each one was different. Most of the ideas were very good but the problem was that a driver would need to consult all of them and then drill down quite a lot in some cases to get to the information that would help them. Then there was the problem of political correctness.
As you know Canadians are very polite people. We are constantly saying "Excuse Me!" On the government websites they were being politically correct as not to offend anyone and as a result some of the information that winter drivers needed was just not getting out to them. For example -fatigue. Every driver knows that you are not supposed to drive when you are tired. But did you know that you can suddenly fall asleep without any further warning after many hours on a road trip? Around town it is different. But out on the road hour after hour you build up a type of resistance to pulling over and suddenly you are out like a light and heading for a telephone pole. Most Canadian drivers are not aware of this.
Curvy highways in BC are not bad when dry and clear of snow. You do sometimes see black ice.
Road trip driving is the most demanding driving you will ever encounter. It will wear you down and every year it kills people because they don't realize that they can black out without warning. One problem with fatigue is that on the Trans Canada Highway each province maintains it's section. Some have good rest stops for drivers and others have none or very few and facilities range from civilized to third world. Somebody with a brain needs to get in there and start knocking heads together and get this problem solved.
Hour after hour after hour and after a couple of days fatigue is your enemy...it can kill you.
We knew we could do better. We knew that if we shared the information we had learned and researched about road trip driving we would save lives. All people had to do was read the darn book and think about what it was telling them. If they implemented even some of the ideas they would greatly reduce their risks and increase their road trip fun. And we made it glove box size so you could keep it in your car.
You don't want to fall asleep and meet Mr. Truck's front bumper...
Having been raised in North Bay Ontario I know how to drive in the winter. My son and I had over one million accident free miles under our belts. The plan was to share what we had learned about winter driving, research what others had to offer and collect all the information a driver needs in one handbook which we called the Canadian Winter Driver's Handbook. In March 2009 we published the handbook!
The Handbook tells the story of our road trip which I think you will find interesting and it also includes many ideas to reduce your risks and make your winter or summer driving more enjoyable and safer based on both theory and experience.
We know that you can complete a road trip across Canada on a budget with a low priced vehicle. We also know that it can be done in winter. But you need to follow certain rules or you won't make it at all.
Have you ever noticed that the advertising for vehicles in Canada never includes scenes of the vehicle in severe winter conditions? They always show them in summer or fall scooting down a bare clear wide highway with no potholes, deer or accidents. They show you how pretty they are, how many miles to the gallon the get or how cheap they are to buy. But they don't tell you about their ground clearance, how they behave when they hit a pot hole, how good they are on ice or snow and how well they protect you in a winter collision. And they will never tell you what will happen to your car if it hits a deer or moose at 3 am- something that happened to us. Most Canadians have no clue that there are thousands of animal strikes every year on Canadian roads many of them causing severe injuries, deaths and expensive vehicle repairs.
When we rolled into Hope BC we saw our first snow on the ground -much more to come!
HOW TO PASS A HOUSE ON THE TRANS CANADA HIGHWAY!!
When I saw this house on the highway I grabbed my camera and took a series of shots as we overtook and passed it. It was a little tricky playing photographer and driver at the same time and hoping that a wind gust wouldn't put the house on top of our van but all worked out well. You never know what you are going to run across on a road trip.
Consequently you are in for some unpleasant surprises when you take your vehicle out on the open highway in a Canadian winter. Around the block to pick up groceries or in an urban situation your vehicle may behave just fine. Northerners have learned over the years which vehicles work best in winter conditions and which ones don't. Here I show you a photo taken on Feb 20/09 at the North Bay Mall.
All the vehicles in this line up are made in North America and are full sized. Makes you think!
We also tell you about the best road trip food and this isn't it.
Avoid hitting a moose- the beasts always win. This one came in through the front window. In our book we show you exactly why you should not travel at night in moose country. We lay it all out for you second by second with braking, reaction times, deceleration and headlight ranges. In other words we do the math for you and after you read it you will agree with us. Ever wonder why even the big rigs invest thousands of dollars in moose and deer catchers for their cabs? Truckers know and now so will you!
Stopping at the local pub for a drink on the way -no no!
We left Victoria and the weather was nice!
When we arrived in North Bay the weather was still nice but different!
Back in North Bay Ontario 78 hours 58 mins 4487km later
Why buy our book?
1. Print or instant download
2. An interesting story of how to drive across Canada in the winter (or summer) on a budget in a high mileage older vehicle - you or a member of your family might need to do a winter road trip some day. This book represents both theory and practice by professional drivers who have actually done it. There is no attempt to be politically correct we give you the facts!
3. Lots of good ideas for the best vehicles for Canadian winter and summer road trip driving conditions. Canada is a winter country and for several months of the year we have severe winter driving conditions. Its a fact of life. There are some real dangers out there and each year we loose upwards of 2800 people on our roads. In addition to the deaths there are tens of thousands of injuries many of them life changing that cost Canadians billions of dollars each year. We can sure improve on that!
4. Lots of excellent ideas to reduce your chances of getting injured or in an accident and how to enjoy your Canadian road trip! With over 160,000 accidents every year if you can avoid them all the better for you and your family!
5. All your information on winter driving in one handbook with links to several sources of additional good information. Much of the information also applies to summer road trips too!
6. Written in Canada and printed in North America not China to support our workers. We even use environmentally approved inks and publishing methods!
7. Makes a great gift for drivers of all skill levels who drive on Canada's roads.
order now! - Print or instant download
INTERESTING DRIVER LINKS
Accident Photos in Canada Here are some photos and stories and its very interesting to see how specific models stand up in accidents. It will change your minds on which vehicles to buy!
Educationforthedrivingmasses.com This is a very interesting Canadian website that provides excellent content on highway crashes and stats. This should be required reading for any driver because it sure makes you think and you better understand the reality and dangers that you are facing as a driver.
Canadian Adventure Rally Scheduled for July 1st 2009 the rally will start in Montreal and end seven days later in Calgary. Entry $12,888 with a $2500 deposit required within 30 days of acceptance, 100 vehicles maximum. Described as an "amateur cross country adventure" with no speeding. The $70,000 first price is split with the charity. This is to be the first year. The website does not give any details on who is behind the idea or exactly who the sponsors are.
Bull Run Rally Scheduled for July 10th -July 17th From New York City and ending in Austin Texas 7 days later. The participants are also in the Cops Cars and Super Stars TV show. Entry fees $20,000 Note there is also the Bull Run Reality TV Show where 12 teams participate in a 10 part TV show with a $200,000 grand prize. After having watched several of the TV episodes it seems that one attracts a handful of speeding tickets on this one and lots of celebrities participate and a huge amount of money is spent by participants.
List of Road Rally Clubs An excellent resource with many road rally clubs and events listed
Connecticut Statewide Rest Area and Service Plaza Study This is an interesting study outlining some of the issues with rest areas. A lot but not all of it applies to Canada too! I like the reference to not reinventing the wheel. Which is fine as long as you get it right and don't copy others' mistakes!
Cuts to Virginia's rest areas - interesting when a jurisdiction decides to safe money by closing rest areas. The issues are the same in Canada when a Province neglects to establish or under funds rest areas and drivers die as a result. Who is really saving money here?
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