[geeks] Stuff fo' sale

[Joshua Boyd]

On Sat, Aug 12, 2006 at 02:28:52PM -0400, Phil Stracchino wrote:
> Joshua Boyd wrote:
> > Presumably some people feel it would be unsafe to stop, but if the amber
> > is shortened would be unable to cross through before red.
> > 
> > I've had that happen to me in bad weather where I don't want to try to
> > stop quickly in the snow but am going slowly enough that I don't clear
> > the intersection before it turns red.  So far that hasn't happened to me
> > at an intersection with red light cameras, thankfully.
> 
> Honestly, if you can't stop in snow on a full five-second amber before
> entering the intersection, you're probably driving imprudently fast for
> the conditions.

Maybe I am.  I to tend to be the winter driver who has lots of car
backed up behind him and is going well under the speed limit though. 
 
> Side note:  When I lived in Spokane, Washington and drove a rather
> highly tuned 1970 Camaro SS350, I had to learn to shift into neutral
> whenever approaching a light or stop-sign in winter, because on a snowy
> or icy road, with 350BHP and 388 lb.ft of torque on tap, it was
> impossible to apply enough braking effort on the rear wheels to overcome
> the idle torque of the engine without locking up the front wheels.

I usually put in neutral.  I drive a manual Jetta.

-- 
Joshua D. Boyd
jdboyd at jdboyd.net
http://www.jdboyd.net/
http://www.joshuaboyd.org/