We need more of this. Feels like I've seen more idiotic, reckless driving in the last 2 months than the last 2 decades. People are defaulting to 'oh less traffic these days, so I can go faster.'
If the roads suck, your following distance to the next car should increase, a lot. The trust I hear people put in just snow tires is alarming, as if they cancel out the winter somehow. Talk about too much reliance on technology, that 2 lane bridge up ahead gathering black ice all morning doesn't give a shit about your Quattro lady. Starting to think northern states should require additional winter operation competency tests to get a license. Also gear requirements like in Alaska.
You might be surprised how much a combination of actual driving competence + quality winter tires [in nominal condition] can keep drivers on the road. Even in cars that otherwise might not be the most capable.
After getting dedicated winter tires for my mid-aughts Mazda 3 [FWD], and having that experience as a comparison point, I actually am shocked at how far I was able to push both my own limits and my vehicle's limits back when I had a '97 Dodge Dakota [RWD, V6] with some of the shittiest "cheapest all season tires you got." [No grip in
snow weather? Throw 300lb of sand bags in the back!] There were an alarming number of close-calls in that vehicle that routinely gave me a healthy appreciation and respect for driving.
I generally agree, based on what I witness all the time while I'm zooming past the people who terrify me, that a vast majority of drivers have way too much trust on the vehicle technology and fancy features like AWD... but they either shoe their vehicle with shitty rubber or are entirely lacking in ability and/or appropriate mentality (like respecting the balance between written and unwritten rules of the road).
Hell, the vehicles themselves scare me half the time, because the wheel in hand feel is so often muddied and just gross feeling. So many modern cars have gone all-in on electronic steering racks and are getting the feel all wrong. My car's generation still used hydraulic steering, and I wasn't even all that impressed with the newest Mazda3's steering at first when I had a dealer loaner, but of all makes, I suspected Mazda would get it right for cars like the 3 and MX-5 and it seemed predictable and something I'd get comfortable with.
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