The Right Way To Drive Safely While in Winter Weather
Winter doesn't need snow to be dangerous. A dry, bright January morning with a low sun and a shaded patch of black ice will catch more drivers than a blizzard ever does, because the blizzard at least looks like a warning. The clear morning doesn't.
The road you know in summer is a different road in winter. Less grip, longer stopping distances, and hazards, ice, fog, a sun sitting right in your eyes, that weren't there in July. The tarmac hasn't changed. What it'll let you get away with has.
Grip is a budget, and winter cuts it
On ice your stopping distance can stretch to ten times what it is on a dry road. Ten times. That's the whole game. Everything else follows from it: bigger gaps, gentler inputs, earlier everything. Brake, steer and accelerate like there's an egg under the pedal, because sharp anything is what breaks traction. The two-second gap everyone knows and nobody keeps becomes four, and in ice, more again.
You won't see it. Bridges, overpasses, tree-shaded bends and anywhere sheltered from the sun freeze first and thaw last. If the road looks wet but oddly matte and the spray's stopped coming off the car in front, treat it as ice and do nothing sudden.
Clear the whole car, not a letterbox
Scraping a small hole in the windscreen and driving off is driving blind, and it's an offence besides. Clear all the glass, the mirrors, the lights, and brush the snow off the roof, because the first hard stop sends that roof-snow down over your windscreen at the worst moment. Give the car the two minutes. Frozen fingers on the way out beat a crash you couldn't see coming.
Low sun is a winter hazard too
A December sun sits low all day and points straight down the road into your eyes and everyone else's. A clean windscreen and the visor down help. Assuming the driver coming the other way can't see you, and might not see the pedestrian either, helps more. Slow down when you're dazzled. You can't place a car you can't see.
Prepare before you turn the key
Half of winter safety happens in the driveway. Screenwash that won't freeze, tyres with real tread and correct pressure, a scraper you can actually find. It's the same ten minutes you'd give any long or serious trip, and it's exactly the sort of judgement the twelve Essential Driver Training lessons are meant to build in you before you ever meet a bad morning alone. The car being right is the cheap, boring half. Do it anyway.