Frazz by Jef Mallett for December 09, 2016

There is ice in Chellie’s big snowsuit?

This coming from the guy that swims in the lake during winter?

Yeah, curse the cave-dweller who first started wearing furs!

Not sure how far ahead Mr. M works, but strange coincidence (or given Midwest winters, statistical probability) this strip would appear the day after a fatal pileup on I-96 — which is just one Interstate over from 94 in the southern part of The Mitten.

@ellisanna or maybe the commenter who is taking you literally — context is helpful.

It’s called 4-wheel DRIVE. Not 4-wheel STOP.

Actually there was a giant winter pile up on I-96 yesterday in Michigan, 40 cars involved, three dead. Sorry to ruin the comments on a comic strip.

Last year in DC got stuck on I-95 at 20 MPH behind a bunch of drivers who couldn’t handle 1" of snow. Then there is winter in Montreal: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/montreal-beaver-hall-snow-slippery-1.3881744

I witnessed a coworker hit a patch of black ice as she was walking into the building. She flew and landed right on her back. For years she wasn’t right. Had to even quit the job over the back pain. :(

Yeah, super kudos to the person who personally researched the effects of 4w drive, but I got taught about it when I reached driving age by my parents.

The most succinct summary my dad ever made was “4wd doesn’t help you stay on the road, it helps you drive back onto the road after you slide off it.”

Yes, its pretty well known within the industry that it only has an effect under 10 mph. (In theory it therefore should help you stay on the road under 10mph, if you would drive that slowly, but the visualisation in his statement is so useful and powerful!)

What you’re seeing when you see 4wd cars handle better than other cars at higher speeds in snow and ice is usually a handful of related things. They’re more likely to have better tires. They’re more likely to be weighted well (although if you have a pick-up you HAVE to solve that yourself, and many 4×4 its not a bad idea to have weighting options.) From memory rear wheel drive cars are specifically worse (though rarer.) Automatics (which are the most common in the states) often are set to switch gears a bit differently on 4wd cars, which will slightly increase control and performance in snowy/icy weather. Might be missing a few…

And I have done the sad slide slide slide off the road, drive back on, slide off about 50 meters later, drive back on… was very very grateful for the 4wd, but not interested in pretension that it would let me drive fast that day!

And where I am… the first day after a bad snow is usually ok. Its mostly only Americans and Europeans driving, the plows have usually been around a little on the major roads and there’s a salt layer, and it works. The second day… is scary AF and man I’m not driving on any of those again if I can help it!

Also syndicated comics have to be submitted a minimum of 2 weeks ahead, so this timing of this strip will have been a coincidence!

As a native of Sothern California, I have only had to drive in snow once and that was scary enough. Usually our traffic accidents happen when we get some rain that mixes with oil on the road surface (and people forget that they need to drive a little slower…)

I’m not saying all native DC drivers know what they are doing in snow. They don’t. But a lot of them know enough to stay home.

Sort of prophetic strip today given the number of actual mutil-car pile-ups around the country this morning.

Four wheel drive does not equate to four wheel stop.

Blaming people for letting technology do more than it is capable of is a good comment and should be remembered.

Careful your addled misrepresentation of what I see may look bad for your. Your the one who needs fixing so it is highly ironic you continue to claim, the only one, that there is something wrong with me. Something only you can see.

“Technology did us wrong”

.

I did not say anything of the kind.

Michigan roads are a great place to see the morons in their 4-wheel drives go sailing by then watching them wipe out when they try to stop.

I worked on a TV show in Baltimore that hired an associate producer from Boston. One morning all the roads iced over; and Baltimore is not a pretty drive in ice. When she finally got to work, she said she heard all the school closings and other delays on her radio, so she rushed to the window thinking there was at least a foot of snow on the ground. When she saw no snow at all, she said she fell to the floor laughing like a maniac. “This,” I said, “from the woman who couldn’t drive her Mercedes coupe up TV Hill and had to park at the foot and walk up. How many times did you slip on the ice on the way up?”