Does Everyone Suck At Driving On Ice Or Just People In Cities That Don't See It Much?
Are people who live in cold cities as good at driving on ice as they think?
A huge part of the country is bracing for some nightmarish weather — not those of us in Florida, though, we'll be toasty warm — and it has a lot of people on edge.
Because, as we know, parts of the country that don't usually experience winter weather and icy roads do not mix.
This topic came up on OutKick's Hot Mic w/ Hutton and Withrow, and host Chad Withrow had an interesting point about the way places like Nashville become laughing stocks for more seasoned winter weather cities because of how it comes to a standstill.
Nobody Is Good At Driving On Ice | Hot Mic w/ Hutton and Withrow
"It's not a common issue here the way it is in their states," Withrow said. "We're ill-prepared, and it makes life a lot harder. I mean, here we've got, you know, people stay in downtown Nashville for a week if they need to when the weather gets bad, because we acknowledge that it's not good here with road prep."
But here was the thing I never really thought about: People who live where it snows somewhat frequently act like they can wheel around in the ice and snow like Finnish rally car drivers.
READ: FAR EAST RUSSIA LAUGHS IN THE FACE OF AN AMERICAN SNOW DAY
Withrow disagrees, and I think he has a point.
"Don't pretend that anybody's good at driving on ice," he said. "You're not. You can do stuff for your driveway, even your own driveway, but then once you get on the road, especially back roads, it's every man and woman for themselves, and you can't claim that you're better at driving on ice than someone else. It's like me claiming I'm better at getting kicked in the balls repeatedly than the next man.
"There's no good way to do it. There's no one better at it. It's going to suck regardless."
I think the "Jackass" crew would like a word about the "getting kicked in the balls repeatedly" thing, but I think Withrow might be right about ice-drivin'.
Sure, if you had specialized training, you might be better, but not just because you live where it snows more often.
When 99.9% of the population hits a patch of black ice, it's not usually stuntman-like driving acumen that saves them; it's luck or the car itself.
So, yeah, I'm with him. Let's cut our southern buddies some slack this time around.
There is plenty more we can make fun of them for.