Why Poland is "surprised" by winter and snow every year?

Poor or not, the plows did come out eventually. Just not at the right time!


haha I like how you always like to turn things around. Talking to you is like talking to a child.

Btw, i rarely criticise (complain about) poland - you're in first place when it comes to that.

There is chaos in rush hour winter or summer, its all to do with the lack of roads and the growing number of cars.

I don't see it. What you mean by surprise? Sure there is more traffic as people drive slower, but not enough people know that in order to start removing snow from roads there must be a certain amount of it falling and this doesn't mean that anyone was surprised. It also takes a bit time to clean it of course. Where's the surprise?

It was snowing heavily yet the plows were not out in full force over night. The end result was a mess that caused chaos on the streets (ie: traffic not allowed into cities to allow for people in the city to get to where they needed to go - this was quite costly for businesses).

Even on the radio this morning they were saying that the authorities acted too slow. Not sure about other polish cities, but wroclaw apparently has "enough" plows to get the job done.

And a pretty bad ass contract for Mr. Plow sp. z o.o.....

WB, I was driving to zakopane two years ago in Late December, I came off the back roads, by Rabka to bypass Nowy Targ and all the heavy traffic. We had two cars both of them four wheel drives, my mate and his family from London in one car, my family in the other, it was about 10 pm and -18 to -20 outside. The son of my mate wanted a **** I asked to wait to the next village, but being a 14 year kid, he needed to go now, he was behind me pulled to the side of the road and drove onto the snow and sank into a water ditch. I didn't have a tow rope, we could not get the car out of the ditch and it would have been impossible to get 8 people in my car. Every car that passed us stopped and tried to help and one had a tow rope and we got the car out of the ditch within about 40 mins total. That is PL for me after that day I always stop to help.

Where did this happen, exactly? Proof or it didn't happen.

Its nice that people would try to assist like that, fair doos. I could have used you today but i got it out in the end. Nice story, love it.

You always stop to help, common decency. It's not right not to. On the other hand, I pick up hitchhikers when I have room...

I don't, but I'm half your size and not able to beat off murdering axe-wielding Poles :P

Yeh only when their female and fit looking... Nobody picks up big fat drunk dirty looking dudes.

Or drunks that smell like urine, its good language practice. "No, no, I wanted to go to Jordanow, this is where I live. No, no, not Wroclaw...".

But cars that are on the side of the road with four ways on, I always stop.

I will do exactly the same, if i am alone. With the wife and kids in the car I don't. Most of the hitchhikers are young kids, normally couples or two girls or boys. I have never had a problem

I have never had a problem either, aside from aforementioned drunkard that smelled a bit like pee. Most are students, some are workers getting back and forth.

People, if you see someone with hazard lights on in the winter, stop and ask them if they need help. If not, tell them to turn off their hazard lights... only you can prevent forest fires...

--- And so are other countries, most recently: Britain....
:)

Britain always gets caught out...it does not snow often enough or hard enough for us to have a slick plan , so when a bad winter comes it takes a while to get our act together...

Add to this the fact that most of us can,t drive on snow due to lack of experiance , and the place soon grinds to a halt...

Excuses, excuses, wildie.
;)

Buddy, everybody looks the same this morning in Warsaw, because its -20.

It was -13 in Gliwice last night. I'm glad that the gritters are out on the roads but I'm disappointed that people who pay a decent chunk of tax can't get grit on the pavements/sidewalks. I would like to see some of my money go on putting ample grit down so that myself and many old people can feel safer about not slipping and ending up in hospital as there is plenty ice around. If you avoid the ice, the holes under the snow lie in waiting.

- and how do you know that they were not? There are thousands of kilometers of roads and streets to maintain.


- Ok, I guess this happened only in one town, which might have overslept...


- how do you know? You cannot say that basing your opinion on the fact that there's snow and ice. If there is heavy snowfall one night (first this winter) then do you expect tho have all of it cleanly removed before morning? Show me a country which manages to do so and I'm moving there!


Hahahaha, good company...

Interesting how you always claim to be an expert on poland just because you live here yet somehow you were unaware of the problems on polish roads due to some snow on the ground. I can't believe i actually wasted 3 seconds of my life to provide you with some "proof":


Well, unlike you I know the polish language fairly well and so I was able to understand what they were saying on the radio/tv. Credible people were interviewed.

Haha, so it happened in one city, and it was only on a temporary basis to keep the rest of the city open. It was also only trucks that were stopped - so ordinary people weren't prevented from entering, either.

Looks like you're the anti-Polish person here, because it's not me that's spreading lies about Poland not being able to cope. Wolf in sheep's clothing, huh?


The UK, France, Germany and Spain all have problems with this. As the "Big Four" in the EU - if they can't manage, what hope does Poland have?

Heck, even the USA can't cope -

Well, exactly! You can't make the snow disapear by a snap of finger. I'm sick and tired of people who complain on this, this is a ****** climate and what can you do? Remove snow and ice asap and still it'll be dangerous and slipery so we must watch out. Whining about it gives nothing good, Is it like their first winter ever? It is like that every year, snow falls from the sky, surprise!

there was a regulation in place in Poland that the ploughs should not be applied unless it stops snowing massively I don't know if it is still valid - the regulation is pretty absurd but when first introduced it was based on petrol economizing

From what I heard, technically there's no use in ploughing the snowed roads unles a certain thickness cover forms, 5 cm if I'm correct. So it is not about surprising but technical aspects usually, but people don't know that.

the temperature, type of snow, duration of bad weather, weekend or weekday all count.

Nah, only that they have to have... enough snow to plough, not to scour asphalt I guess

P.S. Hah! You forgot full moon! :))

Merged thread:
Poland is unprepared for winter!

A bit of snow and much of Europe comes to a halt!

Warsaw - buses and trains heavily affected.

The funny thing is that Britons think it's only them who can't manage! I watch Bavarian TV - 500 accidents, loads of schools closed. Elsewhere, Geneva airport closed for some time and Belgium (small place remember) had 500km of traffic jams.

Can someone please tell the UK TV channels to stop being so provincial and to act report some news from elsewhere?

The Netherlands, this morning: almost 600km of traffic jams (ONLY on the motorways), last Thursday 871km (that's from Amsterdam to Poznan!). Trains delayed or even cancelled.

It's the same everywhere in Europe, except for Scandinavia. I guess it's easier for them: their winter is much more predictable - you pretty much know when it starts and when it ends and you know there'll be huge amounts of snow. Therefore, you can invest more in snow plows, gritters, etc ... .

For the UK, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, etc ... it doesn't make much sense to invest that much money.

And ... to be fair to the English: it's their worst winter in over 20 years.

I can remember in the eighties , living in London , and planning to go visit my folks in Scarborough for Christmas , it was the worst winter in 40 years they said , and there was also a petrol strike on...

Just after i got onto the M1 motorway , it was closed due to the conditions , and there was me , slipping and sliding up the centre lane...on a motorcycle...!

The Police actually stopped me , just to tell me i was out of my mind , and shook their heads in disbelief when i told them i was heading for Scarborough , they had pulled all their cars off the road apart from 4 x 4 vehicles...

It was a long cold journey , but i made it... Getting back to London took even longer , i had to wait in some places for a plough to come along to continue my journey...

the daft things you do when you are young...!!!