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

Wildrover - Scarborough?

Ever found time for Sutton Bank? Lovely area ...

Gliders!
Had to ignore them while making love en plein air on Sutton Bank years ago!!

We have the same problem in Sweden! Every year the authorities are completely shocked by the snow and communal transportation stops functioning, electricity prices skyrocket and nobody has a clue about anything. All year the authorities talk about how important it is to prepare for the winter and come with predictions about how hard the coming winter will be. I actually thought this phenomenon was limited to Sweden.

And I actually thought Scandinavia had no problems at all ... <puzzled> ...

My mistake ... :-S

Plenty of snow up my part of the world , but everything seems to be moving as normal....apart from my dam Jeep which decided it wanted to sleep in today...

Time for a new battery i think...?

Welcome to the club, clueless authorities - now there’s a shocker.

saw a derailed tram today (number 12 for those who know wroclaw).

i also noticed that it's the traffic that's causing problems for the trams. as cars drive over the points and rails they are forcing ice into the gaps. the tram drivers have to get out and clear the points themselves. although i have seen a crew from one of the depots hard at work cleaning/clearing track/rails/points.

and now that the city president has just secured his third term we can see all that he is doing for the city. exactly the same as last year. nothing. none of the streets or pavements have been cleared in my area... same as last year.


i take this back. many pavements have been cleared.

-16 according to my yahoo.

You guys still change out your tires to snow tires?? We haven't done that in years. Over here most cars and SUVs have what are called "all season" radial tires. The tread isn't as aggressive as a snow tire but better than a straight performance tire. The only folks I know who still swap into snow tires are pickup trucks -because they are so terrible in the snow- and plow trucks and the like. And maybe a few dopes whose only car is a performance car that is unsuited for snow driving anyway, no matter what tires they put on them...

I was talking about this today. It's just a money-making ploy. It wasn't the case in communism and people got by ok without making that change.

Is it true that most over there still do the Winter tire swap?
It used to be big business, when the first sign of snow sent everyone running to the tire shops to have their tires changed. Then changed back in the Spring. ...peeps kept their "snows" in the garage or the basement until needed... But we got away from all that years ago. It seems so old-fashioned now.

I don't think I have ever owned a set of "snow tires" myself. Maybe my very first car or something...

Well, I can't say for sure but it seems to be that way from what I can discern. I guess they just strip some of the tread from the summer ones so that they are not practical for winter. Nothing like making a quick buck.

Don't you or your friends there own cars?

Most of them change their tyres (tires), yes. Still, I can't talk for the whole of Poland but I think it's common enough to change them.

You don't drive here, Seanus, do you? The winter tyres make tremendous difference.
In the communist times there were no winter tyres, but there were also far fewer cars.
And the all-year-rounds might be fine when you drive on cleared highways and not on fresh snow and sleety side streets most of the time.

I don't drive here, no. I've just heard that winter tyres are largely for commercial profits. Let's face it, winter tyres or not, how much traction are you going to get as a lorry/truck on an icy slope (steep at that) and having to take off quickly?

Try driving on snow without them. Bear in mind that while the roads are clear, plenty of side roads aren't, especially private osiedle complexes.

if one keeps changing the same tyres there must come a point when old winter tyres, although within the legal limit, are no better than regular tyres.

Absolutely! Look at how often they change F1 tyres ;) ;)

You wonder just how new they are when they issue them. There's so much that people don't question that they should.

I think most tyres are unused when sold , but if they have been stored in the wrong conditions for a long time before sale they may not grip as well due to hardening , and be more prone to failure...

Formula 1 tyres are an art , a race can be won or lost on wrong tyre choice , and no , they don,t last long...

I competed in formula 5000 , which is whats now called formula three , for a few laps to decide grid position we would put on the softest tyres , which give the most grip , and thrash it round the track.. After this the tyres were shredded and useless..they cost 650 quid each...!

After the race the engine was pretty well shot as well...

Very true! Natural wear and tear happens when stored incorrectly.

The way some people screech their tyres here, I wonder how long they last. I live near a corner where I hear it everyday. Simple solution, read the road and brake earlier.

Nooo you have the wrong idea... spinning the tyres is a sign of manliness , it proves you are a man , and makes you very attractive to young girls...

Try telling it to the young guns, who've probably spent like a month on practising screeching starts!


definitely!

i think i've been misunderstood.

folks here keep a set of tyres in the garage and change them over at the beginning of winter.

if the tyres are swapped over year after year at what point do they lose their grip.

This spinning of tyres is supposed to demonstrate that you are driving a car with so much power that the tyres can,t handle it , the fact that they have to rev the nuts off their underpowered heap and dump the clutch kinda gives the game away...you can spin the wheels in a Lada if you try hard enough....

Years ago i used to collect American cars , one of them i had was an ex indy pace car with a tuned 7.5 litre engine , that thing could spin the wheels in the first three gears with a touch of throttle , and in the wet was impossible to drive in a straight line...

it was a bit heavy on fuel tho...round town it got about 8 miles to the gallon...

re the winter tyres Wroclaw....

if they are used year after year they will lose a little grip due to being harder through old age , and of course will eventually wear down enough to give no more grip than a normal road tyre...

Trans Am?

about 3 years - at least for me, I do around 1000 km/month, mostly in the city.
Also, each time you swap them, the ones that were previously at the back go to the front and vice versa.

Correct...with a modded pontiac engine..holly carb , hurst shifter...it was a monster...

In the winter conditions we have in PL today, winter tyres are essential. The grip you get over summer tyres in these conditions, are like the difference between night and day.

Interesting link about Winter tyres:

insideline.com/features/inside-line-asks-who-needs-winter-tires.html

And it went exactly 0 mph in the snow no matter what tires you put on it.

Years ago me and a buddy built a 7.5 Trans Am like the one Burt drove in Smokey and the Bandit. It had the Oldsmobile block (you could always tell the TA's with the Olds engine because the hood scoop sat up a little higher). That thing was fast, fast, fast. Maybe the fastest car I've ever driven. Handled pretty well too. Loved that car...

Ok, this is off topic...

I don't know, which part of the US you are in, but the people I speak to in Ontario/Canada, they still do winter tyres, and the conditions there are not so dissimilar to parts of Poland.

Winter tyres in the US: insideline.com/features/inside-line-asks-who-needs-winter-tires.html

I'm here in the northeast and we get plenty of snow. We have mountains and valleys too. For years every car or SUV I've bought just came with "all season" tires. And we just replace the tires with the same when needed, without a second thought. They're so common here that I hadn't even thought about snow tires in a long time. They're like a thing from the past. That's why I was kinda surprised to see that P-Land peeps still do the seasonal tire swap.

When you guys buy a new, say, Subaru (or whatever) doesn't it come with the same all season radials that they do here?