Winter is here, and with winter comes many obstacles for the newly-licensed high school driver. Luckily, Anchor News is here to help you out with advice for how to survive winter driving!

Parking 

There are many ways you can park. You can back into, pull in, or pull through your individual space to best accommodate your preferred egress. However, winter and icy conditions make this challenging. Winter driving etiquette demands only a few simple parking lot precepts. Do NOT park in multiple parking spaces. Another no-no would be blocking in a vehicle by parking in the lane rather than in a space.  Yes, snow and ice make the parking lot hard to see, but pay attention to how everybody else is parked and do your best to avoid the above goobers.  

Pedestrians 

Be especially careful to look out for people walking in the parking lots. Don't run anyone over - that hurts people. If you’re among those walking, you should stay on the sidewalk and on de-iced surfaces. Look out for sliding cars and every other disaster you can think of during the winter in a high school parking lot.  

Snow 

Fun fact about snow: when snow is piled on your car or is just on your car in general, it muffles the sound of other vehicles. That creates a significant visual and hearing impairment. So before you leave home, try to take as much snow off of your car to heighten those senses necessary for operating a vehicle.  

Ice

Ice on the road can be very dangerous. Especially in a small space packed with other vehicles, also called a parking lot. Driving slowly can help prevent you from sliding on ice. It would help if you just did not drive directly on the ice but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. Black ice can be very dangerous during the wintertime. But black ice can also show up with freezing fog or when snow melt freezes on the roads surface when temperatures drop 

Sliding 

Different people have their own ways of controlling their cars when sliding on black ice. However, the safest way to regain control is the Haefner way. Mr.Haefner explains “keep in mind stopping distances do increase and one should expect the other drivers are also driving on the snowy/icy surfaces. Anticipate that they make an error in stopping distance judgment. Don't be in a big hurry to get to your car accident, but seriously do allow for extra time on snowy/icy surfaces“.

Conclusion

Be safe and follow the road rules. Or don't. See what happens.