weather warning much of mid Atlantic regeon of the US ( Archived) (17)

It's fascinating, I went to central Russia (near Ekaterinburg) some time ago the temperature was -20C to -40C and in the two weeks I was there nearly 6 FEET of snow landed, nobody batted an eyelid. The trams, buses and trains all worked on time, nobody taking days off because they couldn't get in. Why can they cope yet the half an inch of snow in the UK and the whole country grinds to a halt? What gives?

Well like USThumper pointed out up in the frozen north they don't see the pavement for about 4 months hence they are driving on top of packed snow and most people in those areas have their cars equipped for perenially driving on snow. Studded snow tires etc. The problem is much worse in warmer climes when the temperature goes above freezing during the day and snow melt water is on top of the pavement and at night the temp plunges and that water turns to glare ice. I use to hunt up in thumpers neck of the woods and it was actually safer than driving in NYC in winter with things like metal bridges and a bunch of idiots who can't drive in snow all over the place.
Basically it comes down to what you're used to and prepared for.

Perhaps if driving on a skid pan was made a compulsory part of the test to get your licence? Oh and the vast majority of Russian don't appear to use studded tyres, you have to display a warning triangle with a W (not sure what the W stands for) to warn other traffic you can stop quicker than they can! I ride a sidecar outfit (one wheel drive and one wheel steering) and the only times I've got stuck was behind other road users who just seemed to have no idea how to drive on snow and ice. You would have thought that things like "how to drive on a motorway/freeway", "how to drive at night", "how to deal with adverse weather conditions" and other such ESSENTIALS would be included in the test, rather than (for my bike test) how to turn round in the road without putting your foot down!