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Motorists have been stranded on a major interstate in Virginia since last night

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Re: Motorists have been stranded on a major interstate in Virginia since last night

#241

Post by HeyLaughingBoy »

cure wrote: post #223
emptybottle wrote: post #73

A good reminder to keep some warm blankets/coats/gloves/hats in your trunk, along with some non-perishable snacks and a first-aid kit & flashlight. Water is harder to store in the winter since it will freeze and burst containers if full, but snow can be melted given a container to put it in. Also a good to refuel often. I try treat 1/2 a tank as empty and stop accordingly. On longer trips it lines up well with bathro…

Good advice. I also keep a "Portable Car Jump Starter" in the trunk. These days they are basically big batteries (mine is ~3100mAh at 12V apparently) and they come with USB plugs and a built-in flashlight... Handy if you need to recharge your phone in a pinch.

I hope you're off by an order of magnitude on that current rating, or it might not deliver the goods when you need it...

Re: Motorists have been stranded on a major interstate in Virginia since last night

#242

Post by Tuna-Fish »

binaryblitz wrote: post #234
cure wrote: post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good advice. I also keep a "Portable Car Jump Starter" in the trunk. These days they are basically big batteries (mine is ~3100mAh at 12V apparently) and they come with USB plugs and a built-in flashlight... Handy if you need to recharge your phone in a pinch.

Those are great to have. I will say that 3100mAh is pretty low and wouldn't even fully charge most smartphones. 20kmAh batteries can be purchased for less than $100, and 10k-15k mAh for less than $50. A good idea to have just in case. :)

Since you are probably not talking about kilometeramperehours, might want to fix the unit to just Ah.

Re: Motorists have been stranded on a major interstate in Virginia since last night

#243

Post by throwawayboise »

zepearl wrote: post #186
emptybottle wrote: post #73

A good reminder to keep some warm blankets/coats/gloves/hats in your trunk, along with some non-perishable snacks and a first-aid kit & flashlight. Water is harder to store in the winter since it will freeze and burst containers if full, but snow can be melted given a container to put it in. Also a good to refuel often. I try treat 1/2 a tank as empty and stop accordingly. On longer trips it lines up well with bathro…

Btw. I replaced some years ago the blanket with a sleeping bag (warmer + can be folded/compressed better therefore needs less space when stored/hidden in the trunk), and the normal flashlight with another one which is magnetic on one side (for example so that it won't move while mount snow chains).

If you get one of those vacuum pack bags you can store a blanket or sleeping bag in very little space.

Re: Motorists have been stranded on a major interstate in Virginia since last night

#244

Post by yifanl »

mrfusion wrote: post #111
azylman wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No comments on emergency situations, but wanted to call out one thing: > You need additional highways (aka: additional offramps) to truly scale day-to-day traffic Additional highways are at-best a stop-gap for day-to-day traffic, never a solution, due to induced demand [1]. You really need large-scale investments in public transportation for this. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Induced_demand#Effect_in_trans...

I love how people think induced demand is an iron clad argument against any road building. What about the induced demand of going from 0 lanes to 1 lane?

Depends on where that 0 lanes is initially I guess. You can bulldoze a housing block to add a new lane, that's not necessarily an economic success.

Re: Motorists have been stranded on a major interstate in Virginia since last night

#245

Post by throwawayboise »

fundad wrote: post #214
pempem wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No one kitts their car out like this in DC bc this amt of snow is basically unheard of...?

we have a new climate

Right, we've never had snow and cold in Virginia before.

Re: Motorists have been stranded on a major interstate in Virginia since last night

#246

Post by dotancohen »

CountDrewku wrote: post #197
gumby wrote: post #27

Interesting to consider that the oil industry may have made a mistake by reframing “global warming” as “climate change”. Harder for people to see events like this as part of “global warning” while it is more understandable as a consequence of “climate change”

Where is the scientific proof that this isolated weather event is climate change? Just like you cannot claim that one day of bad weather refutes global warming you also cannot claim that an isolated event is climate change. It takes time to prove that. Getting tired of everyone spouting off about climate change every time bad weather occurs. It's just as anti-science as denial.

  > Where is the scientific proof that this isolated weather event is climate change?
There is no evidence that this event is climate change.

However, this is not an isolated event. Do you not remember Texas' snowstorm last year? These "freak, isolated" events are becoming more and more frequent. That is climate change.

Re: Motorists have been stranded on a major interstate in Virginia since last night

#247

Post by daveevad »

kbutler wrote: post #229
seanmcdirmid wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are there that many snow mobiles in VA?

:-D Great question. Probably? https://www.yellowpages.com/search?search_terms=snowmobile+r...

> 1.3 million registered snowmobiles in the US [0]

For fun, let's just say those are evenly distributed amongst the states and there are 26,000 snowmobiles available in Virginia at DoorDash's disposal. I'd wager snowmobiles wouldn't be the limiting factor in this operation.

[0](https://www.snowmobile.org/snowmobiling-statistics-and-facts...)

Re: Motorists have been stranded on a major interstate in Virginia since last night

#248

Post by dotancohen »

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #139
kbutler wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"...on snowmobiles..." So the drivers could leave, but the cars would remain stranded.

Are there that many snow mobiles in VA?

That's a Fermi question if I've ever heard one.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermi_problem

Re: Motorists have been stranded on a major interstate in Virginia since last night

#249

Post by repiret »

HeyLaughingBoy wrote: post #241
cure wrote: post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good advice. I also keep a "Portable Car Jump Starter" in the trunk. These days they are basically big batteries (mine is ~3100mAh at 12V apparently) and they come with USB plugs and a built-in flashlight... Handy if you need to recharge your phone in a pinch.

I hope you're off by an order of magnitude on that current rating, or it might not deliver the goods when you need it...

He didn’t give a current rating. “mAh” measures energy storage, and 3100mAh is enough to jump a car a couple times.

Jumping a car doesn’t take a lot of energy. But it does take a lot of power (and therefore current). Small Li-ion car jumpers can be surprisingly capable.

Re: Motorists have been stranded on a major interstate in Virginia since last night

#250

Post by binaryblitz »

lsllc wrote: post #202

Driving apps like Waze don't seem to have a "weather on my route" option which would be a key feature for long distance drives in any climate that can have severe weather. Can anyone recommend a navigation app that supports weather forecasts along the way?

https://abetterrouteplanner.com/

It's designed for electric cars, but it does include weather info in its routes. I'm not 100% sure how it works, but it is there.

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