Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

lite.cnn.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

361–370 of 770 posts

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

#361

Post by snakeboy »

globalise83 wrote: post #327
SauciestGNU wrote: post #308

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Believe it or not, in some parts of the USA that can get you labeled a sex offender for life.

Wow, didn't know that! In the UK and most of Europe it's standard practice.

It's also relatively standard practice in the US. Of course it's illegal "by the books" just like in France and some parts of the UK. At worst you'd probably get a fine if you get caught in a densely populated urban environment without a good reason.

It's incredibly misleading to say that peeing on the side of the road in an emergency could put you on the sex offenders' registry.

I'd be interested in an example of someone getting on the registry for public peeing without egregious extenuating circumstances (repeated offence next to a daycare, or something)

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

#362

Post by rurp »

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…

>Water is harder to store in the winter since it will freeze and burst containers if full

Very true. I live in a hot climate and often freeze water bottles to take with me in the summer. A full sealed bottle, even a solid one like a Nalgene, will easily break when frozen. But I've found that leaving 10-15% of space empty and cracking the top ever so slightly prevents any sort of breaks.

Leaving the bottle cracked open might not work so well for car storage though, unless it's secured upright.

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

#363

Post by IdoRA »

asdff wrote: post #341
IdoRA wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In this case, a major issue was that the weather was rain transitioning to heavy snowfall. VDOT couldn’t pre-treat the roads because the rain would wash it away, and they couldn’t clear the roads of snow fast enough to prevent ice formation. Similar to the Atlanta “snowmageddon” in 2014, once you have enough 18-wheelers stopped, they can’t start moving again on ice, and they (plus the normal car traffic) clog the roa…

This sort of weather pattern is not unusual at all. This is how winter is for the most part in places that have winter. I'd go out to clear snow off my car and find that my car would regularly be coated in an inch thick layer of ice from rain-turned-ice before the storm progressed to snow like a dozen times a month in the winter when I lived in the east. VDOT could just close the freeway section in advance of the sto…

I’ve lived here for decades, so I am very familiar with the weather here—I am of the opinion that it was an unusual volume of rain leading up to the snowfall, rain all night before transitioning to heavy snowfall early AM where I am.

Closing the freeway feels like a good idea, but then you’d have ~130,000 cars/day traveling on surface streets? The Rappahannock doesn’t allow for many crossings other than 95.

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

#364

Post by pugworthy »

mhandley wrote: post #345

Back in 2004 a friend and I were driving from Seoul (Korea) to Daejeon when a huge snowstorm blew in. We were on a 56 mile stretch of expressway through the mountains with no exits when the traffic ground to a halt. After a couple of hours it was clear from the radio that the road would be struck for a long time (the jam was reported to be 50 miles long), so we walked a couple of miles back to a service station we'd…

Interesting. Here's a reference I found to that particular storm...

https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/12846/south-korea-r...

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

#365

Post by mulmen »

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).

Magnetic flashlight is nice. If you don't have one I also suggest a headlamp.

https://www.rei.com/c/headlamps

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

#366

Post by mulmen »

throwaway0a5e wrote: post #347
SauciestGNU wrote: post #308

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Believe it or not, in some parts of the USA that can get you labeled a sex offender for life.

Realistically nobody is gonna give a crap unless you manage to be super distasteful about it.

Tell it to the judge, creep.

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

#367

Post by rootusrootus »

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).

My suggestion for the flashlight is to get one that works as a headlamp. The modern LED versions are quite good, going from incredibly bright all the way down to dim but usable for days.

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

#368

Post by colanderman »

cure wrote: post #295
binaryblitz wrote: post #234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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. :)

Mind you that's 3100mAh at 12V. That's roughly 7400mAh at 5V (USB voltage).

That is assuming a DC-DC converter. 3100 mAh is 3100 mAh regardless of voltage if the charging functionality uses a cheaper/simpler linear regulator.

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

#369

Post by rootusrootus »

_moof wrote: post #335
throw_nbvc1234 wrote: post #309

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How does this logic work with electric cars; just cut the range in half?

Electric cars are apparently much better in these situations than gas-powered cars, because you can keep the heat on for hours and hours without using up much charge (or creating any CO). Don't personally know if that's true but it's what I've read.

Depends on how the heat is produced and how comfortable you want to make it, but in round numbers I would expect heating the car in a snowstorm to eat up about half the battery capacity every 24 hours. I still keep emergency blankets and I would run the heater as little as possible.

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

#370

Post by colanderman »

thrashh wrote: post #350
binaryblitz wrote: post #234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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. :)

Someone already mentioned this but I want to clarify that mAh alone is not a full measure of capacity. OP mentioned his mAh rating in 12 V but you’re comparing it to Ah ratings in 5 V. OP’s battery should be able to charge a full smartphone fine. Also, most of those 10-20k battery packs won’t be able to jump start your car because they have greater capacity but cannot provide power quickly. There are high capacity ba…

Amp-hour ratings only should be adjusted for voltage if a DC-DC converter is used. If the jump starter uses a cheaper linear regulator, the amp-hour ratings remain the same. (The excess energy is discarded as heat.)
Post reply on HN