Harbour Frozen

The view by the Nova Scotia pub this week shows the harbour has a hint of Auld Scotia in it.

The ice is not quite thick enough to walk or drive on. Which makes us realise that it is time to get out the old plans to tarmac over the entire harbour, now we have a still-expanding one to the west. There will be room for a fast route for Portishead commuters to get into town, and the spare spaces could be used for parking. We could have a bus to take people the final half mile, call the parking Park and Ride and then even the vegetarian eco-hippies would have nothing to complain about.

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Reminder :4x4 is useless on ice without studs or chains

Now that winter is here, can we drop a quick reminder to everyone driving around not to believe those "buy a 4x4 and cope with winter" adverts. Without studded tyres or chains, all four wheel drive will do is get you into trouble by hiding the problems on the uphill, only for them to surface on the descent. Here is some footage from Seattle last week:
Lots of these vehicles are 4WD, but once you've hit the brake pedal, that's useless. Winter tyres then studded tyres (legal in Washington State during winter) and chains are what you should be thinking of. Otherwise, stay at home. Don't walk down the sidewalks on roads like this either. If you have a 2WD car with traction control features, when that light starts flashing it means "chains on". No chains? Pull over, park on a road that isn't so steep, walk.

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