3 ms·

>>I've lived in Norway for nearly forty years and have never been able to call my employer saying that I can't get to work (22 km away) because of snow or ice.

>>I've lived in Norway for nearly forty years and have never been able to call my employer saying that I can't get to work (22 km away) because of snow or ice. It has never even been a cause of me being late for work. That's how it should be really. Having lived in some really cold countries, people just....go about with their day. Snow on the road? Have winter tyres and/or chains, it's really not a big deal. Now I live in the UK and it's hilarious(and sad) to see offices, schools and kindergadens close when there is FROST on the road - not even snow, just the temperatures are below zero, things are a bit frozen, so my kindergarden calls me up not to come in today because they determined it's too dangerous for parents to drive in. Like....what??? I know everyone in this country uses summer tyres all year round but sheesh, just....get a grip(pun not intended). When there is actual snow on the road(and I mean like....1 inch of it) it's like apocalypse hit, police advise people not to leave their homes, no one knows how to drive(or if they do they inevitably drive 3mph, even thought he road has been cleared and salted)......I know it's "unusual", but it's not like Egypt where they see snow once in 20 years - it does snow pretty much every year for a few days.

jdmoreira 5y ago
We once flew from Stockholm to London to conduct some user interviews. And it was snowing in London and it was exactly like you described. Half our interviews got cancelled, everyone was panicking because of the weather, chaos everywhere. We just laugh!
pmyteh 5y ago
Yeah, there's a lot of adaptation to local norms. We don't have much snow-clearing equipment because it's so rarely needed (and no-one wants to pay taxes to have it just on the off-chance). Scotland does better because they have more. We have a similar issue with heat-related rail buckling closing lines in the summer. If you run a railway in Morocco it's a lot hotter and you never close lines for that reason - but that's because the tension of the rails there is adjusted for hotter temperatures. A hard frost would cause Moroccan rails to fracture as they shrank, while ours remain within tolerance.
feintruled 5y ago
Well, counterpoint, is it really worth putting in place all the infrastructure and planning for the relatively few days it's frosty? Maybe it's more economical to just take the hit of the days off.
- gambiting 5y ago
  You're absolutely right, but I see that the infrastructure exists - the roads in winter are regularly salted, any snowfall is cleared immediately(at least in cities), and yet the entire country is still at a standstill, because....people are worried to go out? Like, if there was a foot of snow outside and it wasn't getting cleared because it's such a rare occurance that the city never bought any equipment for it - fair enough. But I see that local councils are equiped to deal with it, but some remaining caution remains, I don't know if it's a cultural thing or just a habit, I don't know.

jdmoreira 5y ago

We once flew from Stockholm to London to conduct some user interviews. And it was snowing in London and it was exactly like you described. Half our interviews got cancelled, everyone was panicking because of the weather, chaos everywhere. We just laugh!

pmyteh 5y ago

Yeah, there's a lot of adaptation to local norms. We don't have much snow-clearing equipment because it's so rarely needed (and no-one wants to pay taxes to have it just on the off-chance). Scotland does better because they have more. We have a similar issue with heat-related rail buckling closing lines in the summer. If you run a railway in Morocco it's a lot hotter and you never close lines for that reason - but that's because the tension of the rails there is adjusted for hotter temperatures. A hard frost would cause Moroccan rails to fracture as they shrank, while ours remain within tolerance.

feintruled 5y ago

Well, counterpoint, is it really worth putting in place all the infrastructure and planning for the relatively few days it's frosty? Maybe it's more economical to just take the hit of the days off.

gambiting 5y ago
You're absolutely right, but I see that the infrastructure exists - the roads in winter are regularly salted, any snowfall is cleared immediately(at least in cities), and yet the entire country is still at a standstill, because....people are worried to go out? Like, if there was a foot of snow outside and it wasn't getting cleared because it's such a rare occurance that the city never bought any equipment for it - fair enough. But I see that local councils are equiped to deal with it, but some remaining caution remains, I don't know if it's a cultural thing or just a habit, I don't know.