This is old had to many of the folks in the Frostbelt. Freezing rain came this afternoon to Dallas - turning roads into an ice rink for at least the next 48 hours. Keep in mind nobody has snow tires or snow plows in Big D. What is worse is the the young male bipolar driver - mania from driving 60mph one moment - a depressive (or "Oh $#it") moment the next.
Was driving at 3:30 pm as the George Bush freeway was starting to get a coat of ice. Doing 70-75mph is typical, but 40 was fast at that time. The police herded everybody ahead to the 100-ft mixmaster I'd exited to Lewisville - a mess. On the way I was two wrecks. The first was a pickup truck. The second was an SUV that slid twenty feet off the freeway completely upside down - occupant presumbably in the hospital. Probably was doing 60 or more......
Later that night, 20mph was about as fast as anyone wanted to go, althoug I
did do 35 - I was kicking butt! Seriously, my wheels would spin at intersections as the light turned green, and
I was hypermiling. The anti-lock brakes were clicking a number of times.
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Suprize Fuel-Robber in the Frostbelt
I've read about the wind, the slow warmup time, snow tires, etc....
One thing that is going to hurt fuel economy a lot is the
inability to cruise at 35-45. At least in Dallas, you have to be prepared to stop frequently, so cruising at 40-something is just not going to happen on sub-freezing iced roads.