OT: Buckeye FB coach stranded in apocalyptic Atlanta traffic jam
OSU assistant coach Tom Herman was in Atlanta on a recruiting trip, and found himself trapped in the mind-boggling traffic jam that a small amount of snow caused on his way to the airport. Hilarious and amazing.
http://college-football.si.com/2014/01/29/ohio-state-tom-herman-atlanta…
January 29th, 2014 at 11:39 AM ^
January 29th, 2014 at 12:35 PM ^
That apostrophe makes me want to die.
January 29th, 2014 at 12:55 PM ^
he simply forgot to add the question mark for his rhetorical question...?
January 29th, 2014 at 2:13 PM ^
Me too.
January 29th, 2014 at 11:50 PM ^
Since you're such a bad-ass, why don't you come down here and show us how to drive on all of this ice?
January 29th, 2014 at 11:36 AM ^
Dear Atlanta,
What is your major malfunction, numbnuts?
Sincerely,
Northerners
January 29th, 2014 at 11:41 AM ^
Their mothers must not have loved them as children.
January 29th, 2014 at 11:52 AM ^
January 29th, 2014 at 11:36 AM ^
The funniest part of this to me is that he ended up ditching the car (not before letting National know where he left it) and walking part of the rest of the way (before finding a gas station and a ride for the rest of it) and still managed to get a flight to Dallas all the same. It was only 2.3 inches of snow according to the Weather Channel too. Wow.
January 29th, 2014 at 11:37 AM ^
There is an inch of snow in ATL right now, I am here right now, and there is just mass chaos. It took 2 hours to drive 8 miles yesterday and basically the entire city is shut down. Reason 7,000 I could never live in the south.
Hopefully everyone is safe though. I know a bunch of people abandoned their cars and got in crashes, so I hope everyone stays safe.
January 29th, 2014 at 12:38 PM ^
It's easy to point and laugh at how what we here in the North would consider an inconsequential amout of snow can paralyze a Southern city like Atlanta, but it bears mentioning that these are communities whose municipal services are not equipped to handle weather of this type. Take away our fleet of snowplows and salt trucks and we'd probably be similarly helpless.
That said, it's still funny because it's a Buckeye coach.
January 29th, 2014 at 1:00 PM ^
i live in atlanta but grew up in the midwest - even if you are from the north you would have still had issues - no matter how good of a snow driver you are. from what i saw - the biggest issues were:
1) No Salt or plows
2) Rear wheel drive cars galore (everyone who got stuck had rwd - and would basically be immobile in the middle of busy streets and peolpe would try to go around them, and then also get stuck which led to complete blockage)
3) People were overly cautious to start the day, and went soo slow, that they would get stuck because they had no momentum. Then once those people blocked the road, everyone else lost momentum and would get stuck. Any road with a hill was a disaster since nobody could get up it.
I got through in decent time because i had fwd and a short ride but it was truly a disaster
January 29th, 2014 at 1:19 PM ^
The first two reasons cause the third, and those first two aren't factor if: You have snow tires and are used to winter driving. I am from Nova Scotia where we get quite a bit of snow (probably not as much as some of you though) and we don't usually see plows and salt trucks until there is at least a few inches of snow on the road (I don't live in the city). If you have a good set of snow tires and know how to drive in the snow, it doesn't matter if you have a RWD, FWD or 4WD you can get around fairly easily in a couple inches of snow. After about 6-8 inches you can start to see issues (around here I mean, where people are used to driving in snow) but anything less and it's business as usualy. I am sitting in my office now and have had patients who have travelled more than 90 km's to see me at we are in the midst of a blizzard.
I think the main issue with the South and snow is simply lack of experience and no winter tires. When we were teenagers we would go to parking lots in the late eveniing and just rip around doing donuts and power turns in the snow and before long, you're a pretty good snow driver.
January 29th, 2014 at 3:37 PM ^
hell I live in Ann Arbor, and we too only see the plows after a few inches of snow, and a few day:(
January 29th, 2014 at 3:38 PM ^
January 29th, 2014 at 6:26 PM ^
Pix or not real.
January 29th, 2014 at 7:16 PM ^
January 30th, 2014 at 8:01 AM ^
For me it was a volkswagon rabbit and there was nothing like flying through the empty parking lot at high speeds and ripping the emergency brake. At first it was fun to just throw yourself into an uncontrolled spin and carry on until you stopped. After a while though, we began doing that but trying to get ourselves out of the spins as quickly as we could and honestly, it wasn't long before we were really good in the snow.
I remember one saturday morning after a long night of partying I was taking a friend home. We were in the trusty rabbit (that was red and thus called "the red baron" because we claimed so many victims on the highway with that huge 4 cylinder) and driving a little fast for the conditions. It had snowed pretty heavily the night before and we were traveling on a back road to meet up with a main road and the one we were on hadn't been plowed.
The snow was over ice which made it a little greasy, and as we were coming to the stop sign that would join us with the main road we started sliding and it wasn't stopping. Immediately across the road was a house and it looked for a minute that we were going to end up in their livinng room, but as we were sliding into the intersection I sw that the road was centerline bare (plows had already been through the main road) so just as we were nearing the center-line I ripped the emergency brake. The front tires gripped the pavement and the rear spun around until they hit the pavement and we stopped right in the middle of the road.
To that point in the trip we were half asleep, but that woke us up in a real hurry. Good times!
January 29th, 2014 at 1:42 PM ^
2 inches of snow and RWD should not result in any problems no matter your location (outside of Hawaii) as long as you are a decent to somewhat terrible driver. The only thing you have to do is not put it to the floor when you accelerate.
Having lived in KY for the past 3 years, I do tell my Northern friends/family that while we can still make fun of them the fact of the matter is that their roads, not to mention their road clearing abilities, are simply not built with snow and/or ice in mind.
I'm talking about 100 y/o Oak trees inches from the road on a corner marked 45MPH or raised road surfaces with no shoulders/guardrails which brings new meaning to keep it between the white lines. Every night on the news you hear at least 1 story about someone loosing control and dying, throw snow/ice into the mix and it's game over.
January 29th, 2014 at 8:30 PM ^
January 30th, 2014 at 8:05 AM ^
whether something is RWD or not. The biggest one is whether the vehicle has snow tires, and I would bet not many people use snow tires in Atlanta. Second is what kind of vehicle it is. Many people would think a truck is better in the snow than a car, but if that truck is RWD I can tell you from experience, they're useless in snow. If you have a car where there is actually some weight over the rear tires you are probably going to be okay and obviously the more weight your vehicle has over those rear tires the better. It's amazing what a difference fwd makes in the snow.
January 30th, 2014 at 2:23 PM ^
honestly i dont think snow tires make that much of a difference nowadays.. ever since they removed metal studs due to the road damage they caused there is no great avantage to snow tires.. in my opinion they arent worth buying over all-season tires.
i know very few people where i grew up in the snowbelt in ohio that still buy snow tires.
i am telling you, i watched it all go down IN PERSON, it was 75% the RWD. FWD cars were rarely stuck, and when they got stuck it was because people were going so slow in front of them that they had no momentum. People could not get up a single hill on the ice with the RWD, those with FWD (and nobody blocking them) had no issue.
BTW - i am not saying snow tires wouldnt have helped, because obviously they would still help, but i just feel that snow tires are not as common in the north as they used to be, and northern states do not have this problem.
January 29th, 2014 at 8:48 PM ^
But you and I wouldn't expect the plows out for an inch, and speeds wouldn't drop below 40
January 29th, 2014 at 11:38 AM ^
middle of all of that yelling "JUST DRIVE 5 MPH SLOWER EVERYTHING IS FINE AAAARGHHH!"
January 29th, 2014 at 11:41 AM ^
Let me tell you, I would only wish that on Ohio State fans, and probably Michigan State. But no one else!
January 29th, 2014 at 12:02 PM ^
Sunday evening driving to Grand Rapids the traffic was moving at 40-50 mph on the interstate. The conditions were way worse then, compared to the Atlanta picks he posted.
January 29th, 2014 at 2:04 PM ^
January 29th, 2014 at 11:40 AM ^
This coach must have committed a major NCAA violation by doing that. I just know it.
/s
January 29th, 2014 at 6:27 PM ^
This is one OSU violation I would forgive.
January 29th, 2014 at 11:40 AM ^
January 29th, 2014 at 11:52 AM ^
January 29th, 2014 at 3:41 PM ^
January 29th, 2014 at 11:42 AM ^
In the mornings on my way to work, I drive my small car through snow drifts and blowing snow while eating a bagel and drinking orange juice.
True story.
January 29th, 2014 at 12:00 PM ^
which is why I've got a 4WD SUV with low-range gearing if I need it. I've never been stuck once, and I love driving past people who can't get up small hills in their 2WD vehicles.
I've got a good friend who lives and works in ATL, and she sent me this email:
"I did not look at this video as I know plenty more stories as bad or worse. We were let go at work yesterday at noon as it was starting to snow and the forecast predicted more snow and very cold. I got home ok but some of my coworkers did not fare as well. The other gal I work with had to abandon her car and run six miles to get home. She got home at 4:30. I was just talking to another man I work with- he had a harrowing 8.5 hour trip home. Another woman i work with was hit by a car spinning wildly out of control.
January 29th, 2014 at 6:28 PM ^
Does your bagel get cold?
January 29th, 2014 at 11:47 AM ^
I was born and raised in Atlanta and, honestly, this never happened to this extent when i was growing up. Sure, there was mass hysteria when snowfall of more than an inch was forecast, and people would make a run on bottled water and generators, but people also seemed sensible enough (for the most part) to not go out.
I have no idea what people were thinking. My guess? Dumbass northerners who don't recognize the fact that Atlanta has VERY few resources to deal with stuff like this. They send out SAND trucks. If they need salt, they have to get it from the far northern counties (well outside the metro Atlanta area) or from Tennessee (Chattanooga, usually). Add the fact that Atlanta, being in the Piedmont region of the Appalachians, is VERY hilly. Snow/ice + hills - salt = recipe for disaster.
Did I mention clueless mayor/public officials and businesses? Yeah, those too.
January 29th, 2014 at 1:07 PM ^
Are they still using sand in the northern Lower Peninsula? If not, it was used for generations, and they will typically get a tiny bit more snow than Atlanta.
January 29th, 2014 at 1:45 PM ^
Should be, you normally see the sand showing up towards the end of the season when they've spread all the salt and do not have the budget to buy more.
January 29th, 2014 at 11:45 AM ^
I live in a snowy city in the North, so I'm having trouble grasping exactly what is causing day-long traffic jams with like 2 inches of snow.
Anyone's car can drive in 2" of snow so why wasn't anyone moving? Accidents that couldn't be cleared? I don't understand
January 29th, 2014 at 11:55 AM ^
combination of factors.
- Atlanta and surrounding counties do not have fleets of snow plows
- They generally did not stock road salt when i lived there, and usually spread SAND, or sometimes a combination of sand/salt. Sand provides a little traction, but doesn't do anything to melt snow or ice.
- Atlanta is very hilly. This was the key reason why i never drove anywhere when it snowed or sleeted. I've witnessed way too many cars sliding off roads, down hills, into ditches, into other cars, through intersections.
- The weather tends to be such that it gets just warm enough to melts the snow/ice during the day, then freeze it all back into black ice overnight, causing more mayhem the following morning.
January 29th, 2014 at 12:28 PM ^
January 29th, 2014 at 11:49 AM ^
I think everybody is so used to S-E-C Speed that they couldn't handle the slowdown, grind-it-out style of Northern Driving.
January 29th, 2014 at 11:59 AM ^
Thread over.
January 29th, 2014 at 12:01 PM ^
we have a winner; pack it up boys....
January 29th, 2014 at 12:43 PM ^
The thread is over
January 29th, 2014 at 11:55 AM ^
January 29th, 2014 at 11:59 AM ^
I'm not a NASCAR fan, but I would totally watch a NASCAR race in slightly snowy conditions. Or maybe even the Tennessee Volunteers playing on a NASCAR track infield under snowy conditions.
January 29th, 2014 at 12:05 PM ^
Funny stuff from Herman. Also, wife is pretty hot.
January 29th, 2014 at 12:29 PM ^
Yeah, his wife is hot. Dude's a closer.
January 29th, 2014 at 12:06 PM ^