The worst of winter

We really had the worst of winter recently.

First there was freezing rain. It came down all day while I was at the office, so when it was time to go home my car looked like this:

Perfectly normal except there was a solid sheet if ice wrapped around the car, so much ice that I couldn't even open the drivers door! (In Canada they are mad enough to drive on the same side of the road as Americans, so yes, this is the drivers door).

I know the photo is pretty awful, but maybe you can get an idea of how thick it was.

All of that white is ice shavings that I created trying to get through to the glass of the windscreen. In the middle you can see I finally managed to get through and, if you look closely, the ice is about two or three centimetres thick! That isn't from the car standing there for a week, it was only there from nine to five! I was quite blown away to see such a thick layer of ice covering the wind screen wipers (you lift them up when you might get freezing rain because if they get stuck to the windscreen there is a good chance you'll break them trying to get them unstuck).

Of course, a few days after the rain we got heavy snow. Here's a short video of me driving in our office parking lot.

This is the second time I've driven in heavy snow and I realise it's better to drive in snow that no-one else had driven in than to follow in another persons tracks. For those of you that think this is obvious, it actually isn't. If you've never driven in snow all you know is that snow and ice is dangerous, you don't know that compacted snow turns into ice which is what makes snow dangerous. Before anyone has driven on it you actually get some good traction. You may laugh at me, but I thought winter tires were for diving in snow, so I didn't get them until someone mentioned to me that they operate best at 7 degrees Celsius. That was almost December already, hardly a winter tyre in stock any more.  I mistakenly believed that once the snow fell in Canada you never saw the ground again until spring.

I'm still not an expert in this snow driving so I haven't pushed it. I'm pretty sure that if I accelerated suddenly or turned sharply my wheels would lose thier grip even on fresh snow. The trip home was still fun for me, it felt like I needed a 4x4 / all wheel drive vehicle to navigate the roads. The little car I was in managed very well though. In fact I saw a big fat rear wheel drive Mustang going up a slight incline and every time he touched the gas the bum started sliding out. My theory was there was just too much power from even the slightest touch of the accelerator.

In closing I know this article makes it seem like winter in Canada is unbearable, however it has been a very mild winter. Only two heavy snowfalls so far, one freezing rain (apparently the worst one my colleagues have experienced) and a few freezing cold days that are below -10 degrees Celcius.  With those few difficulties you can actually have a lot of fun too.  There is Ice Skating, almost every where has a skating rink, here is just a list of the ones that the city of Toronto provides. If you don't have skates look out for the ones that have Skate Hire like Nathan Phillips.

Something my daughter and I love to do is toboggan.  We've only managed it twice so far because we didn't want to travel, but next winter I'm sure we will.

Then there is Skiing and Snow boarding.  I have heard of poeple going snow shoeing and then there is just staying indoors and enjoying a nice hot drink and watching the snow fall outside.

As per TorontoGuardian.com

The actual cost of buying a car in Ontario, Canada

I always tell people to not buy a car until they really really need one.  There are so many hidden costs with a car.  I miss the days when it was just me and my bicycle.

My first tip starts with: get the Canadian Drivers licence first. If you've had your licence for a year before you buy a car then your insurance is going to be so much cheaper, if it's been two years all the better!  Remember, Canadian insurance companies only care about your Canadian Drivers Licence, it mostly doesn't matter how long you've had another country's drivers licence for.  When I arrived I was quoted $4000 for the year.  In fact I am still in that category.  Here are the results of an online quote request done on https://www.lowestrates.ca

(You can write to me on the contact page if you're looking for an insurer willing to take your foreign driving experience into account, I am now paying about $150 a month.)

Ok, so, insurance is the most obvious extra cost of a car, the next is licensing.  At the time of writing this it is $120 a year in Toronto which you can see on the Ontario website here.

Next is parking, maybe you get a parking for free at home, sometimes you have to rent it, but going to town the Green P is going to charge you at least $3.50 for the privilege of leaving your car on their premises.  Maybe you park an hour in a month on the weekend trying to find free parking and taking a longer walk to get to where you want to go.

Of course, there is also petrol, let's say you have an economical car and you do around 8 litres per 100 kilometres and you do very little driving in a month, maybe 500km's.  If the average petrol price is lucky enough to remain around the $1 mark your cost for the month will be $40.

Then there is the problem of washing the car.  For a Basic car wash at your local petrol (gas) station it's going to cost $9 a wash and you should probably wash it once a month.  In winter you are going to need to wash it twice a month to get the salt off (and prevent it from rusting)

The other fun thing I found out was that my insurance was going to be another $500 a year if I didn't buy winter tires, so I spent another $600 dollars on buying winter tyres so that I can save that in the second year.

Estimated Monthly costs of a car: $52.50
Estimated Yearly costs of a car: $4,120 + ($52.50 x 12 month) = $4,750

As some nice alternatives there is public transport and then there is car sharing.  The only one I know about at the moment is Zip Car and usually they are only really available around Down Town.

Estimated yearly costs of taking public transport: $1,820.  That is a 61% saving per year (I assumed you would travel twice each work day).

Estimated yearly cost of Zip Car: $650. (I assumed you would take a single one hour trip each weekend, while the lowest hourly rental is advertised as $7ph I could only find cars that were $11.75 an hour).  While this is cheaper than public transport I am sure you will also take public transport on occasion.  Even if you combine a daily public transport commute with 1 Zip Car weekend trip each month you will come out around $2,600 for the year, some 45% cheaper still.

What's my conclusion?  Take the TTC for your commute if you are able to and add Zip Car for when you really would like to have the luxury of a car.

Driving in snow

This was quite an interesting first-time experience.  It basically snowed heavily just before heading home for work.  The snow ploughs were out and about, but they hadn't been able to start their job yet because the traffic was so heavy.

We all had to crawl along at 20 kilometres an hour, so it took quite a bit longer to head home than usual.



In the light of my previous post I am still thoroughly enjoying all this.  It was fascinating to realise that my car didn't just spin out of control like you sometimes see on Youtube (like this one).  I saw the exit of my office as a rather steep slope where you have to stop and I was worried the car would just slide backwards! I approached it tentatively but had no problem stopping near the top and getting going again.
I did have one moment when I got going again after a red traffic light and on a slight upward slope.  My front wheels started spinning and I didn't realise it, I found the car was angling slowly to the left and I couldn't figure out why, I just turned the wheel left until I could figure it out, but it started angling more to the left.  Then I heard the vehicle's engine was running a little quicker than the speed I was travelling so I lifted off the accelerator and it was all good again.  I realised you have to be careful accelerating in snow, of course, that applies to the braking as well.  No sudden deceleration either.

In my first year here it has snowed many more times, but I haven't driven in snow again, but then winter isn't over.  Every time it has snowed the ploughs have come quickly and cleared everything before I got onto the road again.  So far it's mostly snowed at night and then everything is cleared by morning.