h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Winter Driving Guidelines - A984260
Author: broelan - U155058

i've had this in the collaborative workshop for a few months and i think it's come along nicely.

i thought by putting it in pr now it could go thru comments, tweaking, picking and subediting with plenty of time to be ready for the front page this fall when it would be most useful

for anyone interested in the process, the collaborative thread can be found here: F57152?thread=253237

Another good entry Broelan - well done! Have some and one me!

Right, to business. The first thing I will do is suggest a link to A1011853 - Advaanced Driving Techniques... it's something I made a small contribution to so can't remember off the top of my head exactly what's in it, but there *may* be a little overlap between the two.

Now, let's see if there's anything I can help with specifically in the entry itself...







...right, wel, it's all very well-written and it seems most of what I can suggest is pedantic stuff that's down to differences between British and American English. Anyway, here we go:

Second paragraph of first section:
"If you live someplace nice" - there's nothing at all wrong with it, but it sticks out a little to the indigenous native of the British Isles... how about 'somewhere' instead?

A Note on the Unpredictability of Winter Conditions - first para:
"assume everything is ice." surely not literally??? maybe "everything is icy?"

Emergency Preparedness

Flashlight - they'll know what you mean in Europe when you say 'flashlight', but 'torch' is the more common noun over here - best to use both terms?

Shoes - "When clearing snow off of or away from your car," - I've lost count of the number of debates I've had with a friend of mine who works for the BBC World Service over the use of "off of"... of course, I'm right and he's wrong, but I'd suggest it's best to avoid this particular grammatical minefield and write around the issue - how about "When clearing snow off your car or away from it,"?

Clean Your Car
"a taller vehicle like a truck or an SUV." - cultural differences again, here. If you were to say 'truck' in the UK, people would take it to mean a large lorry or a pickup truck, and I'm not sure that's what you mean. What I *think* you mean is a vehicle somewhere in size between large car and a minibus. Is that right? If so, we have our own impenetrable jargon this side of the Atlantic, and have two categories for this kind of thing - if it's a big 4WD thing, we'd call it a 4x4 or an off-roader, whereas if it's a one-box vehicle that's like a smaller, more stylish luxury minibus, we'd call it an MPV (multi-person vehicle).

Although I've no idea about the best way to handle explaining all that!

As far as SUV's go, I've heard about them but we don't really have them over here - the footnote explains what SUV stands for but not quite what one is or looks like. As I understand it, are they a kind of flash, expensive, 4WD pickup truck?

Slow Down
"On a major thoroughfare that has been cleared of snow where most traffic is moving safely at 40 mph, it isn’t necessary to drive 20 mph." is that a typo - did you mean drive *at* 20 mph?

"If you drive a vehicle with a manual transmission you may want to try starting in second gear instead of first, this will keep you from starting too fast."
I know that some cars with automatic gearboxes have a built in-sensor and a 'winter' setting that automatically starts you in third gear for this very reason.

Braking and ABS

"Give yourself plenty of time to slow down and stop. If your car doesn’t have an Anti-lock Braking System (ABS) then you should pump the brakes when slowing down by applying easy pressure, letting up, and reapplying easy pressure." - it's a standard rally-driving technique, and the rally boys call it 'cadence braking' if you fancy giving it a fancy name!

Driving Different Types of Vehicles

Rear-Wheel Drive
Just a query again here with 'trucks'...

Four-Wheel Drive or All-Wheel Drive
"Similar to FWD vehicles, these provide better manoeuverability because the driving force is in the front where the bulk of the weight is in addition to the rear." I think the main advantage is because all four (or however many) wheels are powered, you get better traction and road grip as there aren't any unpowered wheels that are more susceptible to sliding out of control. You kind of say this, but I think it could be worked on a little.

What do you make of all that?

I can see this one going into the Edited Guide pretty quickly, anyway!

Cheers,
Number Six

oooh! i hope it doesn't make it too quickly! it would have more of an impact if published at the right time

i guess i should have mentioned that i was going to be away for a few days after i submitted this. i appreciate your helpful comments and i should have some time over the weekend to dig in and do some tweaking

Your Guide Entry has just been picked from Peer Review by one of our Scouts, and is now heading off into the Editorial Process, which ends with publication in the Edited Guide. We've therefore moved this Review Conversation out of Peer Review and to the entry itself.

If you'd like to know what happens now, check out the page on 'What Happens after your Entry has been Recommended?' at EditedGuide-Process. We hope this explains everything.

Thanks for contributing to the Edited Guide!

Erm, why the rush to accept this into the EG seeing as:
broelan wants it to hit the front page in time for Autumn
and hasn't yet posted to alert us to the promised revised version that addresses the points currently under discussion in this thread.

Please can we put this on hold until that occurs?



It's going to be great when it's ready, but it's not *quite* ready yet for a worldwide audience. Whichever scout recommended this, couldn't you have waited?

Cheers,
Number Six

i was *quite* surprised to find the acceptance email in my inbox this morning. admittedly i was a bit flattered that it had been accepted 'as is' ... but the fact remains that i haven't made any improvements on it at all. i had the best intentions of doing it over the weekend but didn't, and it was on my agenda for today.

can i have a day or two to tidy it up a bit before the sub-ed takes over?

No worries - I asked to sub this one, given the situation (and the fact that I'd just finished my last batch). The new one that'll head for the Edited Guide has already arrived in my personal space, but rather than clutter up that one with work in progress, how about if you post the changes or new bits on here and I paste them in?

Happy to accept any alternatives though!

that sounds fine to me. after i had posted i did a search for the title and found the new one and was glad to see you were subbing it. i'll get to work on those updates today and post them to this version of it and let you know when i've done so.

okay, i've incorporated most of your grammatical suggestions but you may want to read thru it to make sure i've interpreted your meanings correctly. i'm not sure i understand the differences you were pointing out... for insance the difference between using 'ice' and 'icy'. i had tried to use british english as much as i could, hopefully i've got it up to speed now.

by the way, had i spelled maneuverability right? i know there's an o in there somewhere, but no matter how i tried it just didn't look right.

on the truck/SUV issue... this could get a bit sticky. perhaps we could determine what the british or european equivalent would be and just add it to the list.

for a truck i'm thinking of a pickup truck, could be expanded to include a small delivery van or cargo van. a pickup truck would have a passenger cab for 2-4 people and an open bed cargo area. when i think of a large car i'm thinking old-style cadillac or lincoln, and a truck would be bigger than that, but i'm not sure what a minibus is. i think a 4x4 would be included in what i'm trying to describe, but i'm not getting the concept of a 'one-box vehicle' or a MPV.

as for an suv, some varieties could be flashy 4x4's, but i think that's probably a little over-the-top of what i'm thinking of. i'll have to see if i can find some pictures and get back to you.

okay, here's what i've come up with.
i've tried my best to use non-commercial photos, hopefully just linking to the .jpg files will be okay.

pickup truck
http://www.smithmotorsautosales.com/images/ford-truck.jpg

cargo van
http://www.sidneytruck.com/oldpictures/van.jpg

delivery truck
http://www.westcoastfurniture.com/images/delivery_truck.jpg

another delivery truck
http://www.amazing3d.com/services/3dtransport/modtrkdlv.jpg

suv
http://www.pe.com/sports/outthere/photos/2002-0801-suv.jpg

more suv's
http://www.texasmonthly.com/mediakit/assets/suv.jpg

i found all of these images through google image search using these words: 'pickup truck', 'cargo van', 'delivery truck', & 'suv'. i also looked up 'lorry' and found it to be the same as a delivery truck, which is what i assumed it was. a search for minibus revealed it to be something like a minivan, but not entirely the same thing. actually, the only purpose i've seen vehicles like that put to are mass transit, whereas minivans are more of a family vehicle, probably closer to what you call an mpv.

so, i did actually mean a lorry or a pickup truck, but theoretically most of this could apply to the other types of vehicles as well. perhaps we could solve this by simply adding "...or MPV" after "like a truck or an SUV"

nearly forgot to add your link

added now

if you come across anthing else, let me know

I think it's finished now! Apologies for the delay - say the word and I'll send it off...

Oh, I forgot - it's at A1124678. That sort of information can come in handy...

I think I'm going to be mildly rude and send this off right now without waiting for a response... but I have a good reason - I'm off on holiday tomorrow! And I thought it'd be better than having it sit idle in my personal space for a fortnight...

As you know, if there's anything you don't like, you can always pop over to <./>Editorial-Feedback</.> and have a word with the good people with the sloping names.

Be seeing you,
Number Six

looks fine
thanks number six!

sorry i didn't respond earlier, i was having a few days off work.
enjoy your holiday!

Greetings from an internet cafe in Oaxaca, Mexico - I am and thank you!

So I had some car trouble last night.
Things I wish I had. My towel to lay on while working under the car and some rope.