Drive yourself out of the Woods - The Bridgestone Winter Driving School is Open!

Winter Driving School is open!

One of the first things I learned from my instructor Morgan Cavanaugh  at the Bridgestone Winter Driving School in Steamboat Springs was that humans are not hardwired for driving. “Humans are hardwired for running through trees,” he explained - thousands of years of hunting for food like a tiger in the woods verses a mere century or so behind the wheel. He also added humans are not hardwired for golf either, “We don’t come out of the womb knowing how to swing a club.”

Just as mastering the golf swing can take years of lessons and lots of practice to perfect, learning to drive in winter conditions also requires proper technique and practice. You can get both the lesson and lots of practice at the Bridgestone Winter Driving School which is now opened for the season in Steamboat.

First you spend sometime in the classroom, followed by the real thing: driving on a snow and ice-covered closed track. They have three specially-designed ice tracks providing the hills, turns and surface changes we encounter on the roads.

Get a grip with Bridgestone

These skills are essential if you live in a cold climate like Colorado. Even after 20 years of driving here, I learned some skills that I have since used to get me out of the woods.  And as if you need another selling point than keeping you and your family safe - it’s a blast!

When else will you have the opportunity to accelerate through an icy turn just to see what happens if you slam on your brakes?

Here are a few winter driving tips provided by the Bridgestone Winter Driving School:

1. Warm up your car and clear off all the snow and ice because good visibility is crucial.

2. Turn on your headlights - a good rule of thumb: if you need your wipers, your lights should be on.

3. Allow for plenty of space on the road between you and other vehicles - it takes 4 to 10 times more distance to stop on ice and snow than on dry pavement.

4. Know your car, know your brakes - There are two types of braking systems, ABS (Anti-lock brakes) and traditional brakes - each has its own technique for braking in an emergency stopping situation. With ABS you press as hard as possible and hold. With traditional you need to pump.

5. When your rear wheels start to skid, divorce yourself from the instinct that you need to brake - it will only make things worse. The proper correction is to steer into the skid and accelerate smoothly. This transfers weight to the rear wheels so they can gain control.

These are just a few of the skills you will learn if you sign up for one of their courses.  If you are interested you can contact Alex, our guest services manager, and she will get you signed up for class - keep yourself out of the woods and learn to winter drive!

By the way, all our shuttle drivers have been through the school!