It’s August in Johnsburg. You go out to car, hop in, start the engine and, watching behind you, back out of the driveway. Then you drive to the store, to some event or just to visit a friend. No problem, except that it’s not August.

It is now late November. Winter isn’t officially here but the weather doesn’t wait on the demands of the calendar; Johnsburg winter weather will arrive when it chooses. And when winter comes, the scenario described in the previous paragraph changes entirely.

Preparing your vehicle for the arrival of winter includes the winterizing aspects you’ve read about several of the last weeks on this blog. You want to change the oil on schedule. You want to make sure the coolant/antifreeze is up to snuff. You want to be confident that the car will start when you want it to, no matter how cold it is outside. You want good tires, good defrosters, good wipers and plenty of windshield washer solvent, for a start. But there’s more.

The physical aspects of preparing your vehicle for winter are essential. But there’s a mental aspect, too. You want to make sure that you’re mentally prepared for driving in winter.

You can’t just jump in the car and go. For starters, you need to allow more time so that the car can warm up, you can sweep any snow off the car and scrape the windows. If you don’t allow that extra time, you’re liable to find that you’re in a panic to get where you’re going and you may not apply as much caution as you should.

You don’t want to take any shortcuts when it comes to clear snow, frost and ice from your windows. Vision is essential when driving (you can’t avoid what you can’t see). 

Once, you’ve cleaned the windows, you need to back out of the driveway with all possible caution. If someone walks behind you, the car can slide when you apply the brake. The same is true if a vehicle is passing behind you. And, if you have piles of snow on either side of the driveway, you may not have the same clear view you would have in August.

Sliding isn’t a possibility merely when you’re backing out of the driveway. In fact, it’s even more likely once you get out on the road. Out on the road, you’re driving faster. Slippery roads covered in ice and/or snow, will significantly increase the distance required for you to stop. And, with slippery roads, the potential for losing control of the car increases.

Mentally, you need to prepare yourself for this. You need to slow down, be more observant and allow more space for following other cars and stopping when you need to, even if it’s unexpected.

A Johnsburg winter is cold and snowy. There’s not much we can do about that. But, mentally, you can prepare yourself to reduce the possibility that you would have an accident.