So far, here and in most parts of the GTA, we have not yet had to deal with the first winter commute.  Having said that, I know that many parts of Canada are already up to their knees in snow (or beyond, if you’re in my hometown of London, Ontario where many parts of the city have had more than 100cm of snow this week!).  Since we’ll be driving to London soon, I did a bit of a search on winter driving tips, and thought I would share what I found.

Many of these include not only safe driving practices, but some very practical advice for what you can do to make sure your vehicle is ready for winter.   Here is a great brochure put out by the Canadian Automobile Association (CAA).  There are also some interesting websites offering advice here, here and here.  There is also a whole collection of articles on the Canadian Driver website, here.

The one other tool that I have found very helpful, and ties in to Erin’s post a couple of weeks ago where she talked about planning your route, is where you can check out the winter driving conditions on the various roads we’ll be taking.   It’s amazing how short a distance you have to travel for road conditions to change significantly.  I like to have a sense of what I’m in for when we set off to visit friends and family in different parts of the province, so this website maintained by the Ontario Ministry of Transportation has been very helpful.  Check out your local transportation ministry.  They probably offer something very similar.

Photo credit:  Stella Blu