Are ice and snow slippery? Edmonton study to find out

Cars and people navigate Edmonton’s snowy streets yesterday? Is this stuff slippery? We may soon know!

The City of Edmonton will commission a major study of the impact of ice and snow on driving conditions, says Edmonton Mayor Don Iveson.

“Specifically, we’re hoping to determine once and for all if ice and snow are slippery,” Mayor Iveson said today, as snow fell throughout the region.

“If it turns out they are, we’re for sure going to pass that information on to Edmonton’s drivers,” the mayor said. “There’s a lot of anecdotal evidence that there might be something to this.”

Iveson said that if Edmonton drivers are made aware ice and snow are slippery, it may reduce the number of fall, winter and spring traffic accidents in Edmonton, and possibly even throughout the rest of Alberta and during the rest of the year.

“We might even eventually see lower insurance rates as a result,” he added.

Experts, however, are not so sure Edmonton drivers would change their habits even if they were given convincing evidence such conditions are slippery.

“It’s one thing to give people evidence, it’s quite another to get them to actually believe it,” said one expert, who cannot be identified because it’s too cold outside.