@helloworld55 Regarding sidewalks, some cities or villages expect you to keep them clear, others have sidewalk snow plows (which your taxes pay for), and still others (few) don’t seem to care if the sidewalks are kept clear. Also there are a few Michigan cities that have strange winter parking regulations, so if you need to park on the street (something to be avoided if possible) you will want to contact the city and see if they have any winter parking regulations.

If you don’t have an all wheel drive vehicle, a front-wheel drive will still give you quite a bit of control as long as you are not an aggressive driver. The worst type of vehicle to have in winter is rear-wheel drive, and especially a rear-wheel drive pickup truck, because when those are unloaded there is very little weight bearing down on the rear wheels, and they are trying to push the much heavier front part of the vehicle, and on ice that’s a good way to wind up doing a great figure 8 on the interstate! At least with a front wheel drive car the engine is over the wheels that are transferring motion to the pavement (or ice!) and the rest of the vehicle is being pulled along. It makes a big difference in handling on ice.

Be aware of what is happening around you in winter, a lot of times people coming up to a stop sign or stop light after the first real winter weather will forget they can’t stop on a dime and will slide right through a stop sign or stop light, and if your car happens to be in the intersection you can get T-boned. Sometimes if there is enough visibility you can see someone approaching too fast and you can either speed up or slow down to try and avoid a collision. Doesn’t always work but you can maybe minimize damage. Some more well-to-do Michigan residents keep a “winter beater” car that they only drive on winter days, the idea being that if it gets wrecked at least it’s not their “good” car.

And no, everything in Michigan does not come to a standstill after a little snow. Each community sort of has an idea of what would be considered a heavy snow and they prepare for that. When I lived in the upper peninsula it was very common to get a foot or more of snow overnight but the minute it started falling the plows would be out and if you stuck to the main roads all you would notice was the snow banks on the side of the road was higher than the day before (and yes, the snow plows will plug up the end of your driveway when they go by and YOU get to shovel out their gifts!). But after I moved away from the U.P. I heard they got FIVE feet one night, well they were NOT prepared for THAT, and it took like a week to get things moving again. So in winter, always make sure you have a few days worth of food in the house, just in case (although usually you will get a warning if anything really heavy is moving in).

Finally, if you don’t like snow shoveling (and you probably won’t), consider getting a snow thrower. Do not get a cheap one with plastic blades; they break! There are gasoline powered ones, and corded or cordless electric ones. The wider the blade/chute area the more show you can blow in one pass. The corded electric ones are the least convenient because of the cord but they will always work as long as you have electric power and are often the least expensive (but again, no plastic blades, unless you like throwing money away!). The gas powered ones are more expensive and more powerful but can fail to start when you need them most, especially if you don’t maintain them. The cordless ones use batteries and those can go bad too, but they can be replaced, the only thing with them is depending on how much area you need to clear you may need more than one fully charged battery to finish the job. Or you can hire a show plowing service to keep your driveway clear all winter but they will generally only do your driveway, not your sidewalks. And in some neighborhoods there may be teenagers or adults that will offer to shovel out your driveway after a snowfall, the problem with those people is they generally age out of that business, or maybe injure themselves by falling on ice or something and stop coming around, so you may need to find someone new every year or two.