It is the time of year we get snow in Sheffield in the north of England. It is a hilly city so the arrival of snow, and ice, for moving around can making things challenging.

We don’t tend to get loads of snow like many places in the world – and some years we don’t get any. Which means that we are prepared for it in a fairly minimal way in terms of keeping pavements and roads navigable when the snow and ice arrives.

When weather comes you have to deal with it and the challenges to getting on with living and moving that it can create. Responding to the weather can be, and often is, really enjoyable as you are engaging with the variety that the different seasons bring.

Ideally when things are icy and snowy it makes sense to avoid having to move around the city unless you absolutely have to. Particularly when the snow and/or ice have just arrived and it is not so clear how bad things are going to be under-foot.

It does always amaze us how keen some people are to, whatever the snow and ice conditions, jump in their car and try to head out. We often see them slipping and sliding around in their car on the hilly streets from our windows. It’s kind of funny but then of course they can do damage to others and themselves.

In our car-free-dom we don’t have those compulsions to head out in a car in all weather conditions. Because we get around not detached from the world in a metal box on wheels we viscerally feel the weather.

If you are properly out-in-it you can’t really ignore the challenges that snow and ice and present to moving our body around. So being car-free means you are more aware of what different weather means and so can respond accordingly.

Of course once you’ve got the measure of the conditions go and enjoy the different weather that comes. But it is much more fun doing that freed from the confines of a car which dulls all your senses of the world around you and leaves you slipping and slidding out of control.