How fast locals drive during winter

Hi,

I will be spending 2 weeks going all around Hokkaido in mid to late Jan 2015, which is when you can expect very bad winter weather. I was wondering how fast do most local people usually drive? Will they be a bit aggressive on me if I drive a little bit slower than them and cause small traffic?

Btw, for my rental car, I reserved new Subaru Forester. It was expensive but I figured this is probably the best winter vehicle I can rent and it will keep me safer than any other rental cars.

There is always a range of speed regardless of date/time/weather, so you shouldn't worry about it. Make sure you are not in the right passing lane if you are going slow on the highway, and you will be absolutely fine. You might cause a tiny bit of annoyance on the smaller one-lane roads, so I recommend if you see a place to pull in, to do so and let the cars pass you by. And if a car flashes its headlights at you, it wants to pass, so if you feel that you are able to get over or to pull over, it's good to do so. But I feel that people here in Japan are often much less aggressive than the US for example, although that may be only my opinion. I'm a fast driver myself, and often find that the speeds here in Japan are slow in general compared to the US. So you might find it a good speed for you!

Also, as long as the car has snow tires, the type of car isn't so much an issue depending on where you will be driving. I have seen tiny kei cars try to drive in snow up mountains and make it. But I think if you are going to be skiing/snowboarding and heading to the snowier areas, four wheel drive is a plus. On normal city roads, or the highway, it shouldn't be a problem what kind of car you have.

Don't think about how fast "locals" drive, especially when it comes to driving in snow. Rather than that, think about how you can let locals know that you're not local.

Driving schools encourage you to drive in snow under 20 km/h and even a lot slower. Friends say you're lucky if it's snowing on the day of your driver's license test ;)

If you go to car goods shops, there are signs to put on the rear of your car so that you can let the driver behind you know that you want to drive slowly. Or you can just write a sign by yourself. As suggested, try to avoid the very right of the lanes and move over whenever you see a car coming from behind. That will help you drive safely.

That said, you shouldn't really drive in snow if you're not used to it. It's often not even worth it since there's so many public transportation and taxis around.

Thank you both for your replies and advises. I'll drive safely ;-)

I live in the Niseko area myself. Personally I find driving on snow not too bad, but black ice will ruin your day for sure (black ice = layer of ice that looks like regular asphalt). I also would advice not to drive during snow storms as visibility will be reduced to zero.

To be honest, for temporary visitors without previous winter driving experience, we usually recommend not to drive a car during Hokkaido winter.