4 bizarre driving myths which are truly harmful, plus 1 that is simply silly

Some myths about vehicles and driving are mistaken, however largely innocent. For instance, some folks imagine you want to heat up your engine on a chilly morning earlier than driving, or that retaining your automotive idling for a couple of minutes makes use of much less gas than turning it on and off once more. Whereas these aren’t true, the one actual harm is to your pockets.

However different myths will not be solely false — they are often downright harmful. Listed below are 4 of these myths, plus a bonus one that may not harm you, however may positively take a toll in your private sense of favor.

Hold your fingers on the ten and a couple of o’clock positions on the steering wheel

Unsuitable for 2 causes, each harmful

Generations in the past, earlier than vehicles had energy steering and wanted bigger steering wheels, holding the steering wheel on the ’10 and a couple of’ place was taught as a result of it was believed to provide extra leverage and higher management. This concept remains to be in vogue, maybe as a result of educating somebody to drive is a generational exercise, and this concept was handed from father or mother to little one over time.

Right now we imagine that holding the wheel on the ‘3 and 9’ place provides better management, in addition to lowering the possibility of the fingers crossing the middle line when turning the wheel. That is true, however there may be one other hazard lurking in your steering wheel itself.

Steering wheel airbags and the chance of degloving harm

Your automotive has an airbag in the midst of the steering wheel that may deploy at over 180 mph throughout a crash, even at a reasonable pace. Whereas it might save your life, it might additionally trigger extreme harm if it hits you throughout deployment. When your fingers are at 10 and a couple of, they, and your forearms, are nearer to the middle of the wheel than the three and 9 place. This will get worse if the collision occurs while you’re turning the wheel.

The accidents to your fingers or forearms are usually known as degloving, and please do not google this. You’ll grow to be a pedestrian. Some say even the ‘3 and 9’ place is simply too harmful, and we should always maintain the wheel on the ‘8 and 4’ place. This, nevertheless, provides much less management, so follow the ‘3 and 9,’ however hold your thumbs on high of the wheel.

Utilizing your cellphone hands-free whereas driving is protected

Simply because it is authorized would not make it protected

Credit score: Volkswagen

Some folks can multitask, and a few can not. However even the best multitaskers meet their match utilizing a cellular phone throughout driving, particularly for texting. It was rapidly declared unlawful to take action, and shortly after, all of us had voice-control, hands-free freedom to name and text while we were driving. In most locations, that is authorized.

However legality doesn’t make a factor protected. Smoking is authorized, rock-climbing is authorized, and petting somebody’s reactive canine can be authorized. If you end up legally having a cellphone dialog or texting whereas driving, your consideration is split between watching the highway and vehicles round you, and the cellphone. Whole hands-free security is a fable.

Driving underneath the pace restrict on the freeway is safer

Do not be that individual

We all know the decrease the pace throughout a collision, the much less extreme the implications. So there’s a fable that the slower you drive, particularly on a freeway, the safer you might be. This concept would maintain in the event you have been the one automotive on the freeway, however you by no means are, and that’s the place the issue is available in.

When everybody on the freeway goes at 55 mph, the relative place between vehicles is static. No one will get nearer to the automotive in entrance, and the automotive behind will hold its distance. Once you immediately introduce one automotive that drives at 45 mph, the static security is disturbed. Automobiles eager to drive at 55 mph should brake for the slower automotive, which causes a sequence response behind them. Drivers will begin taking probabilities to get across the sluggish automotive, inflicting much more upheaval.

And also you, considering you might be protected at 45 mph, will probably be on the heart of this flurry of chaos, and subsequently extra prone to be concerned in any accident you trigger by driving slower than the remaining. The identical precept applies to those that follow the pace restrict within the quick lane.

4WD or AWD at all times retains you protected

By no means an alternative choice to widespread sense

Credit score: Honda

A four-wheel-drive (FWD) car has the power to traverse tough, uneven, slippery, or very steep terrain. Extra vehicles at the moment have all-wheel-drive (AWD), which supplies traction to all 4 wheels completely or when the highway circumstances require extra grip. This results in a false sense of safety, and that’s very harmful. These driving 4WDs assume they will drive anyplace, and people with AWD more and more imagine it is the identical as 4WD, and to allow them to additionally drive anyplace.

Whereas each these methods enhance the quantity of traction on slippery or uneven surfaces, neither will prevent in the event you hit an icy patch on a nook, or runoff water on the freeway. The parable is that double the grip will at all times hold you protected, whereas the truth is that the one approach to hold your self protected is to at all times use your widespread sense.

Driving a pink automotive prices extra

Not harmful, however a fable that has to go

Credit score: Toyota

Insurance coverage on a pink automotive prices greater than another coloration. Cops will pull you over simply because your automotive is pink. Why? As a result of many quick vehicles are pink. Ferraris are normally pink, as are many Porsches and Mustangs. So will shopping for a pink Corolla will set you aside as a highway demon within the eyes of the insurance coverage business, in addition to the police?

Not true. Your insurance rate isn’t decided by the colour of your automotive, however by components like automotive make, mannequin, engine dimension, and value. The final price of repairing this sort of automotive, and its statistical security file additionally come into play. Some vehicles usually tend to be stolen, and insurers can even have a look at the age and driving file of the driving force.

Cops care much less in regards to the coloration of your automotive than the way you drive it. If you’re dashing or weaving, or soar a pink gentle, they are going to pull you over no matter coloration automotive you might be in.