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

Some myths about automobiles and driving are incorrect, however largely innocent. For instance, some folks imagine it is advisable to heat up your engine on a chilly morning earlier than driving, or that conserving your automobile idling for a couple of minutes makes use of much less gasoline than turning it on and off once more. Whereas these aren’t true, the one actual injury is to your pockets.

However different myths are usually not solely false — they are often downright harmful. Listed here are 4 of these myths, plus a bonus one which may not harm you, however may positively take a toll in your private sense of fashion.

Maintain your fingers on the ten and a pair of o’clock positions on the steering wheel

Mistaken for 2 causes, each harmful

Generations in the past, earlier than automobiles had energy steering and wanted bigger steering wheels, holding the steering wheel on the ’10 and a pair 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 dad or mum to youngster over time.

At this time we imagine that holding the wheel on the ‘3 and 9’ place provides larger management, in addition to decreasing the prospect of the fingers crossing the middle line when turning the wheel. That is true, however there’s one other hazard lurking in your steering wheel itself.

Steering wheel airbags and the danger of degloving harm

Your automobile has an airbag in the midst of the steering wheel that may deploy at over 180 mph throughout a crash, even at a reasonable velocity. Whereas it could possibly save your life, it could possibly additionally trigger extreme harm if it hits you throughout deployment. When your fingers are at 10 and a pair 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 if you are turning the wheel.

The accidents to your fingers or forearms are usually referred to as degloving, and please do not google this. You’ll change into a pedestrian. Some say even the ‘3 and 9’ place is simply too harmful, and we must 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 prime of the wheel.

Utilizing your telephone hands-free whereas driving is secure

Simply because it is authorized does not make it secure

Credit score: Volkswagen

Some folks can multitask, and a few can’t. However even the best multitaskers meet their match utilizing a cellular phone throughout driving, particularly for texting. It was shortly 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 secure. Smoking is authorized, rock-climbing is authorized, and petting somebody’s reactive canine can be authorized. If you end up legally having a telephone dialog or texting whereas driving, your consideration is split between watching the highway and automobiles round you, and the telephone. Complete hands-free security is a fable.

Driving underneath the velocity restrict on the freeway is safer

Do not be that individual

We all know the decrease the velocity 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 idea would maintain should you had been the one automobile 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 automobiles is static. No one will get nearer to the automobile in entrance, and the automobile behind will hold its distance. If you all of the sudden introduce one automobile that drives at 45 mph, the static security is disturbed. Vehicles eager to drive at 55 mph need to brake for the slower automobile, which causes a sequence response behind them. Drivers will begin taking possibilities to get across the gradual automobile, inflicting much more upheaval.

And also you, pondering you might be secure at 45 mph, might be on the heart of this flurry of chaos, and due to this fact extra more likely to be concerned in any accident you trigger by driving slower than the remaining. The identical precept applies to those that follow the velocity restrict within the quick lane.

4WD or AWD all the time retains you secure

By no means an alternative 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 automobiles right this moment have all-wheel-drive (AWD), which provides 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 suppose they’ll drive wherever, and people with AWD more and more imagine it is the identical as 4WD, and to allow them to additionally drive wherever.

Whereas each these programs improve the quantity of traction on slippery or uneven surfaces, neither will prevent should you hit an icy patch on a nook, or runoff water on the freeway. The parable is that double the grip will all the time hold you secure, whereas the truth is that the one method to hold your self secure is to all the time use your widespread sense.

Driving a crimson automobile prices extra

Not harmful, however a fable that has to go

Credit score: Toyota

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

Not true. Your insurance rate will not be decided by the colour of your automobile, however by components like automobile make, mannequin, engine measurement, and worth. The final value of repairing this type of automobile, and its statistical security document additionally come into play. Some automobiles usually tend to be stolen, and insurers may even take a look at the age and driving document of the driving force.

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