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

Some myths about automobiles and driving are incorrect, however principally innocent. For instance, some folks consider you want to heat up your engine on a chilly morning earlier than driving, or that preserving your automobile 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 injury is to your pockets.

However different myths aren’t solely false — they are often downright harmful. Listed here are 4 of these myths, plus a bonus one that may not damage you, however might positively take a toll in your private sense of fashion.

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

Flawed 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 couple of’ place was taught as a result of it was believed to offer extra leverage and higher management. This concept remains to be in vogue, maybe as a result of instructing somebody to drive is a generational exercise, and this concept was handed from father or mother to youngster over time.

At the moment we consider that holding the wheel on the ‘3 and 9’ place provides better management, in addition to lowering the prospect of the palms 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 damage

Your automobile has an airbag in the course of the steering wheel that can deploy at over 180 mph throughout a crash, even at a reasonable velocity. Whereas it may possibly save your life, it may possibly additionally trigger extreme damage if it hits you throughout deployment. When your palms 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 when you are turning the wheel.

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

Utilizing your telephone hands-free whereas driving is protected

Simply because it is authorized does not make it protected

Credit score: Volkswagen

Some folks can multitask, and a few can’t. However even the best multitaskers meet their match utilizing a cellphone 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 protected. 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. Whole hands-free security is a fable.

Driving below the velocity restrict on the freeway is safer

Do not be that particular person

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’re. This idea would maintain in the event 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 person will get nearer to the automobile in entrance, and the automobile behind will hold its distance. Whenever you instantly introduce one automobile that drives at 45 mph, the static security is disturbed. Automobiles eager to drive at 55 mph must brake for the slower automobile, which causes a series response behind them. Drivers will begin taking possibilities to get across the gradual automobile, inflicting much more upheaval.

And also you, considering you’re protected at 45 mph, can 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 remainder. The identical precept applies to those that persist with the velocity restrict within the quick lane.

4WD or AWD all the time retains you protected

By no means an alternative choice to widespread sense

Credit score: Honda

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

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 all the time hold you protected, whereas the fact is that the one technique to hold your self protected is to all the time use your widespread sense.

Driving a purple automobile prices extra

Not harmful, however a fable that has to go

Credit score: Toyota

Insurance coverage on a purple automobile prices greater than some other colour. Cops will pull you over simply because your automobile is purple. Why? As a result of many quick automobiles are purple. Ferraris are often purple, as are many Porsches and Mustangs. So will shopping for a purple 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 shouldn’t be decided by the colour of your automobile, however by components like automobile make, mannequin, engine dimension, and value. The overall value of repairing this sort of automobile, and its statistical security file additionally come into play. Some automobiles usually tend to be stolen, and insurers may also take a look at the age and driving file of the driving force.

Cops care much less concerning the colour of your automobile than the way you drive it. If you’re rushing or weaving, or leap a purple mild, they may pull you over no matter colour automobile you’re in.