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

Some myths about automobiles and driving are improper, however principally innocent. For instance, some individuals imagine it’s good to heat up your engine on a chilly morning earlier than driving, or that protecting 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 should not solely false — they are often downright harmful. Listed below are 4 of these myths, plus a bonus one that may not harm you, however might undoubtedly take a toll in your private sense of favor.

Hold your palms 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 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 mother or father to youngster over time.

At this time we imagine 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 may be one other hazard lurking in your steering wheel itself.

Steering wheel airbags and the chance 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 may save your life, it may additionally trigger extreme harm 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 sometimes referred to as degloving, and please do not google this. You’ll turn out to be 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, nonetheless, provides much less management, so stick with the ‘3 and 9,’ however maintain 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 individuals can multitask, and a few can not. However even the best multitaskers meet their match utilizing a mobile 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 also be authorized. When you’re legally having a telephone dialog or texting whereas driving, your consideration is split between watching the street and automobiles round you, and the telephone. Whole hands-free security is a fantasy.

Driving beneath 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 fantasy that the slower you drive, particularly on a freeway, the safer you’re. This principle would maintain when 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 maintain its distance. While you out of the blue introduce one automobile that drives at 45 mph, the static security is disturbed. Vehicles desirous to drive at 55 mph need to brake for the slower automobile, which causes a sequence response behind them. Drivers will begin taking probabilities to get across the gradual automobile, inflicting much more upheaval.

And also you, considering you’re protected at 45 mph, will probably be on the middle of this flurry of chaos, and due to this fact extra prone to be concerned in any accident you trigger by driving slower than the remainder. The identical precept applies to those that stick with the velocity 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 automobiles as we speak have all-wheel-drive (AWD), which provides traction to all 4 wheels completely or when the street situations 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 techniques improve the quantity of traction on slippery or uneven surfaces, neither will prevent when 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 maintain you protected, whereas the truth is that the one solution to maintain your self protected is to at all times use your widespread sense.

Driving a crimson automobile prices extra

Not harmful, however a fantasy that has to go

Credit score: Toyota

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

Not true. Your insurance rate just isn’t decided by the colour of your automobile, however by elements like automobile make, mannequin, engine measurement, and value. The overall value of repairing this sort of automobile, and its statistical security report additionally come into play. Some automobiles usually tend to be stolen, and insurers can even take a look at the age and driving report of the driving force.

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