Author archive
In Praise Of Slower Driving
Cars are designed to go fast, which is why they took over from horse-drawn transport and bicycles on the road. All modern cars, even the most sluggish and cumbersome, are capable of travelling at a speed that was once considered impossible – about 150 or so years ago, before the advent of the railway, it was believed by the scientific authorities that humans would suffocate if they travelled over 30 mph (about 48 km/h).
However, while modern cars can go three times this “fatal” speed with ease and some makes sold in Australia have their speeds limited (e.g. certain makes of BMW), we don’t always have to go as fast as we possibly can. Sometimes, there’s something to be said about driving a bit more slowly. So what can be said in favour of going slower?
1 It’s safer. Sure, cars have all the safety features that the engineers can think of, but sheer physics will win the day. If you lose control in spite of the ABS, ESP and all the rest of it, and smack into something solid, all that energy will be transferred to your car’s body and to your body. Carnage. This is why speed limits exist, why powerful cars are speed limited and why the cops get so snippy about leadfooted drivers.
2 You use less fuel. Again, it’s a matter of physics. The faster you go, the more energy is needed to get your car to that speed and to keep you there. And this energy comes from petrol or diesel, even in a hybrid vehicle such as the Toyota Prius. Slow down and you save money.
3 You put less stress on your car’s mechanics. Physics again – at higher speeds, more force is needed to alter the vehicle’s velocity – and the velocity changes when you change direction as well as when you slow down or speed up. Change the velocity aggressively or assertively, and this does increase the wear and tear on the tyres, the brake pads, the steering mechanism, etc.
4 When you’re in an unfamiliar place, you can find your way a bit more easily. It’s easy to miss landmarks and road signs – and that includes signs such as speed limits and arrows – when you’re going at a fair clip. How many times have you been barrelling along looking for a particular road only to miss your turning because by the time you had read the signpost and recognised the street name, you’d overshot?
5 To quote an old proverb, galloping horsemen see no flowers. If you are always in a hurry, you often miss some of the beautiful and interesting things around you. The truth of this old saw is often proved by people driving around Perth during June–November: take it slowly and you can appreciate the famous wildflowers; rush and they’re just a blur. And this doesn’t just apply to rural driving in the lusher parts of Western Australia – it also applies in downtown Sydney. If you take it at a more leisurely pace, you get a chance to notice things you wouldn’t otherwise – a small boutique or café, a quirky mural or an attractive/interesting looking person.
Sure, there are times when we have to make the most of the speed that our cars have on offer. And there are times when it’s fun to go faster (but within the speed limits!). But at times, it doesn’t hurt to slow down and enjoy the drive, as well as driving more safely and frugally.
Country Driving Tips: How To Drive Near Horses
Over the summer, a lot of us head out into the wide open spaces for a holiday. Country driving is a lot different from city driving, with the empty roads and higher speeds being just one of the things. Or should that be “mostly empty roads”? There are other drivers out there on the roads who are driving just as fast as you are, and there are other hazards that you just don’t get in town, and most of these hazards have four feet.
Horses are one such rural hazard and they are legitimate road users, so if you see a horse and rider on the tarmac ahead of you, you can’t get indignant and wonder why they aren’t off the road. As is the case for bicycles, you have to share the road with horses.
However, horses aren’t bicycles and it’s not just a case of overtaking them when you get close and making sure that you give them enough space to fall over safely. Bikes do not have brains; horses do. And a horse’s brain isn’t a human’s brain, so a horse on the road might not react the way a human would. You don’t want a horse coming through your windscreen. It won’t just be the horse and the rider that gets badly injured or killed: as a horse is very heavy (half a tonne for something the size of the average racehorse or stock horse), it could kill or injure you and the front passenger as well.
To drive safely near horses, it’s important to understand how a horse thinks. A horse is a herbivore whose main form of defence is to run like heck. This is often very dangerous for a rider, because of the risk of falling at high speed, as well as the risk of the horse colliding with something because it’s so focused on the scary thing behind it. Things that prey on horses in the wild make growly roaring noises and often take horses by surprise. It takes a fair bit of training to help a horse realise that that roaring thing isn’t actually a jaguar or a lion that can eat them – it’s just a V8 Jaguar or a Holden with a lion on the front. Most horses that are ridden out on the road have had this training, but drivers still have to do their bit, because the basic instincts are still there in that horsy brain.
The first thing you can do is to ease off the accelerator. This isn’t just so you can slow down enough to react in time if the horse suddenly swerves or something unpredictable happens. This stops your engine making that roaring noise that sounds like a predator. Don’t reapply the accelerator until you’re well past the horse.
Secondly, and most importantly, DON’T HONK YOUR HORN! This will hurry the horse up, all right, but in a way that could potentially kill. You want to avoid spooking the horses at all costs.
Horses can be startled by all sorts of things and they have different temperaments. If a horse is giving the rider trouble, it’s best if you can slow down to a crawl as you go past or even stop. The hand signal for “I am having trouble controlling my horse – please slow down” that can and should be given by the rider is the right arm held out (like the right-turning signal from a cyclist) and waved up and down. Of course, if the horse is being particularly difficult, the rider may need both hands on the reins. Use your eyes: if the horse is walking slowly with its head down and its ears pricked forwards or tilted to the side, it’s relaxed. If it has its head high and its ears back, it is agitated.
Share the road with horses – drive past slowly and considerately, and enjoy it as part of the sights to be seen in the countryside.
Nostalgia Time
Modern cars have come a long, long way from what they used to be. When I first was given the steering wheel (which was down our rather long driveway when I was about ten years old and we had a Mitsubishi Sigma Galant station wagon), thing like airbags, GPS and pyrotechnic seatbelts weren’t even dreamed of. And there certainly is no substitute for modern safety features – people can walk away from a serious crash with just a few bumps and scratches (and a rather bad case of the jitters, admittedly), whereas the same crash in an older car would have involved serious injury and possibly fatality. Dual-zone climate control means that there’s no more fights about “I’m too hot” and “I’m too cold”, and pollen filters make car trips more bearable for those who suffer from hay fever.
But there’s something to be said about older cars, and most drivers over a certain age (and a few under that age) get a bit wistful when they see an older car, and more than a few of us still own older vehicles. But just what is it about older vehicles that we like?
• Nostalgia: if you have a lot of happy memories associated with a certain make or model, you are likely to want to own one.
• Simplicity: Some drivers who have been on the road a long time find the multitude of gadgets and electronic bells and whistles in modern cars to be a bit overwhelming – or even unnecessary. Another aspect of simplicity that appeals to some car enthusiasts, especially those who like to do a bit of tinkering in the garage, is that older cars that don’t have everything done by electronics and electrics can have some repairs and tweaks done by a keen amateur – anyone with a good set of tools can replace a wind-up window, but you have to really know what you’re doing if you try to fix an automatic window.
• Fun: This is one that appeals to passengers rather than drivers, but older vehicles (especially utes and four wheel drives) tended to have ghastly suspension but bouncy springs. The seats weren’t very adjustable and they certainly didn’t have any lumbar support other than a pillow, but they were like a trampoline when you went over a speed hump.
• Charm: The original Mini Cooper was drawn by hand. Later, cars tended to be designed by computers, taking aerodynamics into account. Most modern vehicles do have aesthetics applied to them by a real human, but very few capture the bug-eyed cuteness of the VW Beetle, the Mini or the Fiat 500, which is why new versions of these have been release that combine the best of the old with the best of the new.
Drivers can have other reasons for owning an older vehicle. Some people are holding onto one because they believe that it will become a classic one day: after all, the Model T Ford was once as common as muck, but is now a rare and coveted vehicle. Others stay with an older vehicle because they don’t give a damn about fashion and status, and can’t be bothered upgrading. To each their own!
Driving Resolutions For 2012
It’s not quite New Year yet, but before the party mood takes all of us over and we all spend a bit of time away from the computer or go away on holiday and actually do some driving instead of just thinking about and reading about driving, here’s ten New Year resolutions for drivers and car owners.
1. I will keep to the speed limit, in and out of the city. This will make sure that I won’t get any speeding tickets and it will also make sure that my petrol bill is a bit lower – the faster you go, the more fuel the car burns.
2. I will keep the fluids topped up – and that means the car as well as me. Brake fluid, window wiper fluid, oil for the engine and the transmission, water in the radiator – they all need topping up to make sure that the car runs without any hitches.
3. I will clean the car out properly. Sure, my big seven-seater Mazda has plenty of room for stowing all sorts of bits and pieces when I’m not taking six other people, but all those things create excess weight, which does contribute to more fuel burn. And having a messy car’s not a good look. It’ll probably be a chance to find all those odd sweatshirts and biros that keep getting left in the car. And while I’m at it, I’ll vacuum all the dog hair off the seats and the crumbs from off the floor.
4. I will check the maintenance history for my car to make sure that the belts don’t need changing this year. If they do need changing, then I’ll get this done BEFORE I head away on holiday. If you don’t have a maintenance history for your car, it’s easy to start one. All you need is a folder (or a large pizza box – they fit quite a lot of A4 paper) of some sort to put the receipts, etc. for any work done on your vehicle.
5. I will stop idling the engine unnecessarily. OK, a bit of idling is needed when I’m waiting at an intersection, but I will turn the engine off when I’m waiting for the kids to put shoes on, etc. before we go out. Sure, it hurries them up a bit, but it does waste petrol. Honking the horn instead should do the trick.
6. I will rotate the tyres the way I’m supposed to. Even if I only get this done on January 2nd and don’t do it again for the rest of the year, it’s still better than nothing and will make sure that the tyres wear more evenly. While I’m at it, I’ll check that the spare tyre still has a legal amount of tread and what’s sitting in there isn’t hopelessly worn.
7. I will check the tyre pressure regularly – fortnightly would be good. And if I’m towing anything, I’ll make sure that I adjust the pressure appropriately.
8. I will take the vehicle out and use the 4×4 the way it’s made to. If you’ve got AWD or 4×4 capacity on your vehicle, it pays to use it now and again so the mechanism doesn’t seize up from disuse. And who says that all New Year resolutions shouldn’t be fun?
9. I will review how I use my vehicle. It’s a big, thirsty beast, so if I can walk or bike for a short trip (the experts say 2 km trips should be walked and 5 km trips should be biked), I will. The exception is the weekly trip to the supermarket, as it’s a bit hard to carry the groceries to feed a family for a week home when you’re walking (the supermarket’s less than 2 km away) without pinching a shopping trolley.
10. I will learn how to do a few more things for vehicle maintenance myself rather than just going down to the local garage and looking like a dumb blonde. I should be able to change the oil and change the air filter myself without any bother.
Happy Christmas and have a great motoring year in 2012.
Level 2, 9 Help Street