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AAA Auto Repair ArticleBy AAA Automotive

Want to know if you really need to warm up the car engine before driving, even during the cold winter months? AAA provides auto care tips that help you keep your vehicle running smoothly every season of the year.

Myth: To improve performance, particularly in cold weather, allow the engine to run for a few minutes before driving.

Fact: Start the engine and allow it to idle only for the time it takes you to fasten your seat belt. This ensures that lubricating oil gets to all of the engine’s vital parts. Driving the car normally and avoiding hard acceleration brings the engine to a warmer temperature faster, and also reduces wear and exhaust emissions. Naturally, a little longer idle time is ok in winter while you clear snow and ice from the windshield and other car parts.

Driving is not without its risks as any driver is well aware. However, these risks can be minimized with attention to safety. Whenever and wherever you drive, it’s important to keep these top safety tips in mind so you can contribute to safer roadways for you and other drivers. By practicing defensive driving and following these tips at all times, you can reduce the risk of collision and enhance your safety as well as the safety of your car’s occupants.

#1: Don’t Drink & Drive

While many countries have stringent laws regarding drunk driving, people still routinely drink and drive. Not only does this practice compromise their own safety, it drastically compromises the safety of other drivers or pedestrians on the road. Moreover, drunk drivers have been known to run off the roads where they have struck homes and other buildings. As most people know, many innocent victims have lost their lives to drunk drivers. Drinking substantially impairs a driver’s ability to operate a vehicle. Therefore, it’s vital that drivers refrain from drinking if they plan to drive.https://www.youtube.com/embed/WrcK_hefeYc?feature=oembed

#2: Don’t Drive If You Are Sleepy

Experts have asserted that driving while sleep-deprived can be just as dangerous as driving drunk. According to statistics, roughly twenty percent of accidents list sleep deprivation as a factor. In fact, driving just a bit drowsy can increase your risk for an accident. Driving tired means you are less likely to respond optimally while on the road. Any delay in response while driving can lead to a serious driving consequence. Be sure to avoid driving drowsy and don’t drive if you are taking medications that list drowsiness as a side effect.https://www.youtube.com/embed/EQNvn3CTaig?feature=oembed

#3: Don’t Talk on Cell Phones or Text

Cell phone use is an increasing factor in traffic collisions and related fatalities. In fact, the increase is leading many states to adopt new legislation and harsher penalties regarding cell phone use while driving. As of 2021, in most cities and states, driving and holding a cell phone are prohibited. Hands-free cell phones use may be legal (not everywhere), but drivers should remember that any distraction that takes their mind from the road and the operation of their vehicle is unsafe. Therefore, it’s essential to minimize all distractions while driving. Texting, of course, is incredibly dangerous as it requires drivers to remove their eyes from the road.https://www.youtube.com/embed/VLVUR9Lesa4?feature=oembed

#4: Don’t Speed

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, speeding is a major contributor to roadway collisions. Moreover, each subsequent increase in mileage per hour increases the risk of collision. Driving experts have also counseled that raising your speed is only likely to reduce your drive time by mere minutes; however, it can increase the risk of crashing by more than fifty percent. Therefore, whether you are driving near or far, it makes safety sense to keep to the speed limit.https://www.youtube.com/embed/WDQNegdB4Pw?feature=oembed

#5: Don’t Forget to Wear Your Seat Belt

When drivers and occupants wear seat belts, they substantially increase the likelihood of surviving a car accident. Since no one ever sets out expecting to be in a car accident, it’s all the more important to wear a seat belt every time you ride in a car. Seat belts do save lives. In fact, more than half of the people who died in a car crash were not wearing their seat belts. Even if you are only driving a block or two away, wear your seat belt and make sure that everyone else in the vehicle buckles up before you pull away. Even driving at a slow rate is dangerous if an accident should occur. Hitting the windshield or steering wheel, for instance, can still result in a perilous injury if you are driving slowly when you collide. A seat belt increases the likelihood that you will survive.https://www.youtube.com/embed/s6JVJZAXp3A?feature=oembed

#6: Drive Carefully in Inclement Weather

We’ve all seen drivers plow through snow and rain as if it’s a sunny day in May. Don’t be this type of driver. No matter what type of vehicle you own, you need to slow down and be extra careful when driving in inclement weather. Even if you feel that your four-wheel drive, for instance, is perfectly reliable in snow, other people can still slip and slide. If you are driving slowly and carefully, you will be more apt to react optimally if another driver loses control of their vehicle. Fog, rain, snow, and even wind require drivers to be extra mindful. If possible, it’s often ideal to forgo driving in bad weather.https://www.youtube.com/embed/3GEgB-xui0M?feature=oembed

#7: Maintain Your Vehicle

Part of driving safely means driving a safe vehicle. Be sure that your brakes and tires, for instance, are in prime condition. Neglecting these important car features can compromise the safety of your vehicle substantially. Have your vehicle serviced as soon as problems arise to ensure your safety.https://www.youtube.com/embed/Y3jcQCdeJAs?feature=oembed

Follow these important tips in order to decrease the likelihood of experiencing a car accident. You’ll enhance your safety and the safety of others.

An air cabin filter is an important component in any vehicle’s heating and cooling system. It helps protect the passengers from contaminants in the air they breathe.

CARANDDRIVER.COMAir Cabin Filter: Everything You Need To KnowAn air cabin filter is an important component in any vehicle’s heating

Driving can be very stressful, particularly if you are stuck in heavy traffic or are an inexperienced driver, and this stress will eventually take its toll on the heart. However, researchers now confirm that there is a simple fix for this problem: listening to the right music while driving.

Past research has shown that experiencing frequent psychological stress can be a significant risk factor for cardiovascular disease, a condition that affects almost half of those aged 20 years and older in the United States.

One source of frequent stress is driving, either due to the stressors associated with heavy traffic or the anxiety that often accompanies inexperienced drivers.

Does this mean, though, that people who drive on a daily basis are set to develop heart problems, or is there a simple way of easing the stress of driving?

According to a new study by researchers from São Paulo State University in Marília, Brazil, Oxford Brookes University in the United Kingdom, and the University of Parma in Italy, there is.

In a study paper that features in the journal Complementary Therapies in Medicine, the researchers report the encouraging results of a study involving inexperienced drivers, noting that listening to music while driving helps relieve the stress that affects heart health.

“We found that cardiac stress in the participants in our experiment was reduced by listening to music while they were driving,” says principal investigator Prof. Vitor Engrácia Valenti.

Music may lower cardiovascular stress

For their study, the researchers recruited five female volunteers between the ages of 18 and 23 years who were in good health, were not habitual drivers — they drove no more than twice a week — and had received their driver’s license 1–7 years before the start of the study.

“We opted to assess women who were not habitual drivers because people who drive frequently and have had a license for a long time are better adapted to stressful situations in traffic,” explains Prof. Valenti.

The researchers asked the volunteers to take part in two different experiments. On one day, the participants had to drive for 20 minutes during rush hour on a 3 kilometer route in one of the busiest parts of the city of Marília. On this day, the participants did not play any music in the car as they were driving.

On another day, the volunteers had to go through the same motions, with one exception: This time, they listened to instrumental music while driving.

In both instances, the participants drove cars that were not their own. This measure was necessary, the investigators explain, to make sure that there was no reduction in stress due to the volunteers being familiar with the cars.

“To increase the degree of traffic stress, we asked them to drive a car they did not own. Driving their own car might help,” says Prof. Valenti.

To measure the effect of stress on the heart in each experimental condition, the investigators asked the participants to wear heart rate monitors able to record heart rate variability in real time.

The activity of two key systems — the sympathetic nervous system and the parasympathetic nervous system — influences heart rate variability. The sympathetic nervous system is responsible for regulating the flight or flight response, which is the automatic bodily reaction to stressful, anxiety-inducing situations. Meanwhile, the parasympathetic nervous system is responsible for “rest and digest” processes.

“Elevated sympathetic nervous system activity reduces heart rate variability, whereas more intense parasympathetic nervous system activity increases it,” explains the lead investigator.

The researchers then analyzed the measurements that they had collected through the heart rate monitors on the two occasions. They found that when the participants had listened to music while driving under stressful conditions, they had higher heart rate variability than when they had driven under stressful conditions without any music.

“Listening to music attenuated the moderate stress overload the volunteers experienced as they drove,” says Prof. Valenti.

To readers who may be wondering why the researchers turned specifically to female participants in their study, the lead investigators explain that, at this stage, they wanted to be able to rule out the potential influence of sex-specific hormones.

“If men, as well as women, had participated, and we had found a significant difference between the two groups, female sex hormones might have been considered responsible,” notes Prof. Valenti.

The results of the small-scale experiments, the researchers argue, suggest that listening to relaxing music could, indeed, be an easy way of preventing stress levels from escalating and affecting the heart when someone finds themselves stuck in traffic.

It starts with Hot Wheels and garbage trucks and blossoms into something more. Brett Berk dives into the psychology of why you never stopped loving automobiles.

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