Are good habits contagious?

Are you seeing more cars these days parked with their windshield wipers sitting 'up' in the 'clean the windshield' position?

(Assuming the cars' wipers can in fact be extended that far up, and will stay there - we seem to have some car designers or wiper engineers who've never used a squeegee to clean a windshield. Lots of wipers these days can only be lifted a few cm off the glass, making cleaning the windshield a real pain.)

Maybe it's mere anecdotal evidence, but it seems to me I'm seeing more of this recently.

The point of doing this of course is that if it snows or - worse still - if there's freezing rain, your wiper blades don't stick to the windshield.

I mention the 'contagious' issue because on two or three occasions in different parking lots in different parts of the city, I've noticed clusters of several cars parked near each other doing this.

Are people learning from each other?

Reminds me of Russia some years ago - just about every car you'd see parked on the street had no wiper blades at all. Turns out - at that time, anyway - rubber was so valuable that the half-life of an unprotected wiper blade was about ten minutes, so cagey drivers would remove the blades and lock them in the glove box.

Which reminds me yet again of an old Russian car joke:

Dimitri says, "Comrade Ivan - I got a new pair of wiper blades for my Lada!"

Replies Ivan, "Comrade Dimitri - good trade!"

I digress...

Back to learning from others:

It's the same with backing in to parking spots, easily the safest way to do it (unless an even safer 'drive-through' spot is available). That too seems to have a bit of a 'pack mentality' to it, although I know some companies teach their employees to do this (General Motors used to; don't know if it still does).

I once complimented the Hugo Boss company for enforcing this procedure, only to find out subsequently that the motivation wasn't primarily safety, but to ensure that employees' windshield-mounted parking permits were easily visible - and yes, violators would be towed.

Hey - I'll accept the right result even if it's for the wrong reasons.

Now, if we could only get 'the pack' to correct its collective behaviour for my two major (and yes, on-going) pet peeves:

- Drive Right, Pass Left. This means YOU;

and,

- TURN ON YOUR FRICKIN' HEADLIGHTS, preferably all the time, but at the very least when it's cloudy, foggy, raining, snowing - any time really when visibility is compromised, and other drivers need to see your taillights as well as your front DRLs.

Like, well, at night?...

Comments

[sjk]

Can we add "signal your impending turns and lane changes" to this list as well?

[Gord Irish]

I like the law in New York state - wipers on, lights on. Lights on all the time would be better but it's a start.
Given all the other nanny controls we have in cars today, maybe they could wire the lights to the wiper switch...

[Jim Kenzie]

Hi Gord:

Not a bad idea. It would also help if (in increasing order of cost and difficulty to implement) the law required car makers to not allow instrument lighting to be on when DRL is on, and required DRL to illuminate the rear lights too.

Jim Kenzie

[Kyle Tate]

Hey Jim,

While I agree with you on most things automotive, I can't say that I agree with the wiper lifting. My reasoning is that when you leave your wipers up like that, the spring is extended, and will weaken over time. This will cause insufficient pressure to be applied to the blades, resulting in a streaky windshield. Just my two cents. Keep preaching about proper speed limits and lane discipline though, hopefully the cityots will hear you one day!

-Kyle

[Richard]

Why doesn't Transport Canada just implement a new vehicle regulation - headlights/tail lights always on, starting with model year XXXX. If the government can make skid control systems mandatory (good idea) and TPMS mandatory (sort of a good idea, but not really), why can't they do something similar with lighting systems.

At the same time, they could make it so rear turn signals should always have to be amber.

I guess since I'm fantasizing here, maybe they could also stop taxing used car sales, since they already collected the tax the first time the vehicle was sold...??

[Jim Kenzie]

Hi Richard:

If you run for parliament, you've got MY vote...

Jim Kenzie

[Rev. Ted McCollum]

I totally agree with you on the headlights on all of time. I have a 2007 Rondo, and the headlights are always on. They have made it easy, as they are on when the car is turned on, and off when the key is out of the transmission. The only problem is that my mechanic does not realize they can just leave them on without the battery going dead. I wish all manufacturers had this feature. It would make our roads much safer.

[Leaf]

With regards to backing in to parking spots, the mine site where I work has just recently made it a policy to back in. This is especially important for safety, as there are no cars here, only trucks.

I enjoy the "monkey see monkey do" aspects in parking lots. I find there are more than a few times that I will back in to a spot at a store, and when I come back to the lot there are many more cars backed in than when I entered. I like to think that I have positively influenced other drivers a little.

[Jim Kenzie]

Hi 'Leaf':

Good on you!

My favourite reason for backing in to parking spaces was given by the chap who runs a geothermal station in Iceland.

"If this all blows up," he said approximately, "we want to get outta here as fast as we can!"

Cheers,

Jim Kenzie