Month: February 2015

Cheaper Gas Means More Car Crashes

While declining gas prices may help you save money at the pump, it also may increase your risk of being involved in an auto accident.

Guangqing Chi, an associate professor of sociology at South Dakota State University, said the likelihood of being involved in a car crash when gas prices drops is also impacted by your age. Chi led a multi-institutional team of researchers through an analysis of crash data from three states – Alabama, Minnesota and Mississippi – to determine how gas prices impact crash data. Researchers looked at monthly crash data in Alabama from 1999 to 2009, in Minnesota from 1998 to 2007 and in Mississippi from 2004 to 2012. For data compilation, researchers tracked:

  • Traffic fatalities
  • Traffic injuries
  • Car damage only accidents
  • Average price per gallon of gas

Gas Prices MN

When looking at the Minnesota data, 0.6 percent of crashes involved a fatality, 31 percent involved an injury and about 68 percent only involved property damage. After the total number of crashes were crossed with average gas price, researchers uncovered that a 20-cent drop in gas prices correlates to 15 more traffic fatalities per year. That said, the number of fatal accidents don’t jump overnight. According to Chi, the increase in crashes becomes evident after about nine months.

“It takes time for people to adjust their driving,” said Chi.

However, teens take a lot less time to adjust their driving habits based on gas prices.

“If gas drops 40 cents today, you will see the number of crashes for these drivers go up within a week,” added Chi.

Chi said that where a person is financially affects how often they drive, so when gas prices drop, teens and young adults can afford to drive more. As we add more cars to the commute, our likelihood for being involved in an accident increases. Conversely, when gas prices are higher, teens drive less, taking a good chunk of cars and a demographic at high risk to be involved in a car accident off the roads. Chi also believes that as gas prices increase, people drive less recklessly.

“[When price per gallon increases] we suspect that people drive more carefully,” Chi said.

Interestingly, a drop in gas prices didn’t have much impact on drivers between the ages of 25 and 34. Chi believes that people in this age range are typically in the first years of their careers and are in the early stages of family planning, so they are sticking to their commute patterns regardless of a dip or rise in gas prices.

“It’s a matter of priorities in life,” said Chi of people in this age range.

Related source: Star Tribune

Should Car Repair Shops Root For Visiting NFL Teams?

Although the NFL season is behind us, new data suggests that auto body shops may want to root for visiting teams next year, as it could boost business.

According to data from the Highway Loss Data Institute, auto repair shops see an uptick in calls in the days after a home NFL team loses. The data suggests that accident claim rates among insured cars near the losing team’s stadium increase nearly 10 percent when the home team falters.

NFL Car Crashes

To determine how NFL scores impact collision data, researchers examined accident claims for ZIP codes in which the 31 NFL stadiums are located, as well as adjacent ZIP codes. Interestingly, researchers weren’t looking at the location of the crash. Instead, they tracked the ZIP code in which the vehicle was garaged or stored. After looking at the data, researchers uncovered:

  • On the days when the home team won, collision claims were 3.2 percent higher than on days without a home game.
  • On days when the home team tied or lost, the claim rate was 9.4 percent higher than on days without a home game.
  • Only the increase in claim rates after a tie or loss were statistically significant.

Although the data doesn’t examine where the vehicle was located at the time of the accident, researchers postulate that the higher traffic volumes associated with home games is likely connected with the higher claim rates. Additionally, a loss could lead a driver to make poor decisions behind the wheel or to drive erratically out of frustration.

Researchers said the crash data was more statistically significant in some cities than in others.

“The game day effect was much more pronounced at some stadiums than at others,” says HLDI Vice President Matt Moore. “This may point to differences in policing and traffic management strategies, which could present opportunities for improvement.”

Despite the findings, we’ll continue to cheer for the Vikings! Just be sure you drive with caution in the hours after a loss next year.

Related sources: Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, AutoBlog

Why Wheel Balancing is Important

Wheel balancing is just another great service we provide at Affordable Auto Service. Wheel balancing is important because it keeps your tires, bearings and suspension system in order.

See, when a wheel is set onto the axle with a new tire, it needs to have its weight evenly distributed around the axle. Our wheel balance can measure exactly how the weight is distributed and can determine where any offsetting weights need to be placed.

Problems With Uneven Wheels

Significant problems can develop over time even if your wheels are only slightly out of balance, including:

  • Uneven pressure on your tires, which wears them out quicker and can leave you susceptible to blowout.
  • Increased wear and tear on your wheel bearings.
  • Extra stress on your car’s suspension, which can lead to a bumpier ride.

Wheel Balancing

The problem with imbalanced wheels is that they can be tough to detect. If your wheels are significantly out of balance, you’ll likely notice that your car seems to vibrate at faster speeds. If you believe there’s something wrong with your wheel balance, you’ll want to get it serviced immediately, which brings us to our next point.

When To Check Your Wheel Balance

Similar to oil changes, wheel balancing is something you should check on a regular basis. As we mentioned in a previous post, you’ll want to get in the habit of rotating your tires, and as a result, balancing your wheels, every other time you take your car in for an oil change, Typically you change your oil every 5,000 to 7,000 miles, so try to have your wheels balanced every 10,000 miles.

How to Keep Your Car Safe From Damaging Road Salt

Minnesotans wouldn’t be able to drive in the winter without road salt, but it’s not a perfect solution. Salt lowers water’s freezing point, keeping icy patches off the road, but the salty mixture also causes corrosion to your vehicle. Today, we’ve compiled a couple of tips to help ensure your car’s undercarriage remains corrosion free. But first, let’s look at why road salt breaks down your vehicle.

Damaging Salt

Salt damages your car’s undercarriage through an electrochemical reaction between iron and oxygen. Iron is compromised of excess electrons, while oxygen is always looking to take on extra electrons. When they combine, corrosion is inevitable.

Enter water and salt. Water helps speed up the chemical reaction by bringing more oxygen and carbon dioxide to the so called corrosion party. The problem is that water alone doesn’t speed up the process all that much. Pure water without many ions doesn’t function well as an electrolyte . When salt is added to the mix, the free floating ions in its composition add a lot of ions to the equation. These excess ions rapidly increase the corrosive reaction.

Carbon dioxide in the watery mix combines with the iron on your vehicle’s undercarriage to create iron hydroxide, a form of rust that separates itself from the original metal base. This process will continue until the corrosion is removed and the open metal is sealed with an anti-corrosive product. So let’s discuss how to protect your car from these destructive road salts.

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Prevention

Although winter is already in full swing, you can still prep your car to prevent any future corrosion. Typically this is preformed in late autumn, but if the weather warms up, consider these steps.

  • Completely wash your vehicle, removing any dirt and grime.
  • Apply a coat of wax and wax sealant. These can be found at local automotive centers.
  • Pay specific attention to your vehicle’s undercarriage, especially the brake line and fuel line. Spray these with an anti-corrosion product.

Treatment

If you didn’t have time to prep your car for winter, you can still take some steps to stop road salt from corroding your vehicle. Some tips to consider include:

  • Regular washes. On particularly wet winter days, take your car to the car wash and give it a thorough cleaning.
  • Regardless of whether or not you prepped your car, you’ll want to give your car a mid-winter seal. On a particularly warm winter day, wash your car, wax it and spray the brake lines with an anti-corrosive agent.
  • Thoroughly dry your car, this will completely remove any road salt and prevent doors and windows from freezing.

Related source: Hemmings Daily