We all can improve our driving conduct
In normal use and without a heavy accident, majority of car parts can last long. PHOTO | FOTOSEARCH
What you need to know:
- The so called “normal” wear can be halved by skilful and gentle driving, and more than doubled by clumsy or harsh use or neglect or incompetent maintenance.
- There’s a similar margin between motoring in flowing traffic and the stop-start of congestion.
- And again as much difference between use on smooth tarmac versus roads with potholes, rocky surfaces and log-shaped speed bumps.
All cars are made up of several thousand different components.
But in normal use and without a heavy accident, the majority of these should not need to be repaired nor replaced during the design-life of the vehicle — at least 15 years and potentially several decades; especially if the vehicle is regularly and competently serviced, and not subjected to severe use or abuse.
There are only a few dozen components which owners should “expect” to replace several times during a vehicle’s life. Principle among these are things like routine service parts (lubricants and filters) and tyres, brake pads, rubber bushes and seals, batteries and wiper blades, and to a less extent, components like exhaust pipes, ball-joints, shock-absorbers and clutches. While wear and periodic replacement of these is inevitable, the rate of wear is not.
The so called “normal” wear can be halved by skilful and gentle driving, and more than doubled by clumsy or harsh use or neglect or incompetent maintenance. A fourfold difference. There’s a similar margin between motoring in flowing traffic and the stop-start of congestion. And again as much difference between use on smooth tarmac versus roads with potholes, rocky surfaces and log-shaped speed bumps.
Driving skill and the good condition of a car can to some extent ameliorate the consequences of clog-ups, juddering surfaces and tank-trap bumps, but it cannot completely negate them. Be in no doubt that coarse driving, congestion, broken tarmac, rocky roads and speed bumps can (and currently do) at least double the cost of road transport to the individual vehicle owner and the national economy. Hundreds of billions of shillings are being wasted by these factors, not just in wear and mechanical damage, but also the consequent loss of productive man-hours of every road user.
No doubt our road transport planners and managers are well aware of these equations, and are setting their investment and action priorities accordingly.
While motorists are surely hoping that is the case, and seeing plenty of examples of where it is (and where it is not), vehicle owners do not make or control those decisions. Nor the quality of driver tuition. Nor taxes to incentivise quality parts and deter shoddy products.
But in the meantime, they can do a lot more than wait-and-see and pray … and pay. What every motorist does have control over is his/her own conduct — in vehicle choice, in vehicle use, in vehicle care, in developing driving skills, and in doing what is possible to help the flow instead of obstructing it.
Here’s the point to ponder: which is going to be more useful — finding fault and placing blame for things we cannot change, or making a personal effort to improve what we can control? Our own conduct.
