screeeeeeeech.

Last night I spent a considerable amount of time (more than is healthy) watching cars slide through stop signs out of my window. I even opened my window at one point, wanting to get the full sensory experience of near accidents. You could tell when a car’s ABS system activated, as it makes this sort of crunching noise. However, I’d like to remind people that just because you have these fancy anti-locking brakes, it means absolutely nothing on ice. Let’s explain.

First of all, ABS is meant to provide directional braking. Let’s say you suddenly have an object in front of you. With ABS, the pulsating braking helps your car not slide sideways, possibly letting you drive around the object without loosing too much control. But the common myth is that it helps you stop sooner, which is absolutely false. In fact, studies have been done that show ABS increases stopping time by as much as 25%. This is usually fine, as keeping control of the car is usually more important than trying to stop and failing.

So the lesson, kids, is that ABS is no good on ice. The extra friction created by locked wheels (non-ABS) in a mixture of snow and ice will usually stop you faster.

January 29, 2004

Posted in cogitations.