Monthly Archives: July 2013

Jul 30 2013

No Car? No Insurance? No Problem.

Rent a Ride by the Minute

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Not everyone has the means to maintain a vehicle, or want one for that matter…but that doesn’t stop the fact that you need to get around, whether it be for work, school, or anything else that requires wheels. If you are like the countless many who fall into this category, only needing a vehicle on occasion, then you may want to check out Car2go, a new service being introduced in Denver that lets people rent a ride by the minute.

According to ‘4 On Your Side Money Saver’ Suzanne McCarroll, “one of the fun features of this smart car is that it recognizes you and your card key, so when you get in it, it says, ‘Hello, (insert your name here).’ Nicholas Cole with Car2go explains, “You simply walk up to an existing vehicle, hold the membership card to the scanner, it will process the card. For 38 cents per minute, drivers are good to go. For those who only need to do a quick errand, they’re out only a few dollars. Members don’t pay for gas or car insurance and they don’t even have to pay for parking meters in Denver.”

All you have to do is locate where the cars are parked around the city with the Car2go Smartphone app. You don’t even have to drop off the car where you picked it up from. It really is that simple!

Jul 23 2013

The Up Side to Traffic Tickets

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Nobody wants to be on the receiving end of a traffic ticket. Not only are they expensive, but one ticket alone could significantly increase your insurance premium. But as much as you may gripe about it, on the positive side, a traffic ticket could very well be what saves your life!

According to a study published in a British medical journal, a driver’s risk of being involved in a fatal accident fell by 35% the month after receiving a ticket for a moving violation. Drivers who were caught by automatic speed-enforcement cameras claimed the biggest reduction in risk.

Additionally, the study concluded that when the number of traffic tickets was down, the number of fatal accidents were up the following month. But, when the number of traffic tickets issued increased, the number of fatal accidents went down.

One Ohio teenager credits a traffic citation with saving her life. Eighteen-year-old Taylor Newland started wearing her seatbelt after she received a ticket just one week before she crashed her SUV. Initially, Newland was pulled over for speeding, but because she wasn’t wearing a seatbelt, was then issued a ticket for not buckling up. “That $30 seatbelt ticket saved my life. And honestly, if I didn’t get pulled over that day, I don’t know if I’d be here,” proclaimed Newland. I guess now many of you might rethink the purpose of a traffic ticket.

Jul 9 2013

High & Mighty High Beam

No time to read a long-winded BLOnG? Welcome to the Three-Second-Stop mini-Blog.

Today’s Three Seconds: High Beams

high_beam3 Second Stop

Unfortunately, a good majority of accidents occur at night, so understanding when to use your high beams is very important.  If you happen to be on a divided highway and the cars that are traveling in the opposite direction are more than 500 feet away, you are in the clear to use your high beams.

Now you know.

Jul 2 2013

Deceleration Detected

Brake Lights That Warn Other Drivers Of Traffic?

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This sounds like a great idea, right? I mean, wouldn’t it improve safety issues and lessen the amount of accidents all around the world? Well, Ford thinks so.

Ford has developed an experimental brake light that lets the vehicles behind you know when there’s slow traffic ahead, even if they can’t see your lights.

So how exactly does it work? Well, included in the brake light system is a wireless transmitter that sends a special signal to vehicles that are behind you which then activates a light on their dashboard letting them know that there is some slow traffic ahead, with the intent that they will slow down or take an alternate route if possible.

The feature gives drivers more than enough time to slow down instead of having to unexpectedly slam on the brakes because of bad weather, poor road conditions, or any other circumstances that might cause you or the vehicles behind you to be stuck in traffic; and who wants that?

Although Ford hasn’t officially announced if or when it plans to add the enhanced brake light system into their upcoming models, it is still a giant leap towards vehicle-to-vehicle communications. Sounds like they’re moving in the right direction with this one.