transport: cars

I believed my mom controlled the speed of our car by how much she moved the steering wheel. Not much movement = Fast. Lots of movement = Slow. I was terribly disappointed when I shared this finding with her and she told me about the gas pedal.

When I was little my dad never used the blinker in the car when and it drove my mom crazy. When I asked him why he didn't use the blinker, he said that each car came with a pre-set number of "blinks" and he didn't want to run out. Years later, my mom and I were driving my dad's car and I told her to use as many "blinks" as she wanted because dad had been saving up... my mom finally set me straight.

When told that "everybody drives on the left side of the road" I wondered why. Wouldn't the cars hit each other if they all drove on the same side? And what was the right side used for?

When I was little my dad had a corvette and he glued a switch below the radio that said turbo on it. Whenever he said it was OK I'd flip the switch and he'd floor it. I always turned it off soon after so we didn't crash. I also made sure to keep my hands away from it so I didn't cause an accident by using it at the wrong time.

I used to think that people who were speeding past a speed camera would have to cover their faces with their hands so the speed camera would not recognise them.

my first boyfriend tld me that the VW Beetle only had two pedals - the clutch pedal and the accelerator/brake pedal that you had to kick from side-to-side in order to use each function.

I used to believe that the motorway had a special device underneath it that made cars go faster. Now that I think about it, the device was clockwork and had many flashing red lights.

We had a Station Wagon with an automatic back window. There was a small lever near the steering wheel that operated it. My mom had me convinced that if I pushed the button the car would fly. I was too terrified to ever touch the button.

I used to believe that if you didn't fasten your seatbelt while in a car, the car would also crash. Also, that if you were in a carpark and didn't hold the hand of an adult, the police would come and arrest you.

I used to think that the car stayed still and the earth turned under it. Obviously the car bounced and rocked because turning the earth was such hard work... that's also why there was a whole line of cars on the road, because one would not be strong enough. I thought the line of cars going the other way was there to stop the days getting longer or shorter due to everybody driving and speeding the earth up.

my Dad told me that a car could run on air for 10 miles because it had gremlins in the engine to keep it going - I belived until I ran out of petrol and the car didn't carry on - at all.

I use to beleive that Motorways had special tarmac on the road that made the wheels go faster

I used to believe that the handles that help people in and out of cars were actually "pregnancy handles" for women who were in labor to clutch during their ride to the hospital.

When I was little, I overheard someone saying that their car had an air bag so it would be dangerous for little kids to sit in the front. I ran to the person's car and saw a plastic bag full of air inside it. For a few months after that I was scared of plastic bags!

When i was younger, I am now a modest 22, i was told that the lines on the rear window of a car where there so you could judge the gradient of the hill you were driving up, how? Who's knows, but it seemed like a rational explanation, so i believed it, and when someone asked me what they were i would share my wordly knowledge, thinking i was dead smart and i did this until i was 18!!!!!!! It was only when i bought my own car and when i tried to be a big head on cars in the garage i was corrected by the salesmen and told there were actually to heat up the back window - ummmmmm!

I used to believe it was the road and the ground and the trees and the houses that moved, not the car...

i thought my nanny was awesome - she could move the whole world under the car...