4 Tips For Holiday Travel With Children

The highways will be crowded this holiday season with drivers making their way to holiday feasts, shopping malls and family visits. If you're planning a trip with children, here are four tips to make the drive safe and enjoyable:
1. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration recommends children sit in the back seat and be buckled-up properly.
Infants (under 20 lbs.) should ride in rear-facing convertible seats with harness straps at or below shoulder level.
Toddlers (20-40 lbs.) should ride in forward-facing convertible seats with harness straps at or above shoulders.
Young children (more than 40 lbs.) should ride in a forward-facing booster seat with the lap belt fitting across the upper thighs and shoulder belt snug across the chest.
2. One of the best ways to keep your family safe is to stay awake during your trip. The National Sleep Foundation and the AAA Foundation recommend the following:
Get a good night's sleep before your trip — 7-9 hours for adults and 8 ½-9 ½ hours for teens
Make sure a passenger is awake to talk to the driver.
Avoid medications that can impair performance.
Recognize signs of fatigue: lane drifting, hitting rumble strips, repeated yawning, tailgating, difficulty focusing.
Schedule stops every two hours or 100 miles.
3. Bring along toys, books and video games to keep the kids busy. If you're planning a long drive, be prepared for frequent bathroom and food stops.
4. If your child gets car sick, check with your doctor about possible medications to bring on the trip. To minimize the risk of carsickness, try driving at a constant speed, cracking a window, and feeding light snacks along the way to prevent the need for a heavy meal.

Visit Jiffy Lube for a Thanksgiving SSOC!

If you are planning to leave town--and statistics show Americans are hitting the roads this season in droves--make sure your car is safe.  Just in time for the holiday, Jiffy Lube is offering a discounts across the country to receive the legendary Jiffy Lube Signature Service Oil Change (SSOC).  If you need more motivation, just consider that this should be the last time a healthy vehicle will need an oil change this year, and a good SSOC will take you through all the holidays, including New Years. 
Jiffy Lube International and all it's franchisees wish their customers the very best, and safest, of Thanksgivings. 

For coupons by region, visit www.jiffylubediscounts.com.  

Great blog find: Motherproof.com!

When out meandering through the web, we discovered this neat little blog that weaves the inexplicably bonded themes of motherhood and driving (i/e cab driving for the toddler set).
Follow the link to learn more:
http://www.motherproof.com/news-rants/story/nhtsa-to-crash-test-lots-of-family-cars-for-2012

NHTSA to Crash-Test Lots of Family Cars for 2012

OCT 26 2011 BY KRISTIN VARELA

What are your top priorities when it comes to shopping for a new car for your family? If you’re like me, safety definitely makes the list. One of the first things you can do when shopping for a car is to check out the car’s crash-test results. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration will be rating 74 vehicles for the 2012 model year.

NHTSA will be testing 22 sports utility vehicles including some that we tested at our recent$37,000 SUV Shootout — the Dodge Durango, Ford Explorer, Honda Pilot and Kia Sorento, two family friendly minivans — the Chrysler Town & Country and Toyota Sienna — and a whole slew of passenger cars like the all-new Toyota Prius V that would be a great fit for smaller families.

NHTSA’s testing process underwent an overhaul last year. The new, more strenuous crash-test process results in a single safety rating for each car, making it easier for car shoppers to understand.

“Our five-star ratings program is a critical resource to help consumers make the best possible decisions about the cars they want to buy,” said Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. “By revamping the tests and creating a more rigorous program last year, we raised the bar on safety for all vehicle manufacturers. People should remember: More stars, safer cars.”

Before you buy your next car, be sure and check the vehicle’s crash-test ratings on the car’s window sticker or by visiting NHTSA’s website. It’s also a good idea to cross reference that information with crash tests done by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. For more information on crash-test ratings, click here.

Safe Halloween Driving

Be safe, and have fun!

http://alerts.nationalsafetycommission.com/2009/10/holiday-driving-halloween-safety-tips.php

Holiday Driving: Halloween Safety Tips

The chill is in the air. Orange is the dominant color and kids are beginning to think of their plans for October 31st. Before you go out shopping for costumes and buying bags of candy this year, spend a few minutes planning the night ahead. 

Identify what type of celebrations will be taking place and where they will be located. Not only will it help determine your plans, it will help you be an aware driver as you travel on the roadways. If you will be attending a party, plan for a designated driver or commit to not drink. Even small amounts of alcohol can impair your judgment and driving. Driving under the influence can kill or cause trauma, be expensive and embarrassing. 

When costume planning, make sure that all costumes fit appropriately and will not restrict movement or visibility, either as a pedestrian or behind the wheel. Ensure foot wear is sturdy. Tripping, falling, difficulty steering or braking can be dangerous! 

Add reflective tape to costumes and replace flash light batteries to ensure you will be visible, whether escorting trick or treaters or attending an event yourself. Confirm any children you are with have flashlights, glow stick, bright candy bags, and reflective tape on costumes as well. Clear up any yard obstructions, water hoses, and overgrown vegetation to make it easier to see and maneuver for both pedestrians and vehicles. 

Know your planned route, to avoid the unexpected. Plan to travel in well lighted areas. If walking, use sidewalks and crosswalks. If driving, avoid areas of heavy pedestrian traffic and park in areas with the greatest visibility. Design alternate routes that will provide the least amount of risk and the most amount of safety. Arrange to give yourself extra time to and from your destination. 

Halloween is on Saturday this year, so expect the festivities to begin early in the day and prepare to be a defensive driver. If you can, avoid driving on Halloween. 

Be alert for kids playing in costumes during the day, darting from house to house or in between parked cars. Pay special attention beginning at 4:30pm for the younger treat seekers. Turn your head lights on to make your vehicle more visible. Drivers need to be especially diligent driving during dusk through the night time as visibility is reduced. 

Reduce distractions. Make sure your cell phone is on silent, your radio volume is low and your passengers are aware to minimize distractions and assist with being alert to the surrounding environment. 

Be extra cautious as you pull into and leave driveways, parking lots and alleys for children that may dart out between cars, at roadways, medians and on curves. Be sure to check your blind spots thoroughly and maintain a search and scan of the driving environment every three seconds. 

Travel well below the posted speed limit. Be extra patient with pedestrians and other vehicles and always be prepared to stop at a given moment. They may be carrying trick or treaters and be distracted. Avoid passing or going around stopped vehicles. They may have passengers entering and exiting hurriedly and carelessly. 

Halloween can truly be a fun night full of great memories! Take a few steps to keep it safe and trouble free.

Women Drivers Are Safer Than Men (Seriously).

Take a look at this fascinating report by msnbc, that takes on the stereotypic idea that women drivers are terrors on the road.  Turns out female drivers are significantly safer on the road.

W drivers? They’re safer than men

Women drivers? They’re safer than men

Take a look at this fascinating report by msnbc, that takes on the stereotypic idea that women drivers are terrors on the road.  Turns out female drivers are significantly safer on the road.

Via Autoevolution.com: Women and Cars Preconceptions.

http://www.autoevolution.com/news/women-and-cars-preconceptions-13729.html


In men's thinking, a woman can't simply talk about cars, she can't simply love them and can't actually drive any car out there. Also, when a man sees a car, he immediately catalogs it, before stating what segment it belongs to, as either a girl's car or a man's car. This kind of happens as a consequence of the axiom proclaimed in the beginning.

This way of thinking is so well established that even women themselves are starting to fall for the same way of thinking. The category where my editorials are going is called "Girls Only", so some people might think that's a consequence of the same axiom. I would like to clarify this subject and say that the category's name was given from the perspective of the person who's writing about cars – and yes, I'm a woman – not from the perspective of this editorial's theme, the supposed cars for women.

One of my friends weighs over 100 kilograms (220 pounds) and there are very few car seats in which he feels comfortable, or that don't squeeze him or poke his ribs. He always says that the cars whose seats are like that are "for women".

Another friend of mine loves powerful engines and, although he seems to be a wise person, when it comes to cars he's only pleading for those in the aforementioned category, even if today's electronic systems found on most vehicles and busy traffic make powerful engines pretty much obsolete. I keep telling him this but all I get as a response is the fact that I don't understand because those are not "cars for women".

In just about every parking lot in the city we can find at least one "tuned" car – meaning a vehicle engulfed in a bodykit to the ground and ruining the aerodynamics, with a rear wing that turns any 75 horsepower car into a LeMans racer. It can also have a vomit-inducing color and an exhaust that sounds like a dying animal. This, my dear ladies, is called a "man's car" in almost every discussion between guys. 

A Beetle is a "woman's car" since it has a small vase near the steering wheel for a flower, while a man who drives a Mini Cooper is most definitely gay. A Porsche Cayenne Turbo is a "man's car", a Cayenne S is perfect for a female artist while the base, less-powerful models are just "family cars".

On numerous occasions I hear about couple's arguments when choosing a car. She feels the need to talk about the upholstery while he says it has to be silver, for example. Men handle the exterior, while girls are all about the interior. He knows what color is more "resistant" to scratches and dirt, while she wants to choose an upholstery that will resist the test of time better. He wants masculine lines, she wants pleasant touches. 


When either of them tries to step on each other's territory then sparks begin to fly out: "you're a man and you don't understand", "you're a woman and that pretty much settles it," etc. We're all living under the impression that our sex automatically gives us a competence on the matter and we can't even move on because of it.

A while ago, a friend bought himself a rather powerful BMW X3. He was very excited about his new toy especially since it drew so much attention among his pals. His wife was worried that her husband might also turn the heads of other women at the traffic light. After a while though they had a baby and the "sporty" car became a small, safe and easy to maneuver family car, a "woman's car".

I'm also convinced that you've noticed how almost everybody says that a limo is only fit for certain occasions, like a wedding or a business lunch. As if its comfort would hinder us if we used it all the time. A Jeep is only fit for the mountains, a convertible for the Californian Coast while a smart for the crowded city we live in.

Engulfed in a variety of stereotypes and marketing rules we forget the fact that the streets have almost the same width everywhere in the world, parking spaces are quasi-identical anywhere you go and we have pretty much the same body shape no matter the meridian we're on.

It makes me sad to see that not all people are expressing themselves freely when talking about the car which enters our seeing path and our dreams. We should do it with humor and without prejudice, not like a defense lawyer or a prosecutor. I say that we move on from the stereotypes, start enjoying beauty anywhere we find it and realize that we can talk about the downsides of a car without bringing sex into the equation. Without any complex and completely relaxed. 

Stereotypes only shorten or even shut off our communication channels, common sense, free will and even our personalities. Let us free ourselves! 

How Women Influence the Auto Industry

http://autos.aol.com/article/how-women-influence-car-design/

Women and Cars: How Women Influence Car Design and Buying Power

Posted: Mar 05, 2008

  |  By: SHERYLL ALEXANDER, AOL Autos

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Women have become increasingly influential when it comes to the automotive world, in everything from car design to advertising campaigns to what happens when you show up at the dealership. So what do women really want when buying a new car? And how are automakers responding to this turning tide?

According to Marketing to Women author Marti Barletta, women seek more advice from an auto authority (57%) before buying a new car; they spend more time in the purchasing process than men (17 weeks versus 15) and women shop at an average of three dealerships for best price and treatment.

In Judith E. Nichols' book, Understanding the Increasing Affluence of Women, she says in the majority of U.S. households women bring in half or more of the income and women control about 80 percent of household spending, including new car purchases.

What Women Want

"Women want the same things as men, but they want more," said Ford's Sheryl Connelly, the company's chief marketing office manager for global trends and futuring. "For example, they want performance, package and design, but they also want safety and more features. We are taking that into consideration in all of our new products."

Marketing to women, is definitely different, Connelly said. "Men respond to things and women respond to people," she noted. "It isn't that men won't respond to people, but women just respond differently. So, we look at this in the types and ways we advertise."

Michael Albano of GM's global design group says women's influence in the automotive market has hit an all-time high, noting 85 percent of all vehicle sales decisions are influenced by women with women buying 45 percent of all vehicles. (This information is based on car registration numbers only and does not reflect households where vehicles are shared.)

A Female Touch

Albano says when it comes to car interiors; GM pays particular attention to details in trim, fabric, colors and compartments, shapes and positioning of controls. "And then, of course, storage is a big deal to women buyers whether it's room for groceries, handbags, kids' toys, foldable seats or built-in car booster seats," he added.

As for exteriors, "women want great designs, but they also don't want to compromise on safety and efficiency," Albano noted. "So we pay particular attention to proportions and stance, including the wheel-to-body relationship."

In fact, many of GM's top design engineers are women: several female engineers (along with the guys too, of course), worked together to design the new Cadillac CTS, which was named Motor Trend's 2008 Car of the Year.

Liz Pilibosian, chief engineer for the 2008 Cadillac CTS, said she believes "when you make a car for a woman, you are going to satisfy everybody."

Pilibosian said female engineers at GM don't just work on interiors. "We have women working on the power train, electric systems, control systems and vibration. All of our women are very hands-on types who aren't afraid of touching anything or taking it apart or putting it back together. They are passionate about cars."

Attention to Detail

The details are what propelled the CTS into the spotlight. Pilibosian says Cadillac's engineers were meticulous in designing each and every system with female needs in mind. "We made sure things like the steering column were not too low and not too high," she said. The same approach was applied to the seating, which was designed for petite women as well as very tall men.

She mentions industry buzz words like "outside hand placement," which translates to: door handle. Not only did the engineers make sure the handle won't knock your body when you open the door, but they were also cognizant that women drivers may have long fingernails and need a door handle that's easier to grab.

The exterior styling on the CTS was also a consideration for both sexes. Pilibosian said the design team wanted "fast, swoopy, diagonal lines" for a sporty and luxurious look. She said both women and men are enticed by the car's "smoothness from one end to the other with no rough edges and a tight, flush design."

The "gender phenomenon," said Pilibosian, is not that the CTS appeals more to women or men, but that the vehicle's "aggressive and elegant" lines are pleasing equally to guys and gals.

Continuing Reading: Driving Impressions of Gender-friendly Cars

Alarming Cell Phone News from theautochannel.com

More Than One In Five Text While Driving

NEW YORK, N.Y. Three out of five (60%) drivers with cell phones use them while driving even though almost all adults (91%) know it is unsafe to do so. This is particularly common among younger drivers with cell phones. In addition more than one in five (22%) drivers with cell phones send or read text messages while driving. However the percentage of drivers with cell phones who use them while driving has fallen over the last two years, from 72% in 2009 to 60% now. And, the numbers who text while driving has fallen a little from 27% to 22%.

Several studies have shown that drivers who use cell phones while driving are much more likely to be involved with accidents, and it is believed that texting is even more dangerous. Recent research has shown that both hand held and hands-free cell phones are almost equally dangerous because they are equally likely to distract drivers. However, more than three quarters (77%) of the public believe that hands-free phones are safer.

These are some of the results of The Harris Poll of 2,163 adults surveyed online between June 13 and 20, 2011 by Harris Interactive.

Other interesting findings of this survey include:

• There are big generational differences. The younger age groups, Echo Boomers, aged 18-34 (72%) and Gen Xers, aged 35-46 (69%) are more likely to use cell phones while driving than Baby Boomers, aged 47-65 (59%), and much more likely than drivers over 65 (32%) to do so;
• The Lake Wobegon effect ("where all the children are above average") is alive and well. Most (57%) drivers rate themselves as better than average drivers. Only 1% rate themselves as worse than average. Men (66%) are much more likely than women (48%) to think that they are better than average drivers;
• Texting while driving is also much more common among younger drivers. Fully 49% of drivers with cell phones under 35 send or read text messages while driving compared to only 24% of Gen X, 11% of Baby Boomers and less than 1% of people over 65;
• Most (60%) drivers who use cell phones while driving use hand-held phones. This number has declined from 72% in 2006 and 66% in 2009;
• The large majority who know that it is dangerous to use a cell phone while driving has increased from 82% in 2006 to 91% now; and,
• The percentage of the public who live in states that require (or, which they believe, require) the use of hands-free phones has increased from 14% in 2006 to 38% now.

So What?

The implications of these findings point to several important conclusions:

Most drivers with cell phones are behaving in ways (talking on cell phones and/or reading or sending texts) that greatly increase the likelihood that they will be involved in accidents, and injure themselves and others. Furthermore, many of them believe, probably wrongly, that if they use hands-free phones they are safer. The problem may be made worse by the fact that most drivers think they are better than average drivers and, perhaps, that their driving skills can keep them out of trouble.

These findings strongly suggest the need for laws to ban all cell phone use and texting while driving, including the use of hands-free phones, except perhaps in emergencies.

About Harris Interactive

Harris Interactive is one of the world's leading custom market research firms, leveraging research, technology, and business acumen to transform relevant insight into actionable foresight. Known widely for the Harris Poll and for pioneering innovative research methodologies, Harris offers expertise in a wide range of industries including healthcare, technology, public affairs, energy, telecommunications, financial services, insurance, media, retail, restaurant, and consumer package goods. Serving clients in over 215 countries and territories through our North American, European, and Asian offices and a network of independent market research firms, Harris specializes in delivering research solutions that help us - and our clients - stay ahead of what's next. For more information, please visit www.harrisinteractive.com.