Welcome to 2021! We hope you and your family have managed to cope in the past year. 2021 will likely have challenges of its own, but here’s to positivity and grace in the New Year.
Speaking of the New Year: have you made any resolutions yet for 2021? We’ve compiled a short list of the sins we think need the most addressing to keep the roads safe… small commitments you can make to improve the driving around Hamburg.
- Paying attention: There’s so many distractions in a car these days. Phones, chatty passengers, kids… it’s important to get our distractions sorted before you begin driving. Set your phone up as hands free, ask your passenger to let you concentrate on the road, and remind the kids to be on their best behavior until you reach your destination. And be sure to know the route you are taking before you start the journey, so there’s no fiddling with a navigation app in the middle of your trip!
- Defensive Driving instead of Anger Management: People can be really rude in traffic. It can really ruin your day to be cut off in traffic, or forced to let in a third car ahead of you in a merge point, or find someone practically under your tail lights as they’re riding your bumper. The objective of a drive isn’t to win. It’s to get to the next point, safely. Don’t let someone else’s bad driving make a bad driver out of you. Remember your Defensive Driving (and take a class if you’ve never done it before, it’s really helpful). Let people in, forgive the irritations of others, and handle your own driving. Being a good driver is the best possible response you can have to enduring a bad one.
- Know what the needs of your car are: So many traffic accidents happen because of stalls and blow-outs, but there are likely underlying issues with those blowouts and stalls where a problem has been ignored for some time. Check the thread of your tires, make sure you are rotating them enough. Change your oil. Investigate the little problems. Even if you don’t have the money to fix the issues immediately, it’s better to know what you are facing then to go in unprepared and block traffic for miles.
We have the power to make our community a little better, one grace at a time. Good luck with your New Year’s Resolutions! If you need auto service, please schedule an appointment with Schultz Auto & Truck Repair for preventive maintenance on your car, truck, van, SUV, family fleet, or work fleet of vehicles. We’re conveniently located at 5085 Southwestern Blvd., Hamburg, NY 14075, and we are open Monday through Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. See you soon!