My mom constantly jiggles the steering wheel back and forth when she drives on straight roads, like she’s a kid pretending to drive with a toy steering wheel or an actor fake-driving on a 70s TV show. I guess she learned on cars with loose steering, but she drives a Subaru Crosstrek now. She insists she’s just keeping the car in the middle of the lane. It’s annoying to be a passenger when the car’s abruptly jerking around, but isn’t it also dangerous?– Tim, Markham, Ont.
Drivers on old TV shows sawed away at the steering wheel, even on straight roads – but modern cars don’t need that kind of drama.
“Nowadays, you don’t have to do that to maintain the vehicle’s direction, unless there’s something wrong with your car,” said Sean Shapiro, a road safety consultant and former Toronto traffic cop. “If your wheels are properly aligned and you’re in a relatively modern vehicle, the car should track straight without needing [much steering input].”
Now, cars have sensitive steering and typically require only small, smooth corrections, especially at higher speeds.
Jiggling the wheel makes it harder to stay straight on the road, although it probably wasn’t necessary in most older cars either, he said.
“I remember my mom had an old [Chevrolet] Caprice Classic and there was a lot of play in the steering wheel,” he said. “You could move the steering wheel back and forth and it would still stay straight – but you didn’t need to do that to keep it straight.”
So why do some drivers do it? It’s a bad habit they picked up somewhere along the way, Shapiro said.
“It really stems from 1950s, 60s and 70s television,” he said.
Shaky logic?
Many newer cars also have lane-keep assist, which keeps the car in the middle of the lane for you – although some safety experts recommend that you turn it off on slick roads.
That’s because some systems could turn the wheels abruptly on icy or wet roads and cause a skid.
But if you’re constantly moving the steering wheel back and forth out of habit, you’re facing the same risk, said Angelo DiCicco, chief executive officer of the Ontario Safety League, a Mississauga-based non-profit focusing on driver education.
“It’s not necessary. Technology has advanced so much that you don’t need very heavy steering input anymore,” DiCicco said. “If you introduce excess steering inputs unnecessarily, you may end up with an overreaction [and you could lose control].”
Also, if you’re fiddling with the wheel, you’re not really paying attention to how the car responds on the road, he said. That means you might not realize that it’s slippery until you start to slide.
“You’re oblivious,” DiCicco said. “You’re probably not feeling the roadway through the tires, through the steering linkage and into your hands.”
Wheel trouble?
So, what should you do instead?
Look farther down the road and let the car travel naturally within the lane, and make small, smooth adjustments only when you have to, Shapiro said.
Also make sure you have the proper grip on the wheel.
“If you’re going straight, you’re doing the right thing,” he said.
If constant back-and-forth on the wheel makes your car weave on the road, you could attract police attention, Shapiro said.
“They could pull you over to check whether you’re impaired or distracted,” he said, adding that you likely wouldn’t be charged for weaving alone. “They’d want to find out why you can’t go straight.”
But if you do need to constantly steer to keep your car in your lane, it’s likely a sign that something is wrong with it, DiCicco said.
“Maybe you need a wheel alignment,” he said, adding that the habit can actually cause problems that make it harder to drive straight. “Messing around from side to side like that is actually bad for front-end alignment and tire wear.”
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