Coronavirus pandemic has brought sobering lessons
World has changed in every aspect writes Lorraine Sommerfeld.
While there are many things I miss as we live through this lingering and unpredictable pandemic, I’m surprised at how many of them have to do with driving. What changes will we keep, what will we toss, and what — if anything — have we learned?
First, the driving itself. I’m doing a lot less, and even my insurance company acknowledges it. They deposited a second round of “here, have some money back” in my account, understanding a car at rest in a driveway is less likely to become tangled with another. They should all be doing this.
I’m driving more defensively. I’m not an aggressive driver anyway, but the highways are as busy as ever — why did I think there would be any permanent change in that? — plus there are still the requisite number of idiots charging around, and I have an even greater reason to not want to end up in a collision.
People are understandably stressed. At a rest stop on a busy highway, I watched a man get out to pump gas, then pause. He didn’t have a glove, and you could see him weighing his options.
I pointed at the paper towels in the nearby dispenser; it’s not perfect, but it’s better than nothing.
In the same lot, a few college-aged kids were struggling to secure a glorious cedar strip canoe to the roof of their Mazda3.
I realized we couldn’t help. In another time, I wouldn’t have hesitated to head over and lend a hand and offer a few tips.
The cars in our family have never been so clean, something I’ve come to appreciate. When you’re wiping down steering wheels, shift knobs, and door handles daily, it’s second nature to get rid of garbage at the same time.
While I believe that family cooties are unavoidable, we have a front-line worker in the household and scrub things down accordingly. I don’t plan on going back to grungy cars.
I find myself torn on what our roadways will look like postCOVID-19. Many countries have painted designated thoroughfares to help pedestrians keep a safe distance from each other, and to facilitate the explosion of cyclists that have hit the road. Walkable cities are good for us, and good for the environment. I wonder if the pandemic experience will change any hearts.
Like many, many other sectors of the economy, the auto industry has taken a huge kick to the teeth. DesRosiers Automotive Consultants recently published the rather surprising July Canadian passenger sales results: only down 4.9 per cent over last year. After a disastrous April (down 75 per cent, according to the Canadian Black Book) and May (down 44 per cent), things started to tick back up in June (down 16 per cent). Whether it’s because people are being skittish about using public transit or recession fears are fading, people are returning to the car fold in record time. On a more selfish note, people buying cars is good for my job. It’s also good for the nearly 700,000 Canadians who are employed, directly or indirectly, in the industry.
Much of our work as auto journalists is now done online; jetting off to posh locales is on hold. Maybe we’ll find it just makes more sense. As I’m typing this, Mazda Canada just sent me a face mask with its logo. I love it, I’ll wear it, and I appreciate it.
The pandemic has been a sobering experience in so many ways, we’d be fools to dismiss the lessons it has delivered.