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Car tyres in good condition are not an excuse for driving fast in heavy rain. There is a high potential of aqua planning, significantly reduced visibility and you may encounter a flooded road.This article provides advice about driving in heavy rain and what to do if you encounter a flood.During the winter months regularly check your windscreen wipers to ensure they can cope with heavy rain. If the rubber has deteriorated, replace it immediately. It’s very simple to do or local garage will be happy to help.If caught in a downpour then double the distance between yourself and the car in front. This is because stopping distances are increased on wet roads as your car tyres struggle to find grip. Visibility is also reduced which will lower your reaction time if required to brake suddenly.Even today’s modern road surfaces struggle to cope with a heavy downpour and standing water is a potential hazard. Try to avoid standing water and slow down. If you don’t there is a high risk of the car aqua planning.Aqua planning occurs when the car tyre’s tread pattern is unable to disperse enough water to maintain a point of contact between the tyre and the road. This makes the vehicle uncontrollable with the loss of steering, grip and a sensation of driving on ice. It can be a very frightening event as I’m sure anyone who has experienced it will agree. The best advice when it happens is to hold your steering wheel lightly and lift off the accelerator until your car tyres regain their grip.If you’re unlucky enough to break down in heavy rain, stay with your car but check you are not in a location that is at risk of flash flooding. Your engine may have been affected by the water and in many cases the car will restart when it has had a chance to ‘dry out’. If you have called for assistance do not prop the bonnet open until help arrives. This will cause the electrics to become rain-soaked and the car will be even harder to restart.The rain may be so heavy that you experience a flooded road. The AA provides some good advice about how to deal with this:1. Do not drive through flooded water unless you know how deep it is.2. Stay in the middle of the road. This is known as the crown of the road and should be where the flood water is shallowest.3. Drive slowly to avoid creating a bow wave, which can cause neighbouring houses to be flooded.4. Pass one vehicle at a time through flood water. Allow the oncoming traffic to pass first.5. Do not risk driving through fast moving water as your car can easily be swept away.6. Driving at speed through a flood can cause expensive damage. Even a small quantity of water sucked into the engine through the air intake will cause serious damage.7. As you drive through the flood water, keep the engine revving by slipping the clutch. This prevents water in the exhaust which may stall the engine.8. Test your brakes as soon as you leave the water.Car tyres in good condition will be able to cope with most wet driving surfaces. But with heavy rain or a sudden downpour extra care must be taken to avoid a possible accident or injury.

Some of the first electric vehicles showed up in the 1830s. Back in the early days of trucks, some ran on batteries. But the batteries were heavy, and you needed a large number of them. A truck was the only vehicle that could carry its own power supply. Not only that, but just about everything that could have gone wrong for electric vehicles did go wrong.First, Cadillac introduced the electric starter for combustion vehicles in the early twentieth century. That made combustion engines safer to operate, and removed a big argument for electric vehicles, even back then.Second, improving the combustion vehicle was easier and cheaper. Ford made combustion vehicles cheap enough for just about any worker to afford. That cramped the electric vehicle market in a serious way.Due to high fuel prices we are starting to see electric cars crop up again. The Toyota Prius is a hybrid-part electric, part gas-burning-but vehicles could make the move to entirely electric soon. So it’s smart to start thinking about electric cars as a viable option.But do electric cars really make sense?The biggest argument in favor of an electric vehicle is saving money on gas. But that argument might not wash, because the net savings over the time you own the car might be much lower than the savings per year might make you think. The problem starts with the purchase price of hybrids, which are close as you can get to an electric vehicle the average person can buy.You’ll probably pay $3,000 more for a Prius than for a similar non-hybrid sedan. Let’s say you save $300 per year on gas by driving the hybrid. That means you’d have to keep your car for 10 years to break even. Only after that point do you start saving anything. Most people won’t keep their cars for over a decade, so they never see the savings on gas.The second biggest argument in favor of an electric vehicle is saving the environment. But does it?There are a couple varieties of electric vehicles on the market today, some costing less than others. Both use electricity to run, though, and most electricity comes from burning coal. Not only that, but manufacturing the batteries produces even more greenhouse gas emissions.Based on where you’re charging your hybrid, your electricity might be produced by burning a significant amount of coal, and you might not be helping the environment at all. Your Prius might be responsible for generating as much greenhouse gas as any combustion car.That does not mean electric vehicles are a pipe dream, but it does mean we have a ways to go before a truly environmentally friendly, economical electric car becomes a reality.