Common Knowledge
Just how common is common knowledge? Sometimes there are things I feel should be widely known but for some reason a significant portion of people don't know about. For example the double flashing lights on a car generally means it is either stopped somewhere for some reason (like unloading things) or it is a emergency and the car cannot move. Common knowledge right?
When our car broke down in the middle of El Camino several weeks ago, I'd say somewhere between 5 and 10% of people didn't seem to know what it meant. Some people even honked at our car expecting it to move. Even after we left the car there was still some honking and clueless behavior like just sitting out behind the car without taking any evasive action until the light turned red again.
Maybe it isn't so common after all. I dunno. Lately with the Toyota acceleration issue, I've seen forum comments in two places suggesting that it is "obvious" that one should be able to take the car into neutral and use the hand brake or do engine braking (which I'm not sure what it is) to solve the problem. What scares me is that I actually didn't know this. In fact I'm pretty sure this knowledge isn't actually official taught in drivers schools or in the driver's handbook. If you did know of this, you probably knew from family or friends telling you or if you are a car buff and just like studying it.
I can't think of what I would have done. Most likely I'd try turning the engine off after a while. This is actually a sub optimal choice as this disables your steering too on some cars. Either way it would take a good few seconds before you realize what's going on and react to it. If you are unlucky this might not be enough time to think of the right answer. I think some people are not taking panic into consideration. It's always easier to come up with the right answer sitting in front of a screen than it is in an actual emergency. Upon analysis, shifting into neutral and using the handbrake seems the best way. But could you have come up with this in a runaway car barreling towards an intersection? I'm betting it isn't as easy especially if you didn't know this beforehand.
Either way, I highly contest the idea that this is "obvious." I think its more of a personal knowledge bias where we think of things that we know as automatically being more important and widespread than it actually is. Now, I think I have a justification for expecting people to know about the emergency lights only because this is a part of the "official" training. Other things however are reliant on luck to reach you. This even applies to laws. Like did you know you know that putting GPS things on the window is illegal? I found out from a friend. This makes me wonder how many other laws I don't know about. The government just sort of makes laws and expects people to know... somehow... I believe that much of this obvious knowledge is taught in an ad hoc manner and it isn't the fault of the person that the knowledge didn't manage to reach them. If there is any important knowledge you know about that you want others to know, I'd like to hear about it. I want to know.
When our car broke down in the middle of El Camino several weeks ago, I'd say somewhere between 5 and 10% of people didn't seem to know what it meant. Some people even honked at our car expecting it to move. Even after we left the car there was still some honking and clueless behavior like just sitting out behind the car without taking any evasive action until the light turned red again.
Maybe it isn't so common after all. I dunno. Lately with the Toyota acceleration issue, I've seen forum comments in two places suggesting that it is "obvious" that one should be able to take the car into neutral and use the hand brake or do engine braking (which I'm not sure what it is) to solve the problem. What scares me is that I actually didn't know this. In fact I'm pretty sure this knowledge isn't actually official taught in drivers schools or in the driver's handbook. If you did know of this, you probably knew from family or friends telling you or if you are a car buff and just like studying it.
I can't think of what I would have done. Most likely I'd try turning the engine off after a while. This is actually a sub optimal choice as this disables your steering too on some cars. Either way it would take a good few seconds before you realize what's going on and react to it. If you are unlucky this might not be enough time to think of the right answer. I think some people are not taking panic into consideration. It's always easier to come up with the right answer sitting in front of a screen than it is in an actual emergency. Upon analysis, shifting into neutral and using the handbrake seems the best way. But could you have come up with this in a runaway car barreling towards an intersection? I'm betting it isn't as easy especially if you didn't know this beforehand.
Either way, I highly contest the idea that this is "obvious." I think its more of a personal knowledge bias where we think of things that we know as automatically being more important and widespread than it actually is. Now, I think I have a justification for expecting people to know about the emergency lights only because this is a part of the "official" training. Other things however are reliant on luck to reach you. This even applies to laws. Like did you know you know that putting GPS things on the window is illegal? I found out from a friend. This makes me wonder how many other laws I don't know about. The government just sort of makes laws and expects people to know... somehow... I believe that much of this obvious knowledge is taught in an ad hoc manner and it isn't the fault of the person that the knowledge didn't manage to reach them. If there is any important knowledge you know about that you want others to know, I'd like to hear about it. I want to know.