Date:         Fri, 26 Jun 1998 18:23:33 -0700
Reply-To:     Craig Standley <cstand@U.WASHINGTON.EDU>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <Vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         Craig Standley <cstand@U.WASHINGTON.EDU>
Subject:      Re: Vanagon Safety?
Comments: To: Vanagon List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
In-Reply-To:  <3594526C.52F58BBB@freewwweb.com>
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII

I'd like to add a few more things.

1.  Larry says that ABS doesn't really make that much of a difference.
Unfortunately this is true, but not because ABS is bad, but because most
people don't know how to use it.  ABS allows you to STEER while having the
brakes on full.  They don't stop you any faster, in fact that's not what
they were designed for.  They are to be used to prevent loss of traction
while AVOIDING a collision, not to stop faster.  In this way, no person
can come close to the control of ABS no matter how good a driver they may
be.

2.  Like Larry said, Vanagons tend to provide their own margin of safetly
due to their less-than-speedy performance.  That's probably the biggest
safety feature they have, as long as everyone realizes their vehicles are
kind of piggy, and leave room, you can generally avoid a collision.

That's it.

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Craig Standley                             cstand@u.washington.edu
University of Washington     http://weber.u.washington.edu/~cstand
Physics
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