Driving with pets? How car cleanliness improves safety

**As written for The Safe Driver.

 

Drivers should clean the interiors of their cars at least once a month, owner of C&J Automotive Detailing, Christian Newman tells Today, according to Reader’s Digest Canada. However, consider cleaning your vehicle more often if you spend many hours commuting from one place to another. If you snack a lot inside your car or travel with your pet, consider cleaning every other week.

Also, clean the exteriors as soon as they become dirty to maintain appealing appearances. Besides improving aesthetics and keeping the car environment healthy, cleanliness is one of the easiest maintenance tricks to extend the life of your vehicle and enhance road safety.

Cleaning Car Interiors Promotes Good Health

Deep cleaning the car interior frequently is essential for various reasons. Vacuum cleaning car interiors shared with pets is not a complicated task, as many people assume. However, there are aspects you should consider. First, you need to select the right vacuum cleaners for collecting pet hair, and then learn how to use vacuum cleaners to get rid of pet hair from car fabric, seats, mats, and carpets.

Maintaining clean spaces does not prevent allergies only but also reduces stress linked to health disorders caused by poor indoor quality. By reducing stress, cleanliness boosts concentration levels required for practicing safe driving habits on the road. If you ride with pets often, you are prone to get sick due to allergies caused by pet hair. Accumulation of pet hair, dirt, and dust encourages the growth of bacteria, which causes allergies and other health complications.

Clean Windows and Windscreen Enhance Visibility

Neglecting your car windows can significantly affect your driving experience. When the windows and windscreen accumulate dirt on the outside, they can cause glare and hazy vision while driving. As a result, you will experience eyestrain, and that may cause car collisions. Keeping car windows clean on the inside is also essential to prevent safety hazards.

Make sure the inside part of the windshield is clean at all times. Keep in mind that plastics fitted in car interiors emit vapor, which sticks on the windscreen. So failure to clean windows regularly can cause fogging, and that can reduce visibility.

Well-Polished Exteriors Matter to Other Road Users

Every car owner desires to drive a car with an excellent painting job because the car exteriors say a lot about the driver. Aside from boosting your confidence, a well-polished car will improve road safety. Other road users can easily spot your vehicle from a distance and take the right actions to prevent car crashes.

If the exterior is dirty or faded, it decreases visibility, causing blind spots for other motorists. Therefore, invest a considerable amount of time cleaning and detailing your car’s exterior. A clean surface also extends the lifetime of paintwork.

Besides enhancing the aesthetics, cleaning your car boosts health and confidence. Riding in good health helps you stay alert on the road. Also, clean windows and exteriors increase visibility, preventing car accidents with fellow motorists.