Stepping on Too Many Manhole Covers

The other day, while I was driving the Boxster, my husband said to me,

Why do you drive over every single manhole cover (-_-)?

I replied, “Huh? Were there manhole covers? I didn’t even notice them at all.”
He said,

You ran over almost all of them. Especially those with bumps, it’s better to avoid stepping on them as much as possible.

After that, I tried to consciously avoid manhole covers while driving, but… there are just so many of them. It felt like there was one every 10 meters, and they’re placed exactly where the tires end up rolling over them.

Also, trying to shift gears, watch the manholes, and check my surroundings all at once was just too much for me, and I blurted out,

No way, it’s impossible to avoid them all (ﾟдﾟ)!

He replied,

You don’t have to force yourself to avoid every single one… but you need to look further ahead while driving. If you only focus on the manholes right in front of you, you’ll end up making sudden, unsafe steering moves.

I Want to Drive Without Running Over Manholes

So, I looked into the relationship between manhole covers and car tires, and found out:

・Since tires are made of rubber, they have very little grip on iron surfaces and tend to slip.
・There are about 15 million manhole covers installed in Japan just for sewage systems, but around 3 million have exceeded the government’s standard lifespan of 30 years, raising concerns about aging.
・Manhole covers become slippery when wet, which can cause car tires to slip and lead to accidents. Especially for motorcyclists, manhole covers are basically something to avoid even on sunny days.
・Passing over slightly raised manhole covers while slowing down has caused oil pans underneath cars to hit the edges, resulting in damage and oil leaks.
・There have been accidents where cars got flat tires due to protrusions like manhole covers.

If a car slips when there are oncoming or following vehicles around, it could easily cause a major accident involving others. For that reason, it’s definitely best to be mindful of avoiding manhole covers while driving.

A recent example is from this year’s F1 Azerbaijan GP, Round 4. A car running over a manhole cover caused the cover to come loose, hit the floor of the car, scatter debris, and bring the race to a red flag stop.

The FIA explained that the cover loosened because the fasteners broke, but manhole covers really shouldn’t be underestimated.

Also, one article said:

On rainy days, the grip difference between manhole covers and asphalt pavement becomes significant. There’s a difference in friction coefficients, and while asphalt absorbs some rainwater, water pools on iron plates. For this reason, there’s no need to deliberately drive over manhole covers, and if you can avoid them, it’s safer to do so.
*Source: Is it better to avoid manhole covers when driving?

I see… but avoiding manhole covers while driving is pretty tough. If you get too focused on them, you might lose attention ahead or drift into the opposite lane, which defeats the purpose. Still, as we head into autumn and winter, I really want to avoid stepping on them as much as possible.

Next page → Because of a certain incident, I ended up signing up for a Porsche Driving School…