Driving Instructions, Part I

Ok, here is lesson one of an infinite series of specific driving tips and techniques for the average driver [read: moron].  The illustration applies not only to making right hand turns, but also to parking on a curve.  The object of this lesson is to learn how not to "curb" your vehicle, and more importantly, how not to ruin someone else's lawn.

It is apparently a little known fact that a wet lawn, as they often are in the spring of the year, is soft.  A typical vehicle weighs in the neighborhood of 4,000 pounds.  All of that weight is resting on 4 wheels with a contact area in the neighborhood of 133 square inches (trust me, I researched this); thus, a point load of 30 pounds per square inch.  Typical soil bearing capacity when dry is 2,000 pounds per square foot, or 14 pounds per square inch.  This is significantly reduced when soils are wet, but soils do vary greatly, so they could have more capacity   To be conservative, we'll just use 14 psi.  You can see that a car exerts nearly double the load of the soil's bearing capacity.  The end result is a rut.  In someone's lawn.

Although some people don't care about their lawn, it is safe to assume that many people do.  And, those people would prefer that a car stay off of the lawn so that said ruts do not appear.  There are many reasons that ruts in a lawn are undesirable, but for this discussion, we'll just take it as a given.

If the illustration seems confusing, take a minute to examine the one viable route.  The logical conclusion is that the nose of the car needs to progress further in a straight line before the turn is initiated to ensure that the rear wheels follow on the pavement and not over the adjacent lawn or curb.


This may take some practice, but once ingrained into your driving habits, it's no trouble at all.  Besides, think of how otherwise inconvenient it would be to have to get a new windshield when some angry homeowner comes storming out of his garage with a baseball bat and starts beating on your car and shouting obscenities about how you ruined his lawn.