Safety trumps lofty ideals

To the Editor:

With the first light frost of the season upon us this morning, I decided to put to the test that three minutes is sufficient to warm the car before driving.

I scraped the car windows and starting driving in exactly three minutes. Pulling from my driveway onto the main road, into a school zone, I headed east to go to work.

Although having the sun directly in front of me wasn’t helpful, the total lack of visibility was due to the fogged up windshield. I drove for another three minutes before I would consider the windshield clear enough to have safe visibility.

In the future, I will give my car its usual 10-plus minutes of warming up before driving. Safety wins over lofty ideals.

Sincerely,

Tanya M. Sponagle

Cambridge