Driving really taps into our emotions. Is that a good thing?

The open road, a humming engine, and a clear sky — as far as we’re concerned, that’s a recipe for happiness.

The emotional link between drivers and cars is about as old as cars themselves. And for motorists in America, birthplace of the automobile, we go way back with our vehicles. It should be no real surprise then that there are other ways in which our emotions are closely linked to our vehicles.

As a kind of obvious point, it seems commuting can bring us some real-deal unhappiness. A study from Portland State University found that commuters who drive in to work were some of the unhappiest commuters around, with the big deciding factors being (predictably) stress, boredom and traffic.

If commuting through congestion gets on your nerves, you’re not alone. The degree to which we as a society gripe about getting stuck in gridlock has been captured both in pop culture and serious behavioral studies. While we do complain a lot about bumper-to-bumper jams — which really do cause overall worse moods — the traffic monster usually doesn’t appear to cause serious anguish to most of us.

That comes with one big exception that we call road rage. Intense anger at the wheel routinely leads to violence and unintended consequences. Rough as that gets, fury isn’t the only emotion that distracts us in our cars, and in fact, any strong mental state, including happiness, can end up being a driving hazard. Emotional factors play such a role on the roads that the DMV has published a guide to help drivers understand how their feelings influence their driving. You can check that out here.

So where do we come into the picture? We’ve talked about it before, but a clean car has some real benefits when it comes to safety. For one, in a tidy vehicle, you don’t have to worry about clutter blocking your controls or sliding about in the event of an accident. And as a big added benefit, cleanliness seems to help promote a calmer, more focused mood — exactly what you want at the wheel! Come visit us at Scrubby’s to see what a good clean can do for you!