Why don't more people drive with the windows down?

It's quintessential summer.

Image by bublikhaus on Freepik

Summertime is the best time to drive. It’s the best time for many things, but it’s really the best time to drive. Yet from what I’ve noticed as I’ve looked around this summer, most people are missing out on one of the great joys in life: driving with the windows down.

Don’t these people like feeling alive?

What could be better than a warm summer day, with the windows down, the wind blowing throw the car, music floating from the speakers? All things seem possible in that moment. Maybe even enduring the traffic ahead, or ignoring the jerk behind you who’s in too much of a hurry.

One of my greatest accomplishments as a parent is that I’ve passed on this love of carefree automobiling to my kids. They’re always up for some windows-down sojourning. Well, for the most part. Sometimes if it’s really hot outside, one of my sons will say something like, “Why are the windows down? Can’t you feel how hot it is?” when I pick him up.

My answer, of course, is, “Yes! I can feel how it is. That’s why I have the windows down: so I can feel how hot it is.” Sometimes I’ll ignore him and hope that the breeze from driving will provide enough relief that he’ll forget being hot, but that rarely works. Usually, I’ll give in and roll up the windows, and race off to wherever I’m taking him so I can get the windows back down.

My infatuation with driving with the windows down goes back as far as I can remember. I have vivid memories of watching my dad drive with the windows down and seeing the way that he could rest his upper arm on the door, at the bottom of the window opening, and reach the top of the door with his hand. I was always frustrated that my arm couldn’t cover the distance. Now that I’m an adult, I rarely drive with my hand reaching up to the top like that, preferring to just let my arm rest straight out, or fall down along the door.

My first car was a stick shift, and although steering with one hand and shifting with the other meant that I couldn’t let an arm rest on the window, I still drove with the windows down as often as possible. Later I had a Ford Ranger pickup truck. Whenever I’d drive with the windows down, and Won’t Get Fooled Again by The Who came on the radio, the acoustics of the truck and the instruments of the song gave the illusion that the music was coming from outside the truck – from the world all around – instead of the speakers embedded in each door.

One of the first times I felt adult-like freedom was spring break 1990. I was almost twelve. My friend Matt’s sister had her license and a mid-1980s Chevette. The three of us and their cousin piled into the Chevette and drove around town on an unseasonably warm March day, jamming to Once Bitten, Twice Shy by Great White, reveling in the first bit of warmth in months, and I remember thinking that it was just about the best day ever.

So why don’t more people drive with their windows down? My unscientific observations conclude that only about one in every forty or fifty cars is being driven with the windows down. And depending on the location, it may not even be that many. Why do so many people pass up an effortless avenue to happiness and exhilaration?

I’ve got a few theories.

More cars have air conditioning now. No doubt that some people who used to drive with the windows down did so just to stay cool. But now they’ll stay cooler by driving with the windows up. Pro tip: roll down the windows and pump up the air conditioning! It’s a great combo, like chocolate and peanut butter.

Podcasts and talk radio. Technology has made it easier for us to choose exactly what we want to listen to while in the car. And while many people still choose to listen to music, many prefer to listen to podcasts and talk radio. Driving with the window down is noisy. If you listen to music in a noisy environment, it doesn’t seem like you’re missing anything. But if it’s too noisy when you’re listening to podcasts or radio, you may miss the most important points.

Lack of friendliness. Rolling down the windows comes with an inherent openness and social outreach. The feeling of being in your own little world is lessened. If you stop at a red light with the windows down, and the person in the car next to you has their windows down, you could <gasp> talk! And who wants that?

Less hairspray. It seems fewer people use hairspray than when I was a kid. Driving with the windows down will mess up your hair without hairspray. So if you don’t have hairspray, maybe you need to sacrifice feeling alive, which seems like the wrong choice. Although pumping less Aquanet aerosol into the atmosphere is never a bad idea.

But those are just excuses. Cars come with retractable windows for a reason. Next time you’re in the car, put the windows down, turn the music up, and feel alive.