Driving and Being on the Spectrum

[LostInSilentHill]

I know there have been other threads concerning driving, but I thought it would be nice to open one discussing driving and those on the spectrum. Where I work, there are many who are on the spectrum; most do not drive. My friends’ daughter (22-years-old), who is like a niece to me, is also on the spectrum and does not drive. She has tried to learn, but can’t seem to grasp the mechanics of it like turning, slowing down, etc. Her dad even bought her a golf cart hoping she’d learn. It didn’t help and she almost killed me in it.

I, on the other hand, took right to it from the get go. When I was a boy, I used to spend a LOT of time at the go-cart track burning up my allowance. That’s when gas was cheap . . . very cheap. When I got my driver’s license, I was at the drag strip every Saturday night. So for me, driving was not a problem and something I enjoyed. I even drove a tractor-trailer for a few years. I loved the driving part, but practically lost my mind in big city traffic. If you want to discuss sensory overload, imagine trying to back a rig into a loading garage during rush hour in downtown Los Angeles.

Anyway, feel free to share your views, experiences, whatever on driving.

Personally I do not drive simply because I am often distracted my movement and noise. I am also very jumpy and easily startled.

 

[clg114]

Prior to his passing, my step-brother, obviously on the spectrum, could never drive a car but he could ride a Yamaha Champ:

View attachment 24336

They were street-legal in California. For some reason, he could not get the hang of turning a steering wheel, but he took to riding the little Champ without any problem.

My youngest son is a Aspie and at 34 years old does not drive. However when he was a teen, he raced a motorcycle. He was active in moto-cross for several years.

 

[Cosmophylla]

As a youngster I declared I would never learn to drive... Partly out of fear/the (unfounded) conviction that my brain couldn't cope with the demands on it, and partly out of environmental concerns. I got by on the bus and when I moved to Tokyo there was the excellent public transport network to rely on.

It wasn't until I came back to Australia that I started learning, at age 31. But even then I wasn't very keen. It was when my partner and I moved to a rural area with limited public transport that it became a necessity, so I had to get it over with. Although it took a while to really get the coordination of movements, now that my brain has made those new pathways it has become an unconscious action.

That said, I don't particularly enjoy driving. I can't listen to music while driving, so I always have news radio on. And when driving on the freeway the radio is silent so I can concentrate. Fighting/yelling kids in the back seat really set me off, as does their fidgeting. Rain on the windscreen is a big problem for sensory overload! And my wipers don't have the right speed settings...it's either too slow and allows too much rain build up, or too fast and makes me freak out. I hate having to drive with the wipers going fast in light rain, but it's either than or have lots of silvery sparkles in my vision competing with all the leaves on the trees (tree lined country roads here), moving vehicles, birds that catch my attention...

I get really ticked off with threatening/dangerous/selfish drivers, tailgaters, law-breakers. The rules are there to keep everyone safe. (Driving a few metres behind me at 100kph is only going to make me slow down, not get out of your way!) Your life is not going to be adversely affected by following the rules, but it sure will be if you break the rules and an accident happens. And all those other road users around when someone is speeding get stressed out...I think people who speed and weave through fast moving traffic are just ignorant of how much distress they cause other drivers. It's not a friggin' game!

Ok, rant over.

 

[wanderer03]

The car manufacturers have yet to perfect speeds for windshield wipers. They really are either too fast or too slow.

On driving speeds, I lean towards going on the faster side because I know I can handle it. I get really annoyed by drivers that go below the speed limit. To me, a driver should be aware enough to see the posted speed limit and be able to maintain that speed. It is selfish for slower drivers not to yield to faster ones.

A faster driver should not have to be subject to grandpa's pleasure cruise at 15mph below posted speed.

 

[Nitro]

The car manufacturers have yet to perfect speeds for windshield wipers. They really are either too fast or too slow.

On driving speeds, I lean towards going on the faster side because I know I can handle it. I get really annoyed by drivers that go below the speed limit. To me, a driver should be aware enough to see the posted speed limit and be able to maintain that speed. It is selfish for slower drivers not to yield to faster ones.

A faster driver should not have to be subject to grandpa's pleasure cruise at 15mph below posted speed.

My mother was a nightmare on the road. She tried to maintain the posted speed limit by accelerating and braking within 1 MPH at all times

 

[wanderer03]

My mother was a nightmare on the road. She tried to maintain the posted speed limit by accelerating and braking within 1 MPH at all times

Wow, yeah that would drive me crazy too.

 

[Judge]

The car manufacturers have yet to perfect speeds for windshield wipers. They really are either too fast or too slow.

On my 16-year old Toyota I can control the pitch of my wipers to whatever I want with just the twist of a knob. I don't use it all that often, but it came in handy just the other day with the rain coming down in uneven downpours.

I'm fine in traffic where I only have to be concerned with things in front or behind me. But in a crowded supermarket parking lot...it really puts my multitasking abilities or lack thereof to the test.

 

[Cosmophylla]

A faster driver should not have to be subject to grandpa's pleasure cruise at 15mph below posted speed.

Perhaps, but nor should a driver who is uncomfortable with driving fast under the current conditions have to be subject to bullying or threatening behaviour. Nor should a driver feel they have to break the law or risk a collision in order to accommodate faster drivers who are less concerned with rules and safety. I see too many drivers who behave as though the road is theirs, everyone else be damned. People who drive 3m behind you in heavy freeway traffic (nowhere to change lanes), fully aware that you can't slow down because it is too dangerous. Why the hell should I yield (we say "give way" here) to that? If I am driving in the slower lane at slightly below the limit, anyone who wants to risk lives can go in the faster lane and stay the hell away from me. And if they have to speed to get to work on time, they should leave for work earlier!

My driving instructor taught me to drive to the conditions at the speed you are comfortable with (within reason, of course... Driving well below the limit is also dangerous). Everyone else has to like it or lump it, he said.

Keeping an open mind about the possible reasons someone is driving slowly is a good idea.

While living in Japan I never once saw any kind of road aggression like I see here. Everyone gives way to everyone else. There is no choice because the roads are so narrow. Often the "suburban" (edit: residential) streets are so narrow that when two cars want to pass, one has to pull half off the street into a driveway to allow the other car through. I never heard anyone complain about this: it is just done. I only saw one crash during the eight years I was there, and it was at a major city intersection and a person had been knocked off a motorbike. Here, I see crashes ALL THE TIME.

 

[abby normal]

I learned how to drive about 4 years after my peers. actually I had no peers. that said, I had to get secondary driver's ed [intensive training] before the driving mechanics sank in. I drive only to get to point B from A, there is no pleasure in it, I see myself as being on a mission to get someplace and back in one piece. I can't listen to music while driving because the be-bopping along would distract me into a ditch or speeding ticket. but I do listen to talk radio to relieve the tedium. I tend to speed somewhat as I want to get it overwith and get back home already.

 

[Cosmophylla]

I tend to speed somewhat as I want to get it overwith and get back home already.

Yeah, I am like this, which is why I have to consciously keep myself slower, to avoid stress. If I feel like I need to hurry, I'm more likely to make mistakes like misjudging gaps. If I'm patient, I'm able to avoid unnecessary anxiety, and that's something I really need to avoid.

Same about music. As a visual thinker it is just too distracting having music.

 

[abby normal]

Yeah, I am like this, which is why I have to consciously keep myself slower, to avoid stress. If I feel like I need to hurry, I'm more likely to make mistakes like misjudging gaps. If I'm patient, I'm able to avoid unnecessary anxiety, and that's something I really need to avoid. Same about music. As a visual thinker it is just too distracting having music.

I guess patience is where I am less than expert.

 

[Cosmophylla]

I guess patience is where I am less than expert.

Hey, don't assume I'm an expert, either. Still working on it at 40... Long way to go yet.

 

[abby normal]

Hey, don't assume I'm an expert, either. Still working on it at 40... Long way to go yet.

got 15 more years on ya, you're ahead of me from the sounds of it, i'm still trying to learn patience in the first place, can't seem to learn it fast enough.

 

[abby normal]

It's interesting how a lot of Aspies can't drive per se, but they can compete in motorsports. In my case, my mind seems sharper when I'm going at a high rate of speed; I'm talking VERY high rate. I got clocked at 101 in a 55 zone in Florida. It's hard to explain, but it's as though the world slows down when I speed up.

I wonder if any of that might be related to ADHD issues?

 

[Dusty285]

It was said [above]: Driving was never a question. It was expected of me and necessary. When I was 6 my Dad put me on a bicycle and gave me a push. The third time I managed to stay upright and kept riding the bicycle until I was 16. Then my Dad taught me to operate the family car. 1941 Chevy Coupe; 6 cyl, 3-speed stick on the column. The car was old and got replaced eventually. I don't really remember when the family car became an automatic transmission. I survived college [they handed me a Diploma ?], put some time in the military service where I learned to fix my own cars because I could not afford to pay for that. After doing my required time in service I found a job driving 18-wheelers. On my own most of the time as mentioned by others and made some money. For 2 decades. I had all the Aspie problems of dealing with other people and co-workers but had no clue what it was about. Married from early on and depended on my lady to deal with people in our private lives. I quit driving and found a union job maintaining and fixing production machinery. Courtesy of all the car repairs I had done for all the years. All the smaller things; never pulled an engine or heads but did pull transmissions to fix clutches or to [once] replace the transmission. Kept the union job because I was making money and the others hate and discontent with my Aspie strangeness was neutralized by the union rules. Cool. Retired and then one day found reference in reading to "Aspie." Read what an "Aspie" was thinking in regard to life and what I read hit solidly home. Googled "Aspie;" took the online test [twice, a few months apart with identical positive result] and realized that I had found my answer to what was wrong. Subsequently I have agreement from other sources but not a diagnosis. There is diagnosis "between the lines" however from a number of places.

OK. When I drive I feel like I am visually seeing car motion and watching any other moving thing near me and tracking all of it all the time. Driving big trucks [Non-union; tractors kept in better condition than union company trucks; fuel them myself; hookup and disconnect trailers myself and often load/unload myself; got very good at backing trailers to docks or parking in impossible places. Whatever. Including doubles.] required watching as far ahead as possible and constantly planning maneuvers to deal with all possibilities and then continuously changing the plans as the situation changed or evolved. I still do. My current car is a "Sport Edition" which means it has the standard engine and transmission but improved steering and suspension. Love it and routinely take it and fly. Legal speeds and very careful to drive strictly according to the rules. Almost nobody else does. The usual sloppiness and discourtesies are mentioned a lot above. And much of the unconcern or discourtesy or sloppy driving by others is really quite dangerous. Which I am aware of and plan my own driving to accommodate for my own sake.

I never liked "competition." I get more than enough excitement trying to cope with everyday interaction with other people; trying to take care of my own life in the face of all the things that I do not understand about why other [NT's ??] people do the silly, dangerous, stupid-- - things they always do. So no car racing and no competitive games. Just being an Aspie trying to get by and to use my own strengths to help myself and trying to avoid being caught in the traps of things I cannot do ???

 

[abby normal]

I've always despised road hogs.

 

[Odd Duck 1357]

Went on a long motorcycle trip a few times. It took me a while to realize that the raindrops on my face in California in the summer weren't drops of rain. My NT husband never noticed.

 

[Odd Duck 1357]

[QUOTE="America's public transportation system is woeful when compared with other nations in Europe and North America.[/QUOTE]

Very true. I grew up in Europe with limited private car ownership and excellent public transportation. So excellent that people lost weight trying to use it! (The buses/trains/taxis rarely showed up so we had to walk everywhere). A privileged few had eco-friendly, self-driving vehicles whose combustion output was often used as an organic soil amendment. It used only biofuels and easily refilled at the side of the road without traditional gas stations. When the driver was drunk, this vehicle was able to drive self and driver home. While refueling on the way. This wondrous vehicle is known as Equus caballus, Equus asinus or a hybrid of the two.

 

[abby normal]

Went on a long motorcycle trip a few times. It took me a while to realize that the raindrops on my face in California in the summer weren't drops of rain. My NT husband never noticed.

um, what were they?

 

[Crossbreed]

This wondrous vehicle is known as Equus caballus, Equus asinus or a hybrid of the two.

Yeah, but they are only 1hp or less...