Driving and Being on the Spectrum

[Odd Duck 1357]

um, what were they?

Bugs. Lots of bugs.

 

[Odd Duck 1357]

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

LOL, that is true. It all depends on how much grass they've munched on.

 

[Phillip Cowdrey]

I am a real petrol head I've got a Mazda MX5 and used to own a Mazda RX8 R3 until the petrol price doubled and it became unaffordable to drive it in England.I just love American muscle cars but they don't go on UK roads too many bends and narrow roads in Devon where I live.I was born in Alabama but have lived in England since I was 5 years old.I would love to come home but it's too late now but oh I am so jealous of you being able to get these cars so cheaply and what about the new Mustang it's available in the UK soon and I'm so going to get one of these wife permitting.Thinking about it I could always trade her in for one but she says she only worth a dollar.I see her point maybe I'll keep her then.

 

[abby normal]

I am a real petrol head I've got a Mazda MX5 and used to own a Mazda RX8 R3 until the petrol price doubled and it became unaffordable to drive it in England.I just love American muscle cars but they don't go on UK roads too many bends and narrow roads in Devon where I live.I was born in Alabama but have lived in England since I was 5 years old.I would love to come home but it's too late now but oh I am so jealous of you being able to get these cars so cheaply and what about the new Mustang it's available in the UK soon and I'm so going to get one of these wife permitting.Thinking about it I could always trade her in for one but she says she only worth a dollar.I see her point maybe I'll keep her then.

cheaper to keep her.

 

[Cosmophylla]

I have a motorcycle endorsement but I am a fair weather rider. I couldn't imagine depending on it in all kinds of weather. That is the true motorcyclist.

Husband used to do this. Back before we had kids that was our only form of private transport. Then we got to the point where my leather jacket would no longer fit around my expanding belly and we could deny our need for a car no longer.

 

[clg114]

I've wondered that, but I've never been diagnosed as having ADHD. Maybe I just enjoy going fast and that's where I'm the happiest.

Me too. But in my old age I do not have any fast toys anymore. Now days I play with guns.

 

[Astroganga]

Unfortunately I am one of those who cannot compute or handle all the sensory input and multitasking that driving involves. I have tried driving on private land with close supervision from the other person in the car, and just didn't get it at all. Nearly crashed into a fence. I can drive quadbikes, but cars and two wheeled motorcycles, no. I also cannot ride a bike. Thankfully I live somewhere with excellent public transport links, there is one train station 0.1 miles away and another 0.3 miles away both on seperate lines, and there are bus stops nearby with buses that go to all different parts of East, North and Central London.

 

[hiraeth]

Public transportation is woefully ridiculous where I live and is a very important part of why my long term plan is to get out of here.

Forced myself to learn how to drive after a long time of just having no interest of any kind, because I believed that if I knew how I would go out more (as it stands the primary reason why I don't go out is because of inaccessibility), but then I found it so stressful that it entirely defeated the point.

 

[Stevie1903]

I've been driving for about 20yrs. I'm now 43. I loved it until a few months ago. As i get older I find it is becoming more frustrating and therefore less enjoyable. I drive to work everyday and that is increasingly stressful.

 

[wanderer03]

I've been driving for about 20yrs. I'm now 43. I loved it until a few months ago. As i get older I find it is becoming more frustrating and therefore less enjoyable. I drive to work everyday and that is increasingly stressful.

I think driving is becoming more stressful as the years go by because there are more and more cars out on the road. Combine that with even more distractions caused by technology and you get a recipe for problems. We need better mass transit in America.

 

[NothingToSeeHere]

I learnt to drive when I was 18, and found it very easy from the start, aside for driving at night where my light sensitivity becomes an issue with oncoming headlights (I can manage it but it's painfull and a little frightening).
Despite finding it easy I hate driving. Sitting in a metal death box going from one place to another surrounded by idiots who are incapable of following the rules of the road or instructions of road marking and signs... what'snjoyable about that? When it's not frustrating or alarming it's just monumentally boring. The commute to work is by far the least favourite part of my day.

 

[Lealea]

Love driving, ever since I was a kid I wanted to drive so when I was old enough my parents bought me a car and I passed my test first time. I'm a lot more comfortable going places as it means I'm not crammed into busses and trains with other people, it gives me more freedom. I don't like driving at night tho because off all the bright lights coming and going so I try to avoid that. Also driving in bright sunlight and the light flickers through the trees can stress me out a bit, but as long as I got sunglasses I can deal with it.

 

[Cosmophylla]

UGH!!! I've eaten my share of bugs over the years. That's why I wear a full-face helmet now when I go out on the open road. It's especially good when encountering the really hard-shell critters. I once had a bumblebee get caught in my shirt. I almost drove off the side of a mountain in New Mexico when that happened.

The third time I went on a date with my husband he had been stung on the forehead by a bee that got inside his helmet while he was waiting for the lights to change. His eye was swollen shut but we went out anyway.

 

[Cosmophylla]

Haha Sportster, that's not how I meant it. He was bitten riding his motorbike home from work that day, but he lived in the city centre at that time so we just walked to the pub for our date. I just meant that he wasn't so embarrassed about his swollen face that he cancelled on me, haha. Or maybe he thought I was worth more than the funny looks he got.

That all said, he learnt to keep the visor on his helmet down.

 

[ilovetochat87]

I cannot drive. IvIf was if yet never found our heard of an autie that couldn't drive. Now yes a lower functioning person can't obviously, but I'm talking the higher functioning ones with "aspergers" not "autism". I have a company called Platte County Board of services and they are a 10 min drive from me and they have several departments. One for taking ppl with developmental disabilities who work to too and from work, and.One department for staff to come to their home weekly to do whatever like me I learn grocery shopping bc I have trouble staying on task and I just dropped my representative payee and became my own payee meaning I handle my own bills. But never done it so that is in home help. Anyway. They said I have Aspergers and borderline MR (mental retardation) But my mom that she doesn't think the latter one is probably true but that if it helps a little with services then ok just know its probably not true in reality. I was just diagnosed at 15 and then a little later tried to get social security and help like what Platte County Board of services does and I was denied we fought it for 7years b.s. I was told I'm too high functioning to qualify. My mom says that I did qualify but it took 7 years to prove that with iq tests. Some said im smart and some said no b.s. Like I can't do math at all even basic math and I can't remember short term well and I have face blindness like I can't see a person on.tv and automatically remember their name or sometimes I'm thinking of a person and forget the name and need to see their face to jog my memory of their name. That's probably where the MR comescomes in. I honestly don't think that's anythingbutif it helps me get somewherethen goodI guess I just won't go telling people that because that's probably not as accuratebut they probably had to give somethingto get me in because I was a little higher functioning. But basically I probably don't cry because of these things. I have trouble processing and thinking and catching up it's probably why I have to face blindness I have steered people in the face and said I have no idea what your name is remind me and I've known them for years so they remind me of their name and I like dog and then I don't forget it for the rest of ever I just had that one moment that I've never forgotten it again or something . That's probably like my driving I can't seem to remember the things that I do even know I've been told many times I look at it and I'm like uhhhhh. like I took permit tests fine every time I take my permit test but when it comes to the actual driving I know what I'm doing but I get like"uhhhhh" and I some reason can't figure it out. I had gone to a hospital that had a driving program for people with disabilities and they said I was a little bit lower and behind for where I should be for my age with driving but that I was teachable it was just gonna be hard . They discovered my depth perception horrible but they could work with it. They discovered that my reaction time isn't the best . I do have good reflexes but it's kind of an oxymoron because I have great reflex skills but when it comes to exiting a street and going to a different street or coming out of the street and going to a busy intersection I have to wait for an adequate gap in the traffic before I can turn left or right out of my neighborhood onto the intersection or busy street and I cannot process how long I should wait before I go or I cannot adequately process and measure the gap between each car and how long I should wait between car a and car b going before I go because the car b might be too close behind car a that I have to wait for another adequate gap or is car a far enough in front of car b that I can go between them before car b gets caught up because if I wait too long then car b will have caught up and I have to wait for the gap behind him before I can go and I don't think about that I think they're too close together I'm gonna wait for a long enough gap that I'm comfortable going into the intersection but then I think no I will just go and by the time I thought I will just go it's too late because car b has now had enough time to catch up that I can't go anymore but I've already tried to go and I can't back up again and now it might cause car b to hit me. but I can't back up so I got an out floor it which is dangerous because I'm not very good at making the turns end I'm not very good at getting it to do correctly I have to slow around and get into my lane and that exact scenario I cannot master had a six-week driving program with a one-on-one instructor in my neighborhood . Plus I cannot seem to remember to stay in my late I want to seem to veer left and I don't know why maybe that has to do with that perception with not knowing how close I am even when I walk I like to veer left and it's not because of the body tilting or because of balance problems or anything I just seem to not pay attention or whatever it is and they seem to want to go to your left and I just don't even realize that I'm doing it I have to focus and pay attention and there's a lot going on and some reason don't pay attention or something. Even when I'm walking across the street I look make sure there's no cars coming and then I try to go and I don't always notice there's a car that actually was coming up the hill so I immediately back back where I came from sometimes I think I have enough time to run across the street at the car was closer than I realized that I've now got to book it fast or sometimes I don't walk fast enough across the street while I'm talking to somebody who was also walking and that slows me down and I need to focus on walking across and then talking to the person because cars are coming and they honk at me to get out of the way. and that's all a lot with my driving I don't go fast enough. I don't think about going because I'm talking or thinking about something else or I'm distracted by a site around my car and I think about going and then when I catch up and I like oh maybe I should go and I want to go it's too late because cars are coming . And I just got denied driving by the whole process so I was told not now but in the future when I'm older and I want to try again I have the right to but at this time it's a no . And it's a safety thing for myself and for others but that means not getting out and not having anywhere to go and not having any fun and that somebody wants to pick me up and take me but none of my friends live close enough I would have to call up my friend Christine for a day to hang out and see if she's willing to come all the way out here 45 minute drive to get me and take me to where I want to go and we make it a girls day like if I want to go to worlds of fun themepark then I say would you like to go to well-defined I can get us tickets you have to come and pick me up and we both go out there but I can get the tickets and we make a day around her schedule that way she doesn't feel as much like a taxi taking me so I can have fun and get out of my house but it's also getting a chance to see my friend but doing that all the time is a burden and taxing for them . I used to ask everybody to take me to the store . I would ask my mom if she had a day in the week where she could take me to the store because I'm out of food or I would ask my dad when he had time in the week to take me to the store or I would call up all my friends and ask which one of them had a day off in a week and was able since my parents couldn't and some days I couldn't find anybody and I was freaking out how my gonna get around because I'm out of food and that was a pain to figure out and I had to do free food program delivered monthly because of that for a long time that I don't need that anymore but as far as going out to dinner I never do going to the movies and never do going to theme parks or to go bowling or your average get out of the house stuff I can't ever do because I don't drive and I would have to ask someone to come and take me for that. Does anyone else have this problem? I see more of people that are on the spectrum who can drive and are very good it just took three tries or don't care to drive but I've never seen anybody in my position.

 

[Suzanne]

I was astonished when I got a chance to drive and how natural it felt. Gone was my severe social anxiety. I felt soooo free.

I used to say that I can't drive, but now say: I don't have my licence, which is very true.

I could never drive Manuel though and the man that took me out in the car, ascertained that I am better off with automatic. Too many things to do at the same time and I am not a multi tasked.

I live in France and would have to learn the highway code, which for the most part, I know, but in French, just not possible.

They have cars that do not need a licence, but way out of our price range and thus, no go for me.

 

[Turanga Veela]

When I took driver's ed at 15, I was first in my class... for the book portion. My road tests, on the other hand, were absolutely abysmal! My spatial judgement and coordination are less than average now, but back then... oy. I didn't start driving until my mid-twenties.

Living in Upper Michigan, our school did us a grave disservice by not doing some of the training on snow and ice, and I can honestly say that I'm lucky -- on several near-miss counts -- that I never had an accident. I'm much better off driving here in the west.

These days I like driving well enough, if I'm on familiar roads, and there's not much traffic. Long-distance roads are fine. City interchanges may someday kill me, if I expose myself to them enough. It's a shame; we live so close to SF, and there are museums I'm dying to get to, but my husband hates going down there, and I'm pretty much terrified to drive in the city and do it myself. Bit of Golden Gate phobia, too.

Seems like driving in much of California is really a necessity, with kids and not-great public transit. I do worry that my reflexes aren't quick enough, should the need for a split-second decision arise. And thanks to my lack of people-reading skills, four-way stops that aren't clear-cut can be a real delight.

 

[Warmheart]

Dyspraxia, it's a thing. I cannot control my body well enough to drive. Epic clumsiness, my own Ministry of Silly Walks.
I was 12 when I first could reliably tie my own shoes. My eyesight is also challenged, but my ASD means I couldn't operate a car anyway. I be-bop around by bus and on foot.

 

[Crossbreed]

Warmheart , how about bicycling?

 

[Warmheart]

Crossbreed, I loved bicycling! I space out however, and have wandered unawares (while on the bike ) into traffic, have been hit by car, hospitalized. No more biking. I'm challenged with paying attention/focus. I write forum posts in segments, keep coming back to it. Autistic inner world has some mighty strong pull!