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Problems with driving?

epath13

the Fool.The Magician.The...
V.I.P Member
Does anyone have problems on the road? Do you take highways, freeways, tollways? besides the payment for toll I don't really know the difference between them :) Does music distract you or help you to focus?
 
my problem is i never feel that i'm stable inside my lane. perhaps i overthink it (but also because i refuse to match the high speeds (as in exceeding limits) of all other vehicles, making it so i'm always having traffic going past me and never any reference point to focus my eye on or center on). i have to drive in a way that boosts my overall efficiency of the fuel. i don't do every known hypermiling technique because my ignition had an issue so i can no longer cut off the whole engine in neutral as i coast into a long intersection stop, but i do subscribe to avoidance of unnecessary loss of momentum, by attempting to avoid building it up and keeping stable speeds and a consistent route. where does everyone think they are going to get so much faster by driving inefficiently and dangerously fast?
 
Heh. I tend to one of those people who do speed, but it's more of a bad habit than anything else. I have a bit of a leadfoot sometimes but I can stick to the speed limit when I make a conscious effort. I'm better than what I was a few years back - lots of speeding tickets made life expensive, plus being chased by the police down the freeway was rather interesting...

I don't really have problems with driving, per se. The actual action of driving doesn't really bother me, and I actually do like driving. Directionally, I'm very bad, so thank God for my GPS.

What I do have is a problem with parallel parking. I find it very difficult to judge the space, so I try not to parallel park unless absolutely necessary.
 
It took me a while to get over the clumsiness and nervousness while driving. But once I practiced and found tricks and routines, I became a surprisingly good driver. What I do seem to revert back to "bad driver" when I'm trying to follow unclear directions, or when other people are in the car yelling at things. My pet peeve would be people yelling that they saw a police car (I never, ever sped or did anything ilillegal) so it would just jerk me into a nervous paranoia for no reason, which ended up pissing me off.

With that said, I still hate having to drive places. I'm so happy I don't have to now.
 
I haven't taken my test yet but I do enjoy driving, providing I know where I'm going and am confident I can get there. Whether I enjoy driving is also dependent on the passengers I'm travelling with; if they keep calm, I keep calm, and can drive well for the most part. If I've got someone with me and they're stressing, it stresses me, and I'm more likely to make a mistake due to being too hasty when stressed. In general though, I do like to drive; I can do the maneuvres and have gotten pretty good at reversing around corners lately. I just hope I can pass my test when I take it.
 
I don't have any problem with driving at all despite only having gotten my license 2 years ago at 22 and having taken what was pretty much a crash course on basic driving skills. After 2 years everything else fell into place.

The only exceptions are during heavy traffic or areas where there may be little room for driver's error (downtown, winding roads, blind corner, etc.). Those scenarios make me nervous; fortunately, much of my commute isn't during the day but @ night which makes it easier to focus on the road ahead of me rather than everything else beside me.
 
It took me kind of a long time to get used to driving; I don't think that I really got used to it until I was 19 or so (My NT sister took to it a bit faster than I did). Got in a couple of minor accidents when I was 17, but thankfully I haven't had any that were my fault since then (I narrowly avoided accidents in a couple of cases). I can tolerate driving most of the time, but I'm not all that comfortable with it unless I'm pretty familiar with the route that I'm taking to get somewhere and it's a fairly short trip. I'm not really comfortable doing much highway driving, and I'm scared shitless of the idea of having to drive in a really big city and deal with serious traffic (I've always kind of had to depend on my dad or other family members for that). At some point, I'd like to live where I would be able to get by without having a car or only have to use one minimally and be able to walk/bicycle/use public transport most of the time (of course, I doubt that I would want to deal with having to take the subway in New York City or somewhere like that very often).
 
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It took me kind of a long time to get used to driving; I don't think that I really got used to it until I was 19 or so (My NT sister took to it a bit faster than I did). Got in a couple of minor accidents when I was 17, but thankfully I haven't had any that were my fault since then (I narrowly avoided accidents in a couple of cases). I can tolerate driving most of the time, but I'm not all that comfortable with it unless I'm pretty familiar with the route that I'm taking to get somewhere and it's a fairly short trip.

Haha!
19 is the exact age I started comfortably driving.
The rest of your post pretty much sums up my "comfortable" driving, actually.
 
my problem is i never feel that i'm stable inside my lane.

I have the same issue sometimes. I do match the speed, I'm obsessed with matching :) but on occasion I have a feeling that if I move my eyes away from the center my car will just fly off the road, it can become quite overwhelming but exhilarating at the same time :)

And I do like driving, it calms me down and helps me think. I do always have to remind myself to look at the middle of the road, and at the traffic lights and at other cars next to me, all those important points especially at night or late evening when my perception starts playing jokes on me.
 
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I actually hit the side of a bus in one of my driving lessons because I looked too early while waiting at a junction and pulled out before checking again. I was pretty shaken up about it, but my instructor tells me it was a blessing in disguise; she says my driving has improved a lot since the incident. Thankfully though nobody's died as a result of poor driving on my part... yet... :p
 
I don't have much problems with driving . . . I just hate doing it.

I don't get how anyone can enjoy doing something as repetitive and boring as driving a vehicle. What makes it even less pleasurable is knowing that you're risking your life every time you go out on the road. Knowing this makes me experience anxiety when driving but the anxiety doesn't affect my driving negatively; if anything, it improves my driving by making me extra alert.
 
I disliked driving on city streets for a while. The only way I came to be OK with it was to drive the same route tens of times. This allowed me to practice things I needed to work on (turns, lane changes, etc.) in an environment that I knew what to expect in. That made it a lot easier for me to get enough practice to be able to do a better job driving in other situations and be able to focus more attention on the other people on the road instead of the mechanics of driving.

However, I still think driving to a new place is dangerous. Having to watch for the right turnoff and other cars at the same time is difficult for me and always is unpleasant.
 
I disliked driving on city streets for a while. The only way I came to be OK with it was to drive the same route tens of times. This allowed me to practice things I needed to work on (turns, lane changes, etc.) in an environment that I knew what to expect in. That made it a lot easier for me to get enough practice to be able to do a better job driving in other situations and be able to focus more attention on the other people on the road instead of the mechanics of driving.

However, I still think driving to a new place is dangerous. Having to watch for the right turnoff and other cars at the same time is difficult for me and always is unpleasant.

That's pretty much like me. I'm not really comfortable with having to do the somewhat complex multitasking necessary when driving in an unfamiliar area.
 
In general I like to drive, especially in quiet roads, but I have to be very careful when driving on parking lots; only a couple of weeks ago I bumped against some shopping carts. Also, I tend to get these really odd panic attacks while waiting in traffic lights - I feel I don't know how to get the car moving again, so I keep thinking of what to do (push the gas pedal, change gears etc.). It's really annoying, and sometimes I get a bumpy start because I push the gas pedal way too much.
 

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