How are you with driving?

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The only thing that bothers me is that my Fiance is always pressuring me to get my license and stuff. He knows how crazy I drive! I don't know what he is thinking.

I hate driving if I worry about getting lost. I'm one of those people that once spent two hours wandering around her own neighborhood due to taking a wrong turn out of the grocery store parking lot on foot.

If I worry about getting lost, or get upset with myself or the situation when I get lost, then it's really stressful.

If I just figure I'll get found, I'll get there, I'll be all right, and focus on not breaking any major traffic laws or causing any accidents, I'm usually OK.

I HATE driving in the city, though. I will not drive in downtown Pittsburgh unless I have no viable choice-- I will walk for miles, with the kids, and then carry groceries and whining children back to the car (or skip the market district all together, though I love it, and just go to the local grocery) rather than attempt to bring the car into the city proper on my own.

I hate driving unless it's on a familiar road because there's so much to concentrate on. I'm always afraid of running into someone or I suffer from hyperfocus and I am unaware of everything around me but the road in front of me. It also doesn't help that I'm driving a car older than I am and I can't adjust the seat much in order to get comfortable. It hurts my shoulders when I drive for more than 10 minutes.

I hate to drive and didn't get licensed until I was almost 21 (very unusual for southern California where driving is about as expected as reading). I tried to learn in high school but never got the knack. I am OK behind the wheel now for the most part except that I am rubbish at parking. Somehow I've never managed to learn where my car ends, as it were? So I have a lot of dings and scratches on my bumpers. I've never been in a real collision. Like many of you I don't have much of a sense of direction. Happily my current city has sequentially named streets in a grid, so as long as I am near my house I have some sense of where I am just by looking at the street name.

One recommendation I have for all of you is that in a lot of major cities, Google Maps now has street view coverage for most major routes. I used to fret a lot over not knowing which lane I needed to be in (I am terrified by the idea of having to merge across 4 lanes quickly!) but now what I do is just "drive the route" at home before I go someplace, using the Google Maps pictures at each milestone so I learn how the route will look in advance. Then when I actually have to get someplace, it's like I'm familiar with it; I can remember landmarks before my exits and turns from studying the pictures, which makes me way more comfortable.

Yes, this has the rather stupid side effect of making my "prep work" for driving sometimes take longer than the actual trip! But it's worth it not to have that last minute panic of "Oh no, which lane do I go in? Do I turn here? Is that a one-way street??" If I study in advance it all becomes much less stressful.

OP: I am almost exactly like this too. I want to take myself and kid out more - o.k., at least once in a while - but it is so uncomfortable and scary/nerve wracking.
I have to go on a one hour + drive and then turn around and come back today and it is making me feel like an animal needing to run away to a safe place. But I committed to doing this and have to go through with it.
Remember in that book Watership Down, where the young female rabbit gets all starey eyed and freezes up when she gets frightened? That was called fairn, I think, if I remember correctly. That is how I start feeling before I have to go and sometimes even in the car. ! My eyes just don't want to deal with all the stimulation and the stress. I'm packing some calm music cds and hoping that will help but it might just be confusing.

hahaha i did that once when i was just starting out. 90 degree corner. came off a highway doing 60km/hr, kept pressing the petrol, mounted the median strip, missed a pole by 2 inches, turned 180 degrees, mounted the footpath on the other side of the street and almost drove into a wall. you should'a seen the expression on my dads face. fun times.
im not boasting or anything but now i drive like God. i like driving but i dont do it often. i take public transport more often than not.

I'm fine with driving. I used to be afraid of driving on the interstate in Northern VA but I'm fine with it. I know this one lady that has been driving for years can't pump her own gas. I can. The only thing that made me confused when I first started driving is turning on the turning signals. I haven't driven around the busy parts of Washington DC. I think I would be confused. I haven't really done much downtown area driving. Mainly I drive to grocery stores, shopping malls, pet supply stores, or the parking garage at the train station.

I have a driver's licence but am an absolutely rubbish driver - I don't seem to have a very good 'sense' of the road. It's not a question of confidence or experience, rather it's just that I don't have a feel for driving, unlike other people.

I HATE DRIVING. Like what other people said, there is just too much going on for me to focus on, I can't keep my eyes on the road! Even the lines on the road sometimes confuse me if there are too many, and at night I can't tell which ones are yellow and which ones are white!

I got my license at 18 because my mother pushed me into it, and I always get it renewed before it expires so that I don't have to take the test again. I still can't believe I passed it the first time, I was shaking like a leaf.

Plus again, like others, my sense of direction is terrible. I get lost just walking down the street from my place. Thank goodness for technology that allows me to have a smartphone with a built-in GPS and compass, otherwise I wouldn't be able to go anywhere!

Also, I'm lucky I live in a city with great public transportation. I love the bus system where I live and would be fine using it for the rest of my life.

I am 28 and people constantly bother me to finish the test. I will get a permit drive for awhile and stop. The cause for my anxiety isn't that I cannot. It is the music stations. When I was a teen someone told me they make you turn the radio on while driving without looking. The idea of taking my hand off the wheel when I keep them at ten and two causes me so much anxiety I refuse to go through with the road test. Anyone else feel this way? I finally told my husband the truth after 12 yrs of him asking me to take the test.

So glad to see that other people find driving uncomfortable as well. NT's always thought I was "crazy" for finding driving to be a hassle. I don't know why they love to drive so much. In New Jersey, you had to drive to get anywhere, but I always stayed on local roads and avoided major highways like the plague. I also never drove in unfamiliar places or anywhere long distance. My friends always got annoyed at me because every time we would venture outside town, they would have to do the driving. I don't have to drive in the UK since the public transportation system is so much better here, and I love it. I would be happy to never have to sit behind the wheel again.

It's all coming together so much better now! I haven't had a car for 5 years and I hated, HATED driving. I've driven maybe 3 times in the last 5 years and it's been a nail biting experience every time. I'm so hyperaware of everything when I'm driving that it make me a very cautious, good driver (Only accident I've ever gotten into was getting rear ended by someone else and never gotten any tickets).

So glad I'm not the only one who dislikes...everyone at work was making me feel like a freak for not driving.

I choose not to drive for ideological reasons as well, but I. Just. HATE. Driving.