Bad driving habits explained by "context blindness"

Post Reply New Topic

People don't like riding in the car when I'm driving.

I've never been able to apply constant pressure to the accelerator to keep myself at speed so I'm constantly applying slightly more, then slightly less pressure, then slightly more, then slightly less, ad infinitum.
I've been doing it for so long I do it unconsciously.

I'm told it feels weird and sometimes makes people a little queasy, but I don't even notice it.

I'm a very safe driver, I feel, but I have been told I drive jerky, and on a couple of occasions people puked from car sickness (although maybe not entirely my fault). There have been a few times, when I was learning, when I got so nervous that I made a stupid decision that was dangerous, but I've since learned to just avoid some things (unprotected left turns, U-turns, construction, rush hour, etc).

I have a sort of special interest in things like right of way, safety, and I love focusing on trying to anticipate other peoples actions while driving. I recently avoided a t-bone accident by recognizing what was about to happen (Driver was on cell phone and smoking a cigarette, blew a stop sign 25 feet back and barely stopped for crossing a major street), which honestly made my month. I've never actually been in an accident while I was driving, but I've had close calls. I think if I had an accident, I'd probably stop driving forever, but for now, I just make sure to drive awake, sober, quiet and focused.

Yeah, I'm totally like this too!! For a while I was doing it unconsciously, but my wife "halfway cured" me, I've improved and it's a more instinctive response, but never got completely embedded in my unconscious - sometimes I'll regress back to my old ways. Again, I don't think it's so much a function of motor skills or executive function and processing speed, but just picking up and responding to dynamic contextual factors (that is, flow of traffic) - a challenge that, for us, is beyond the social realm - apparently.

We just can't seem to conform or "go with the flow" both literally and figuratively, it would seem