Your aspiness behind the wheel?

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Ah - Parallel parking! Good call...I'm not good at it either.

I'm sure I could get better at it, but what stresses me out most is looking like a total idiot in front of other people if I don't get it right the first time.

Oh, and I can't drive stick...my ex-husband tried to teach me, but managed only to get me in tears in 5 minutes. I think that speaks more to him being an a**hole and less of me being an idiot, though...

My driving is okay, but I have to know exactly where I'm going or I'll miss turns or go the wrong way. People (ie. my parents) apparently always expected me to stare out the window and make note of every turn we took when we went anywhere, so they didn't understand why I didn't always know my way around when I started trying to drive. I guess I just don't build mental maps that way. I check Google Maps before I go anywhere, and that's usually good enough.

Aside from my actually driving ability, my anxiety about driving (especially with someone next to me giving orders and scrutinizing my every action) and having to deal with parents that generally don't think I'm capable of driving has prevented me from actually getting a license so far.

I intend to change that, but I don't know when I'll ever work up the nerve to make it happen.

I've always been an excellent driver. One year, I got a discount on my insurance for having a perfect driving record. The only accident I had, was one in which another person was driving drunk and totaled my car. I used to like driving at night, but now my night vision has gotten really bad.

I've just celebrated my 63rd B-day, and didn't get a driving license until 2 - 3 years ago, and only had my first car for a couple years (unfortunately, it's old and broke down last christmas, fixed and ran for two months before the rear brakes went; I don't seem to have an ideal perception for proper maintenance).

I first drove a '84 GMC Diesel Suburban for practice, and experience (drove, with my then wife from SF to San Diego to bring back the daughter's household goods for moving north), and something large like that gave me the confidence to drive on the freeway (HWY 101), but driving a little '83 Subaru Turbo wagon I avoid the freeway. If I want to go to Santa Rosa or anywhere else for that matter, I take the back roads where there's only one lane of traffic in each direction; I don't like the freeway traffic jams and people cutting in, changing lanes, etc ... makes me uneasy.

I avoided getting a license for years as I didn't believe I would be good enough; I had read and observed about "aggressive" driving, and I've never been an aggressive person. I seem to be careful, and I note that I concentrate hard on the road, don't ususally play the radio, and don't try to converse with a passenger. I had to finally give in and learn to drive or face greater isolation after retirement.

Good for you, johnpipe108! For myself, I didn't learn to drive until I was in my thirties.

I learned to drive early, and do a total of 60 miles each day in commuting. This is in New Jersey, where the traffic is the absolute worst: It's a combination of California raceways, NYC parking lots, and a general crossfire... all on narrow twisting roads (three lanes is a major highway around here, and most roads are one lane each direction)...

On top of that, New Jersey gets all the extremes in weather: more snow than 80% of the country (except places like Colorado...), more rain than alot of the country (except maybe seattle), searing hot 100+ days in the summer, and lots of leaves everywhere during the fall (especially in suburban areas),,,

So yeah, I have alot to put up with... at least all those years of video gaming did wonders for my coordination...

My eyes aren't the greatest and I have difficulty maneuvering my small car in tight spaces. I also hate driving on busy interstates so avoid the busy ones if I can. The other day my Mom was shocked when I told her that I'd never driven a certain stretch of extremely busy interstate in our since I'd got my driver's license five years ago. All of the places that I'd use that interstate for to get to I can get to by other ways, so I avoid it like the plague-especially when the weather's bad and it's one long accident.

Drollchick, I'm sure you could learn to drive stick if you had the right teacher and got lots of practice time. I learned to drive on a stick and have never driven an automatic. It wasn't easy to learn how to drive stick, but I had lots of practice and the best teachers in the world-my parents

I've been driving for 20+ years.

When I get in the car and have to drive somewhere I haven't been for a little while, I sometimes have no idea how to start. I have to work out (mentally) my route as I go along.

Also, sometimes I'm so "disconnected" that I start driving to familiar places instead of to where I want to go. Not so much miss turns as just don't take them.

I hate driving, and I wish I had someone to do it for me. For reference, I got my licence 20 years ago.

I've recently made a decision to never drive anywhere if the roads are slushy, snowy or worse.. Even though I can drive properly in those conditions, there are lots of other people out on the road who can't, and I can't predict what they're going to do.

I first learned to drive with a manual transmission. Later, I concluded that fiddling with a stick-shift is way too much to deal with in certain situations, so I now only choose automatics. I can still drive a manual transmission if I have to, but I would never buy a car that required it. Using a stick-shift during slow-speed maneuvers is what I hate the most. I once had an accident because I was too busy fiddling with the stickshift instead of accelerating when I should've (should've been driving an automatic in the first place!).

I can drive a car or truck, reverse a trailer, fly an aeroplane and a helicopter, sail a boat.... but motorbikes scare the crap out of me.

I find it very difficult to answer even a simpl;e question whilst doing any of these.

I can navigate across 20 miles of strange city with merely a glance at the map... or i used to.. my internal compass broke several years ago.

I didn't attempt any vehicular license tests until i was 28

I'm acutally a pretty good driver, and haven't had any tickets or accidents. I did get my license relatively late, which was right after I turned 30. I'm a very defensive driver, and am ready to hit the brakes to avoid an accident, usually from someone not looking before turning or changing lanes in front of me.

Don't be embarrassed, you are taking the scenic route

I spent the first 7 years of my life or so living in NJ before moving to NY. Recently I drove down to NJ to visit some old teachers and see my old neghboorhood (I lived in sewell NJ, near Turnersville near philly). I must say never have I experienced such awful traffic, your roads are pretty rough down their, but the worst is the drivers. I suppose when you are conditioned to it its ok, but everybody is so agressive and horribly impatent, traffic is dense always and I got lost quite a few times, it was the worst of my experiences down their, but still I loved being where I have not been in 17 years, brought back alot of memories and visiting my neghboorhood, seeing people who knew me (and undoubtely probably wondered about my fate as they knew I rode the short bus and was in special ed as a small boy.) I am not sure if they knew I had autism and was DX'ed, mom and dad kept that a secret I think from some neghboors, they knew I was different, but sooooo happy to see me after 17 years and know I did well for myself and returned, obviously not forgot about it.

Anyways when I lived down their I dont remember the terrible temperatures, and dont recall that much snow at all, I always thought winters here in CNY were wayyyyy harder then down their wayyyyyy more snow + lake effect and all. Then again we did have an air conditoner attatched to the house where when we moved here we did not.

Ya, I seriously thought I was going to die driving down their, or total my new car, you guys are crazy .

I always had a very special place in my heart for that part of NJ, it was worth it and I needed to go down, it felt soo good, ok... sorry for the hijack

I drive almost 30,000 miles a year or my job, and I take the task of driving very seriously. Much more seriously it seems than most other American drivers do. I can drive pretty good I think, and I have intense focus when I do. I don't like to have distractions while driving. For example, I usually don't listen to the radio, but if I do it's usually music...no talk or rant radio. I usually do not like to have any more than one other person in the car with me.

One of the interesting and odd things about my driving is the type of vehicle that I tend to do best in. I learned to drive on my mom's old 1978 Honda Civic, which became my car when she got a new one. The car didn't have power steering or brakes, and had a 5-speed transmission. The little car's nimble handling and good road feedback made it great to learn to drive on. The problem with me came when I started driving other, larger vehicles, like pickup trucks and full-size cars. These vehicles have very loose, over-assisted steering and brakes that had minimal road feel. I feel disconnected from the vehicle and the road when driving something like this, and I end up wandering around in the lane, taking turns too quickly, or poorly articulating the brakes. Vehicles like this are simply hard to control since they are so big and numb. I still cannot seem to figure out why SUV's are so popular considering they are such a challenge to drive. I see people driving these things like they are sports cars as they slop all over the place through turns and stuff....I can barely keep one on the road!

When I drive, I sometimes seem to get too involved in the task. For me, I am in a constant state of mental alertness, watching all the vehicles around me and making sure they are all accounted for. I'm watching my speed, watching others speed, my following distance, and everything else thats going on around me. I even try an look ahead to see if things are going to slow down or change. I've sort of gotten to the point that I can "read" other drivers and can determine when someone will make a stupid move long before it happens. For example, when a lane slows down, there's always at least one driver that makes an abrupt lane change out of that lane.

Now, it may sound like this intense focus is a good thing, and yes, it has made me accident and ticket free for several years, but the problem is that I become so focused and over stimulated by watching the road that I mentally burn out after focusing so much attention. I also don't take threats to my safety on the road lightly, and I must watch myself that I don't get into road rage and endanger myself and others when someone else is being careless. I find when I get like this that a distraction is a good thing, so I will turn on the radio or the CB or something that will take my mind momentarily off the situation and let me settle back down.

I was watching a show tonight on the Autobahn in Germany. Driving over there is taken much more seriously than here in the USA. Germans don't eat, phone or do other things in their car...they just drive. Getting a driver's license is much more expensive and the test is much more challenging. Traffic infractions are not to generate revenue for local governments, but to actually make the roads safer. The fines for traffic infractions get higher based on a percentage of your income. They have a camera system they use to bust people for tailgating, passing on the right is illegal, and so is no yielding the left lane to faster traffic. America needs to learn for the Germans how to make a safe highway. We built our Interstate system in the fifties based on the Autobahns in Germany, but in reality, it's a weak, lame imitation of it with it's poor maintenance, and engineering lame licensing requirements, and lack of true safety enforcement.

I would love to drive in Germany simply because the other drivers would be putting more effort and thought into staying safe on the road!

I like to drive, when there's little traffic. Sometimes I just wander, to pass time.

I use to like to drive. It was a childhood dream come true. Soon after I started though I had some issues with day dreaming. It never caused me to have an accident, but I would always come back to reality closer to my destination with no recollection of the journey that had passed. I have had many issues keeping track of so many things on the road. Through either my own stupidity or bad luck (I don't believe in luck), I have had almost a dozen accidents. I am 26 now and hate driving. I freak out at the thought of even being a passenger, the best I can do is to sike myself out of what is going on and literally "buckle up and zone out".