Do you have trouble driving?

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I love cars!! ! I love driving "spiritedly" I like working on cars, well, cars before 1986-ish, carbs and no computers! It just makes sense. air, fuel, spark, zoom. Mechanics and engineering have always as far back as I can remember just absolutely fascinated me, learned everything I could about cars, trucks, small engines, trains, ships. Now I can go for a ride in almost any car and tell you whats wrong with it, just by listening, much to my boyfriends dismay....


I don't do night driving very well, photosensitive and random head light flashes in pitch black daze me. Not enough stimuli to keep me entertained for long night drives on the highway. Considering installing a HUD on the dash and using super bright IR LED's and a decent HD webcam.... for the long dark stretches you know...

During the day though, look out!

My car isn't very fast or powerful. But in the city it's a blast to drive, for a 26 year old Honda Civic hatchback.

1300cc's of raw power, 5spd with a centerforce stage 2 racing clutch.

After a fresh coat of Porsche Arctic Silver and a few coats of clear. I wub my Civic!
[img][800:768]http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e320/HarleyQuinneWY6/PHYNWHYN/IMGP3275.jpg[/img]
That little guy is my best friend Stewie.

I can't believe no one here likes to drive cars.
I love it!
Somehow I am very good at it to, I see every little thing. Which is important if you live in a bike/tourist infested city like I do. Maybe it is the AS I don't know.
But at night, I just can't handle oncoming traffic with their headlights. Even if it is dimmed I can't see a thing.

I love to drive, but hate heavy traffic.

The stress and anxiety kills me, and I may have a meltdown... happened twice in my life... not proud.

I've never managed to pass driving licence exams.

Driving was the most diffucult thing on earth I've ever tried. To decide when it is possible to change the lane was too much, until I've analysed the situation it has twice changed....

I found it very, very hard to learn to drive. I can do one thing at a time, which means either control the car or look where I'm going – not both! Once I'd managed to learn manipulate the controls automatically through muscle memory, though, I became a good driver and for the most part I enjoy driving. As long as it's daylight and there's no-one else in the car...

I don't often have to drive anyone else around as I have no partner or children, but I do go out wildlife watching with a friend sometimes. She pushes my wheelchair around the nature reserves, so I do the driving. It's sooooo difficult to drive and hold a conversation at the same time, I've never got on top of it. I reckon my driving abilities go down by at least 15% when there's just someone else present in the car and even more if they're feeling chatty.

Worse still is going to new places. I can get lost after one turning, and spend most of my time pulling over to have yet another look at the map. I do have a sat-nav now, which helps enormously, but I persistently misunderstand the instructions it gives out (e.g., 'After 400 yards, keep left' – but I only hear the last bit and filter left as soon as I see the next opportunity, irrespective of how far away it is), so I still get lost. My lack of any sense of direction at all is a real disability; the inability to follow verbal instructions varies with how tired I am. I get badly lost with the sat-nav on my way home from somewhere far more often than on the way there.

I hate driving at night, especially on fast unlit roads. I get totally dazzled by the oncoming headlights, and can't see very well for a few seconds after I've passed another car – really dangerous. I'll only do it if I have absolutely no other alternative, which of course means I don't get practice at it; which in turn makes it more difficult.

I dont drive because I dont trust myself. I have always had a tendency to "zone out" . I have done it my whole life, just stare into space and go into another world. I use a bike for transport and I even zone out while riding, have to make a real effort to concentrate.

In addition to this I have some narcolepsy time symptoms, triggered by vibrations/humming just like you get in a motorised vehicle. If it is just right I can fall into a deep asleep instantly.

having a lot of anxiety from work makes driving a real chore, been in a few accidents cuz of it, used to be a fine driver though when i started, but had to drive to every job since then and now I hate it

I love driving.

I like driving now, but I didn't when I first started. My mother made me get my license and take driving lessons at age 17, so that I could learn to be more independent. It was very stressful keep track of everything at once, maintaining a certain speed, knowing how much to turn the wheel or how much pressure was needed on the pedals, uncertainty about what other vehicles were going to do.

Parking and highway driving were the two hardest parts for me. I still have a difficult time parking - I haven't parallel parked or backed-in to a space since my last driving exam 10 years ago. I've only been in two accidents, both times I hit a parked car while trying to exit a space. Getting on and off the highway ramps was hardest because I couldn't gauge how fast the other cars were going in order to merge. Highway driving was so anxiety inducing, but now I've nearly completely overcome my fears after years of practice - where I live, it is very hard to avoid commuting, so I didn't have a lot of choice but to practice. Mind you, going to a new place is very stressful for me because I am directionally challenged - I have a GPS, but as others have mentioned, it doesn't always help because I can't always react in time to it's directions.

Things that work for me:
- I didn't use the radio for the first two or three years, one less thing to distract me
- mastered on-ramps by having a patient friend in the passenger seat giving me advice if I had room to merge and what speed I should be going at, and with time I learned to do it on my own
- I don't offer to drive people, especially when it's somewhere I'm unfamiliar with
- GPS helps, but I still look at my route ahead of time, plus I try and right down markers or street names so that if I pass them I know I've missed a turn
- learning to drive defensively (a.k.a trying to anticipate the mistakes and pitfalls of the other drivers, so that you can react appropriately and avoid collisions) really reduced my fears of other people doing stupid stuff and disobeying the rules
- practice and exposure does make things better if you can overcome the anxiety in the first place

Things I still struggle with:
- parking is always a challenge, I just park far away and walk and I try and give myself extra time if I know I'm going somewhere where this might be required
- night driving with all of the glare and halos around lights is overwhelm - my partner usually does the night driving
- winter weather and heavy rain can still be very anxiety inducing because it's a lot of extra visual stimuli and it also changes the road conditions

-Parking: Practice practice practice. Reverse parking and reversing with mirrors took me a long time to learn, Now I can reverse a B-train (Big rig and two full length trailers) I've only done it once but it was gratifying.

- Night driving: The glare is bad for me, all the flashing lights from store signs to tail lights to those super f'ing bright LED billboards dazzle me. My ability drive between parked cars on a single lane diminishes, I can't judge distances as well. I think your halo problem might be from a need for glasses or time for a new prescription.

- Winter driving: Got me there, I LOVE WINTER DRIVING!! !! I drive a super light car, but in the winter I throw on a set of Nokian Hakkapeliitta 7 studded tires and it's like driving on dry summer roads. One winter when we were delivering pizza's for something to do at night in the dead of winter with ice on all the roads, I only had studs on the front tires and bald all seasons on the back, So. Much. Fun. Heel-toe down into second just before the apex of the turn, give the wheel a touch of opposite lock from the direction I need to go, hit the apex and flick the wheel back in the direction I need to go, upsetting the balance of the car breaking loose traction to the rear wheels, power through rest of corner by giving dashes and dabs of the throttle, going generally slideways. No need for e-braking..... Sorry, I just really love winter driving.

- Heavy rain: Yeah, I just find the nearest place to pull over and stop. When it gets bad enough that I can't "see" then I'm a hazard and I have to get off the road.

I know what you mean. Here in the UK, even a small amount of snow panics most people. They either stay off the roads or end up in a ditch. I just get out the trials car - light weight, rear wheel drive, plenty of power and summer tyres. Perfect ingredients for sideways fun on virtually deserted roads The only down side is the lack of doors and puny heater.

I'm 19 and I still don't have my driver's license. I did take driver's ed at 16 and got my learner's permit at 17, but it's been expired for almost a year now. I gave up on learning to drive over a year ago. It's something I have very minimal interest in. I live in small town with no public transportation and the closest big-box store is 15 miles from my house, so I have to bum rides off of other people, which is a hassle. I'm hoping to move to Milwaukee soon, so I don't have to bum rides off of other people.

Ugh, I HATE driving! I always feel like I'm too close to everything on the right side of my car.

I also either get distracted by signs or tend to forget that I have to read AND drive. It's difficult to distinguish which exit I'm supposed to take if all the signs are the same boring color. Forgetting to read signs often leads to missing the correct exit to take... which leads to getting lost... which leads to being in an unknown place and COMPLETELY confused. >_<

Give me map and I can get you ANYWHERE you need to go. But put me behind the wheel and we could end up ANYWHERE.


... Oh, backing out of a parking spot is probably the worst though. I can never tell how close I am to the car/ object behind me.
"Objects in mirror may appear closer than they actually are." - This easily confuses me. I need to know exactly how much closer the mirrors make them appear. And saying that they "may" appear closer just adds more confusion. So are the objects closer or not? Simply saying "they will appear closer" or "they won't appear closer" doesn't seem like it would be a lot of trouble... =/

I'm a gifted driver. I grew up driving tractors, trucks, cars and ATVs on the farm. I have 4 years delivering auto parts and 16 years delivering pizza. I can just about make my truck dance. I have done lots of mechanical work but don't like it as much now that I'm 45. I wanted to get into auto racing when I was in my 20s but it takes a lot of money to get into it and well its a bit dangerous too.

I got my first car when I was 18.It was a stick shift. And I never got the hang of it.I guess I got the hang of it well enough to roll it,I kinda like going fast.Had bad anxiety for years after that.I finally got a real liscense at age 40.I had too,I had just gotten divorced and had no driver.I am terrible at asking for help and since I live in a really remote area it was mandatory to drive to survive alone.I must be o.k. At it since I have never got a ticket or been in a wreck or even stopped.But I cannot drive at night oncoming traffic blinds me.I don't like passengers they are a big distractions.I will drive miles around a big city just to avoid it.Busy interstates are a no-no.roadkill makes me depressed and if I see a turtle I HAVE to go back and move it across the road(if safely possible) if I can't move I will wonder all day if it made it across the road.I don't get lost,have a weird sense of direction(compass head?)and I LOVE maps! Still like to go fast tho.If I am anxious I take an Ativan and away I go.Happy trails.

I am one of the best drivers I know, as well as the safest.

But I HATE driving.