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TheBadguy
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27 Jan 2016, 2:54 pm

Well I made a thread about my current experiences right now, maybe some people can provide some advice for that:

viewtopic.php?t=304658

As for the general question of this thread. I do not drive. And a lot of these threads don't address the sensory overload driving adds on top of other sensory overloading situations. I cannot drive right after work, or my therapy or my social events. It's too much. Makes me too tired.

And when I am too tired, I lose motivation. I lose any want to do anything. It's a terrible place to be.



kraftiekortie
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28 Jan 2016, 6:28 pm

I'm just the opposite. When I drive, I tend to be more relaxed (provided there isn't much traffic, or I'm not driving in the middle of Manhattan).

Taking mass transit is sensory overload sometimes. The noise of the train!! ! The general frustration of everybody.

If I had a parking space at work (or if parking costs less than $100 a month), then I'd drive to work every day!



deafghost52
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08 Feb 2016, 8:23 am

kraftiekortie wrote:
I don't like driving in the dark when it's raining/snowing.

I don't mind driving in the dark alone, or when it's raining during the day.

I don't like driving on snowy or (especially) icy roads.

Similar to ProblyAnAspie, my wife doesn't believe I take advantage of "openings" quick enough; I'm too cautious for her tastes; she's very impatient on the roads. I'd rather be safe than sorry.

I didn't learn to drive until age 37--partially because I'm in NYC--but partially because I have visual-spatial problems. And problems controlling the intensity of the gas pedal (until I got used to it).

My mother thought I would never learn to drive. I surprised her!

I definitely get the "too cautious" thing, kraftie. When I was learning about 7 years ago, a lot of people behind me would honk because I would take too long to turn (such impatient ***hats). Also, seems your mother simply thought "He'll never learn how to drive in time for it to matter," because it would be quite ludicrous to think that somebody could NEVER learn to drive (unless they die too young, which happens all the time). Hell, I'm 22 and I've already LEARNED how to drive, I just simply haven't gotten a license and my own car yet.


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deafghost52
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08 Feb 2016, 8:31 am

I've been in a few accidents (once when I was five and my mother was drunk-driving with me in the passenger seat, and we were in the mountains near Vail, CO; another time I got hit while biking to the library), and I also have a general fear of people on the road (and a little fear of myself on the road, too).

I would love more than anything to drive (I got a game on Steam recently called Assetto Corsa which is a pretty good racing sim, and a game called City Car Driving which is a good driving course sim), I just get to anxious in the driver's seat. The only time I get anxious as a passenger is when the driver is being blatantly and stupidly irresponsible (texting, speeding, etc.). Then I tend to tense up and blast to some Opeth or something else, if I have my phone and a pair of earbuds readily available. :twisted:

Anyways, the City Car Driving game (plus a Steam controller with the gyro function enabled) seems to be helping a bit. It's funny though, because I still get a little anxious when driving in the game. :roll:


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jkrane
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08 Feb 2016, 11:43 pm

I am an excellent driver. I just get too agitated on the road, because people are f*****g idiots. I am within walking distance to all my amenities, so I don't bother with transit or automobilism.



BirdInFlight
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09 Feb 2016, 8:38 pm

kraftiekortie wrote:
I wouldn't be able to drive in London; the roads are so darn narrow!

And I'd have to learn how to drive a manual transmission.


The narrow roads in London are horrible. And they throw up all kinds of extra problems and then extra skills you need to use, such as the phenomenon of an already narrow street also having cars parked along it on both sides, and any passing vehicles have to do this almost telepathic thing of pulling into any available space in order to let the oncoming vehicle pass, and you do this dance all along the street. It's horrendous. And an extra piece of etiquette to have to master.

You can actually take a British test in an automatic, but if you do so, you are then not permitted to drive anything but an automatic, even if you know how to drive stick or later someone teaches you.



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11 Feb 2016, 10:08 am

I like to drive, generally. I have this unanswerable need to move whether physically or proverbially, and driving gives me some relief from the ever-present frustration of going nowhere way too slowly. I have something to focus on, directly, but not too much, my body is in motion, and my mind in zero gravity. However it doesn't work if I'm just "going for a drive," I actually have to be going somewhere for a reason.
I need to learn to drive stick - I've had a few goes, but a relative was teaching me and kept putting her hand over mine on the stick and shifting the gears if I didn't do it fast enough, and I'd snatch my hand back. I don't want to be touched. Don't touch me. I told her to stop touching me. She kept touching me. The lessons didn't progress much further than that, but I'd like to try again provided she keeps her hands to herself!


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auntblabby
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29 Feb 2016, 12:55 am

I can't drive in big cities, too much traffic complexity, too damned many wayward pedestrians/bikers which sometimes make me come unglued when they jaywalk on my green with no warning.



TheSpectrum
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15 Mar 2016, 5:03 pm

3 years on from when I attempted driving lessons, I'm still finding the idea of me driving difficult to process.


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happybat
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02 Apr 2016, 7:16 am

It took me a very long time to learn...about a year and a half with an instructor.
I also ended up switching from learning to drive a manual to driving an auto.
The manual just involved too much multi-tasking and I'd get panicky and over-whelmed, by comparison learning to drive an automatic was a breeze!

I'm still a new driver really. What causes me the most anxiety is other drivers - rude, impatient, aggressive ones. :?
I have to remind myself that it's their problem! I am apologetic if I make errors but mostly people are just annoyed because I don't drive over the speed limit like everyone else seems to do!
A tip I've picked up is to not look at other driver's faces. But it still doesn't make it anymore nerve-wracking.

It still beats having to deal with public transport - crowds and strangers everywhere and slower journeys. That had me more on edge. When I'm in my car I'm alone in my own vehicle and that's pretty nice.



Gematron
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06 Apr 2016, 4:35 pm

I don't like driving for the most part but I'm alright with it. Yeah i get anxiety sometimes but if its a place I know really well I don't mind as well if there's not a lot of cars out and the roads aren't small. I rather be in the passenger though. I love it especially on long road trips. I love to just sit back with the chair leaned a little down and think while on the road. It somehow has a soothing effect on me. Sadly I'm rarely ever in the co-pilot seat and mostly in the driver seat.



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08 Apr 2016, 2:26 am

i'm perfectly fine with driving on long, relatively empty freeways and roads.

city streets unnerve me because of the sometimes irrational fear of some moron running in front of the car too close for me to respond in time. and also because i feel like i may scrape the cars to the right of me. it always looked close but it is now even closer after i scraped the car with a brick post at grandmas house, trying to pull into the driveway.

i failed my test three times: failing to pull into bike lane and look over shoulder, not yielding to passing cars, and going too slow.


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auntblabby
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08 Apr 2016, 3:00 am

Kiprobalhato wrote:
i'm perfectly fine with driving on long, relatively empty freeways and roads. city streets unnerve me because of the sometimes irrational fear of some moron running in front of the car too close for me to respond in time. and also because i feel like i may scrape the cars to the right of me. it always looked close but it is now even closer after i scraped the car with a brick post at grandmas house, trying to pull into the driveway. i failed my test three times: failing to pull into bike lane and look over shoulder, not yielding to passing cars, and going too slow.

was the 4th time the charm?



Kiprobalhato
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08 Apr 2016, 3:04 am

not yet...

i'm driving with a permit.


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auntblabby
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08 Apr 2016, 3:07 am

Kiprobalhato wrote:
not yet...

i'm driving with a permit.

I hope you do NOT dwell on failure, that you kick that out of your mind whenever it pops up, just dwell on passing that test which I believe you will do on the 4th time. :bounce:



ArielsSong
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08 Apr 2016, 3:16 am

happybat wrote:
It took me a very long time to learn...about a year and a half with an instructor.
I also ended up switching from learning to drive a manual to driving an auto.
The manual just involved too much multi-tasking and I'd get panicky and over-whelmed, by comparison learning to drive an automatic was a breeze!


Uh-huh. I tried learning to drive manual. Wasted into the thousands of £s attempting it. Got nowhere. Gave up.

Years later I decided to try again, this time with an automatic car. I passed first time.

Now, I'd consider myself a very good driver. But I do need to have music on, as that keeps me calm (loud noises always calm me down). If the music's loud and I know where I'm going, driving is one of my favourite things to do.

However, I am very 'rules of the road'. I drive properly according to the law and I expect others to as well. I don't get genuinely angry or have road rage, but if you come speeding up behind me I will drop my speed by a couple of miles per hour to put you back in line. If you pull out in front of me when you shouldn't, I will keep my speed up for a bit (safely) so that you know I'm not going to adjust my driving for your idiocy - ultimately I will, but for a while I want you to think that your arrogance is being met by mine.

If you're trying to overtake, I expect you to get up to the correct speed to do so.

Quote:
Lengthy example:

Where I live there are lots of roads where two lanes merge into one after traffic lights, and people stopping at the lights automatically take the right-hand lane to overtake the people stopped in the left-hand lane.

The right-hand lane is really intended for people to overtake those that are turning left (both lanes have the option to go forward), but people use these lanes just to overtake others that are going forward as well. If I'm the first person in the left-hand lane then I'm going to drive as I usually would - good acceleration up to the correct speed - and if it turns out that you're in the right-hand lane and can't quite overtake like you thought you would, then that's your problem, either get your speed up or get behind me. I'm not risking an accident because you're going at roughly the same speed as me and your lane's coming into mine.

I did really annoy a teen driver with this once - I was in the left lane, he was in the right and had a girl in his passenger seat, so was probably trying to show off. He was creeping forward before the lights turned green, going through them slowly on red. When the lights turned green, I drove off as I normally would - sensible acceleration up to 50mph. He couldn't accelerate fast enough to overtake - he kept up with me at first by starting fast, but by the time he was on 40mph assuming he was going to overtake, I was up to 50mph and he couldn't get past me. He revved hard, sped up to 60ish, forced his way past me and at the next set of lights, clearly furious, he got into the left lane. I filed behind him and when the lights turned green he sat still for 10 seconds clearly thinking he was getting revenge by stopping me from moving. All he did was show that I'd embarrassed him for being a bad driver in every sense of the word. What he didn't realise is that I really didn't care one bit. I had nowhere to be in any rush and I certainly wasn't challenging him in any way. I'm just driving, sticking to the rules of the road, I'm a woman nearing 30 and had a young child in the back of the car. No games from me. If you're going to act like an idiot on the road, be careful that a sensible driver doesn't show you up.


I really don't have time for idiots on the road - people that think their journeys are more important than anyone else's, people that play games, people that take risks because they need to rush everywhere. I'm not going to take any safety risks when I'm on the road, but I'm confident in my ability and not going to be pushed around either.