Nervous about driving in the future

Post Reply New Topic

I am definitely not old enough to drive, but I think about it all the time. I'm sure driving is very hard and will be ten times harder for me than for most people because I have severe Asperger's Syndrome, but who knows what will happen if I can't drive when I'm thirty?

Last edited by IceCreamGirl on 12 Nov 2010, 2:00 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Or you could be a New Yorker! Actually, a fair number of people, for all kinds of reasons don't drive.

I resent that! (J.K.)

The truth is, though, that I've had a car here for as long as I've been here -- 16 or 17 years? I NEED it. I have to get out of my urban environment often -- like every weekend or close to it. I spend most weekends in just about total seclusion in the middle of a state forest. I'm most comfortable there.

But, don't let the unknown nature of driving worry you. It's actually extremely easy -- technically speaking -- as evidenced by the fact that almost everyone can drive. I do understand the emotional component, though. Driving in an urban environment, stuck in traffic, etc. is not the perfect situation for someone with AS to be in.

Driving is also really fun. I like to take driving vacations, where I'll just get in a car and go. (Route carefully planned, please ) I once drove from north of Vancouver to Phoenix (about 3,000 miles the way I did it) over the course of two weeks. All alone. It was life-changing.

what you could do, is get a head start by watching everything your parents do behind the wheel, in all traffic situations, then file that information away for later reference. if you are a tween or early teen, that is early enough of a head start so that by the time you qualify for driver's ed in high school, you'll be ready.

Yeah, I like that. Kind of file it away for future reference.

Driving is easy, I don't get how Asperger's would make it hard at all.

I'm not even at the right age to be able to get a license yet but already I can drive a manual car. The only complicated bit is learning to be observant on the roads, but if anything, Aspies should be better at that.

Screw cars!! ! I will walk the Earth until my legs are mere nubs!! !

I personally am struggling to learn to drive due to focus and coordination problems. The only cars I have at home to learn on are stick shift. I don't think I'd have as much trouble with an automatic.

i'd love to be able to drive in the future, as long as i could take the same road back to the past/present.

I took driver's ed two years ago, and I had such a bad experience in it that I just quit. To this day, I still cannot drive, and getting behind the wheel of a car still intimidates me.

That's not to say that I won't ever drive, because who knows what the future will bring? As of now, I take advantage of a city transportation system specifically for special-needs people, and my parents drive me everywhere.

you need an instructor with nerves of steel and a heart of gold, an all too rare combo in such a field. i had one, so i belatedly [at 18] learned how to drive. i should have thanked god for the professional instructor i got. my own parents could not handle the task. also they could not drive me too many places 'cause they were too busy doing other things. so i mostly stayed home and vegetated, as living out in the country did not avail me of public transit, and i lived 10 miles outside of the closest little town. i live even farther out in the boonies now.

but i believe you just need to take your time learning how to drive. first part would be to just learn how the car handles, and how to make it handle, sufficient that it no longer intimidates you. [and an automatic transmission is a student's best friend] only when that part is thoroughly under your belt should you even think about negotiating traffic. start simple and work up from there. i have all the faith in the world in your ability to learn this task. you can't be any more scatterbrained than i am, and i learned in my own good time [about twice as long as the average driver's ed student]. i believe you could do better than me. most places outside of big cities have relatively poor public transit, so over the lion's share of this nation, driving is the only way you're gonna get anyplace anytime soon, unless you are lucky enough to have other people willing to take you places with them.

I think that playing video games is what made it so easy for me to learn how to drive. It's a lot like guiding a character with a controller, except that this controller involves my hands and feet.

It actually really isn't that hard. I know it looks like it is, but once you take the class and actually get behind the wheel, it's easy. You may feel slightly apprehensive or scared your first go, but once you get the hang of it it's incredibly simple.

If you're worried about your attention while driving, don't be. Just train yourself to at least look and be aware of what's happening. You don't have to be completely there (although I recommend you are), but having at least some part of yourself paying attention is better than not paying attention at all.

And I also agree with Squirrel. While obviously the mechanics are different, driving a car irl is just like driving a car in (well-designed) racing games. You have to hold the gas button, or you won't be able to go as fast or at all (which isn't quite true, because I learned in Driver's Ed that unless you are holding the break pedal, the car will continue to move albeit like a snail). The steering wheel is like your control stick and moves you left or right.

I think I can also attribute my ease with driving to the years I spent playing Bumper Cars like it was no tomorrow (I'm epic at evasive maneuvers thanks to that, lol).

I am at the legal age to learn to drive, and I am terrified. Dad's ride-on lawnmower is fun, but that is slow. I went go-karting once and that was fun too, but also really scary - I do not know how many times I nearly crashed, and I did crash once. I basically went accelerate, brake, accelerate, brake, the whole way. As such, actually driving a car on the road sounds traumatic for me. I have three mirrors to watch, pedestrians, other cars, the road, traffic lights, et cetera - not to mention actually learning how gears work and which pedal does what will be scary. My brother is determined to make me try driving since he got his full license; sometimes, on country roads, he slows down, lets go of the steering wheel, and tries to goad me into turning around a corner. I basically start to freak out whenever that happens. Unfortunately, as long as we live out in the country, I will probably have to learn to drive, as I cannot walk to my destinations and public transport does not go out as far as where we live.

you will succeed.

@Zender: Play racing video games, go-carts will suddenly not be so scary.

With gears and the pedals there's no reason to be scared of them. There are like.....five different gears on all cars. You will only need three of them: P (Park), D (Drive) and R (Reverse). The others are just there to adjust speeds.

And with pedals, there's only two. Once you learn which one does what, it's easy. In the cars I've seen, the brake pedal is typically the larger pedal.