Do you drive?

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I drive, but I'm not a particularly good driver. I'm pretty sure I'm the only one in my group of friends that has an ASD that drives...

No, I don't drive, although I've been practicing with my dad for about a year now (though we haven't been out recently). I do all right when we drive in parking lots, but get anxiety attacks when I drive on streets (even relatively quiet neighborhood streets) so I've pretty much just chalked it up to another thing I just suck at and shouldn't continue to pursue lest I accidentally kill someone.

In my area you have to. No cabs, buses or trains and like my job is 25miles away.

I drive, as public transportation in my area doesn't go everywhere yet, and it's a source of independence as well since I don't have to rely on anyone for lifts. I'm ticket and accident-free, and I've even got my insurance rates to go down because of being a safe driver.

I agree with reasons not to have a car. Even though I do have one and am able to drive, I hate driving in lots of traffic, it is terrifying and I get very nervous and am always afraid I will get distracted. The only reason I ever learned is because I felt like I was pressured into it by my family. But I would love to live somewhere that all of the nearby stores are a decent walking distance away from home and to have a job that I can do without getting a lot of extra education that is also a decent walking distance away. An apartment in a small town near all of the stores sounds like a good plan to me.

By the way, something about that picture of the smiling baby you have on your profile is creepy. I'm not sure why, but it is.

Last edited by Alfonso12345 on 10 Jul 2012, 8:25 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Me too...I don't think it's a good idea for me to learn to drive Sometimes it used to take me hours to get home from my job which is 45 minutes because I hate crowds so much that I'll wait for several buses to go by before getting on one. I get sensory overload from riding on buses too......just too many smells and sounds .......and a lot of people have their lunches with them and I can’t stand the smell of lunch meat (cold cuts) - it has some kind of preservative or something in it that makes me nauseous - also buses make this kind of screechy noise when they stop to let people off - even with ear plugs-I can’t stand it. Also I am not hypo-sensitive to temperature and I hate having to travel far by TTC on cold days in winter, or really muggy humid days in summer (I live in Toronto Canada, and we have really extreme weather here). So it would really help me to learn how to drive but I'm not sure it's fair to the other residents of my neighbourhood to do so (I'm not sure it's safe)! I have NVLD and I have spatial issues so I might just not understand quickly enough how much space to give another car and then crash or something like that. Also I am easily startled and have an exaggerated startle response, so if I'm driving I might get startled by a loud noise and jump and scream or put my hands over my ears, forgetting that I'm driving and then crash. I also have issues with hyper-focusing on one thing and ignoring everything else and I have severe anxiety.

i will drive maybe, when i get to old to walk, run or take my bicycle. I dont see the purpose in spending money on a car, creating more polution is an already almost ruined world.

I drive. I've never really lived any where with good public transportation options available. I used to need the car to work, but my health problems put me out of work a few years ago. I still drive to run occasional errands, and to visit relatives. I also had to drive my mother for some years after she stopped driving, until she passed away. It did take me a little longer to learn than for most people, and I was scared at first, but I did pass the behind the wheel test on the first try. Because I was scared in the beginning, I wasn't in a big hurry to take the test or get a car. I also didn't have much money for a car. After I finally did pass my test, and got some practice on one of the family cars, my father loaned me some of the money needed to buy a used car, so I could use it to get to work, and to do my own stuff. Unfortunately, I took his advice on what used car to buy. My father had a long family history of buying lemons, so of course, my first car was a lemon. I did a little better with the cars since then, until I took my younger brother's advice, and accepted the gift of a used 91 Jeep Cherokee from my sister. My younger brother knows a lot about cars. My sister wanted to trade up to a newer version of the same car, with more bells and whistles, and didn't want to take time off from work to sell it, so she gave me her old Cherokee, because she knew I needed a new car, and didn't have enough money at the time to get a good one. That old Cherokee turned out to be a great set of wheels for me, I still have it, it still runs good, and I have no plans to sell it any time soon. It does have a rust problem, but my younger brother is going to help me with that.

It would be nice to live where I could use public transportation for some things, but I don't. Also, public transportation isn't practical for grocery runs. I buy big orders when I go, so I don't have to go out as much. However, even a small order of groceries would be hard for me to manage on a bus, so I do need the car. It also has 4 wheel drive, so I can get out when there is some snow or ice on the roads, if I have to go out then.

No, I want to keep driving as long as I can.

I can "drive", by that I mean I have a license and can drive 80% of most cars. I can't drive stick though. I use to..kind of like driving until I had a wreck in a downpour of torrential rain on a highway. I think driving at night is fun and its rewarding finding new shortcuts but getting lost has happened to me several times and been very terrifying.

I don`t know who that kid is, found that picture years ago on internet...would be interesting to find out what life he had (I think that picture is from 1950`s)
But I don`t find him creepy...just happy. Maybe unnaturally happy?

About a car- I can understand that it might be necessary to own a car just to get around, but I guess I would have to be literary forced to live in such a place. Reykjavik is perfect for me in such an aspect- 3min to main shopping street, 5min to ocean, 10min to library & post office, the furthest workplace I had was 30min walk, closest 2min...nothing is far there, only mountains are not reachable by walking...so I`m not getting out of the town often enough but still,i have walks by an ocean.

I don't drive because I'm way too anxious to drive for one thing and secondly I don't understand driving at all.

My folks resorted to hiring a driving school to come pick me up for a lesson once a week. It took considerable time, but I did get my license in time to go off to college.

I still don't like to drive, although I can do it if I need to.

I'm 16 and I have a learner's permit. I consider my driving above average primarily because I pay attention. I have difficulty changing lanes at night (disorienting for me but am getting better) though and sometimes become so fixed on one object (such as a driver making a erratic lane change into the lane next to me) that I might miss the car in front of me as it is stopping.

@questoe: 4X4 or AWD are not replacements for snow/ ice (winter) tires. AWD helps your traction in one direction: forward. Snow tires help in every direction: stopping, turning and accelerating. Your Jeep likely has off road tires which are suitable for snow but not so much for ice. Most people believe that because a tire is marketed as all season or M & S it is suitable for winter conditions. It might be suitable for winter in say North Carolina but certainly not anywhere north of the Mason Dixon line. Don't meet to be rude but just wanted to clear up this common misconception about AWD. If you have a car, any car whatever the drivewheels may be and live north of the Mason Dixon line, I strongly recommend that you invest in a set of tires marked with a mountain snowflake symbol (http://www.tirerack.com/winter/tech/tec ... techid=125) for winter use.

I'm like this but I got a car anyway, bad idea! ^^^

Under duress I tried and tried to get my license and car and finally succeeded with the help of a driving school when I was 23. I only had to go about 1 mile to get to work so I practiced it over and over with my Mom till I could do that, but I could never go much farther than that because of all the things listed above. Sometimes at night and during sunset/sunrise the glare would make me legally blind! That I never got in an accident was a miracle. I practiced it but never could get the car to the gas station myself because of sensory overload and what I can only describe as a tangled up view of the roads. Once there was a detour when I left my development on the way to work, I could see the building from where I was but didn't know how to actually get to it and didn't know how to turn around from where I was to get home, I had to call my Mom - it was so embarrassing. When my partner and I got a place together he tried to teach me to drive to work from the new location and it was too many turns for me to remember, he gave up and I learned to take the bus. That was kind of scary too because I had to be very alert so I wouldn't miss my stop and I had to sit at the front of the bus at night otherwise I couldn't even see my stop because of the night blindness, but it was much better than driving. Now that I have a better understanding of myself no one is ever going to bully me into getting a license and driving again, it was horrible!

I use to drive, I use to live in the country so if I did not learn to drive I would have to walk 5hours to get anywhere and 5 hours back home. When I moved to the city I only drove once a week cause everything was so close and I like a good walk. Then about ten years ago I got rear ended and my car was written off. I tried a few cars after that but I could not find one I really liked. Then I did the math, with rego, insurance and license renewals it really was not worth it since I only drove once a week.

When I'm too old to walk or ride my bike, I might reget my license but until then I'm more than happy to walk, even in the rain or heat.

I've been driving off and on since I was 14 years old, and I'm a pretty good driver. Never had an accident that was my fault. I really miss driving when I don't do it for a while.