Driving

Post Reply New Topic

I lived in the Washington, D.C. area (from Springfield 1960, to Columbia, Md. 72-92). My advice is to keep your chin up, and look down the road as far as you can.

Practice is all it takes, really. Once you get used to all these sensations, you become less prone to overloads and such on the road. I didn't get my license until I was 22, and I had a permit since I was 14, with practice starting at about 16, and fizzling in and out year to year.

Get lots of off-peak hours driving time in before you drive during peak hours.

Use cruise control when appropriate. I use it when I'm on the freeway or any other long road with few or no stops. It frees me up from having to look at the speedometer then I can pay more attention to the drivers around me.

If your parents have a AAA membership make sure they get you a card. If they don't tell them to get a membership. Having a AAA card allays any fears of what you would do if your vehicle broke down, got flat tire, won't start or you lock your keys in there. If you use it once it pretty much pays for itself. I purchased my membership the day before I ended up needing to use it. The tow to the AAA approved shop was free and I got a 10% discount, a $65 membership saved me over $200 the day after I bought it. The peace of mind is worth it. One less potential distraction.

I agree with the person who said, no passengers. I get very distracted when I have passengers.

Practice getting on and off the freeway during off -peak times

Turn your cell phone off or put it on vibrate so you don't get distracted by it. And absolutely no texting or talking on the phone while driving!!

I can not drive because it gives me huge anxiety.

Ditto, if it were up to me, I would never learn

One thing in particular that helped me a lot with city driving ~

Always keep scanning your mirrors at all times. You want to know what's near you, where, how close. Don't know about Chicago in particular but cities tend to have a lot of cars moving around close to each other.

I never got the whole aspie-fail-at-driving thing until recently - when I went to learn to drive a truck, and WHAM. And I drive my car fine, always have. So, if you're starting out, start in something small, like a hatchback? Maybe problems with dimensional awareness come into the whole aspie problem with driving?

I never did this but at the time I had no idea about aspergers so...


Even up here in Alaska where the sunlight comes in at a shallower angle, and thus is weaker, the glare is far too strong for me to see during the daytime. It can easily get overload-strong, even. Light reflecting off the snow in winter doesn't help. A good tip is to drive at lower light times of the day. Night driving works too, but it has it's own light problems, i.e. the other people's headlights.[/quote]

I really know how this feels. Most of the time I do drive it's when the sun is not right in my eyes. If it is my heads starts to hurt and I put on my sunglasses.



I have noticed that even if they have there dims lights on it's still to much for me. I also really dislike when people get right up on top of me with there lights on.


I always make sure my iPod is hooked up. I also have made sure to program in the stations I listen to and I don't even have to look at them.



Not only do I need to look up directions I need to know the right roads to take and I don't like when people tell me to look a Wendys or whatever and I will know when to turn.



Yeah I need to get one.


I was going home from work one day so tired it felt like I would never get home. It's only a half hour drive for me but it felt so much longer. Not fun at all.



Not always easy to do.

One thing I will add to this for those that work try to find a way to work with less people on said road. That way you won't have a lot to worry about. I never like driving on the freeway way to many people the one time I did it I hated it I was with a friend and I said I would drive to the movies. On the way back it was snowing so I had him drive. Either way try to find roads with less people or were you can go at you're own speed.

I try to avoid traffic, but have recently moved from a rural area back to a populated area and it's taken me nearly a year to feel a bit more confident. I'm a good driver, but traffic still freaks me out even after 40+ years of driving.

You wouldn't read about it but I think I moved close to the biggest intersection in this area. To get anywhere, I have to go through it. I have totally unreasonable and illogical fears about it (which I recognise), but I refuse to go anywhere near it during peak traffic times.

Something no one has mentioned is that I try to keep all my car windows shut. The traffic noise grates and I find it very distracting and annoying. Strangely enough, I like the sound of a Harley Davidson. Go figure.

Obviously, you need to figure out what's going to make you comfortable driving, but shutting the windows certainly helps my stress levels.