Why are so many people such terrible drivers?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am a terrible driver and two of my kids are also because we are on the autism spectrum and really struggle to predict what other drivers will do on the road. I can’t tell if someone is about to slow down or speed up, is going to cut in front of me, is going to let me pass him etc. No idea how the rest of you do that.
If I lived in a big city with great public transport I probably wouldn’t drive but in America that’s pretty uncommon. My daughter feels the same way. I wish I didn’t have to drive.

What does it have to do with autism? You don’t need to interpret social clues. And you don’t need to try to predict what other drivers would do. Just try to look a little further ahead and not at the bumper of the car immediately in front of you

Defensive driving is all about anticipating other drivers’ actions.

And how do you do it? You look ahead and see a stopped traffic and you “anticipate” that the car in front of you will start braking hard pretty soon.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am a terrible driver and two of my kids are also because we are on the autism spectrum and really struggle to predict what other drivers will do on the road. I can’t tell if someone is about to slow down or speed up, is going to cut in front of me, is going to let me pass him etc. No idea how the rest of you do that.
If I lived in a big city with great public transport I probably wouldn’t drive but in America that’s pretty uncommon. My daughter feels the same way. I wish I didn’t have to drive.

I don't think you can blame this on autism at all. This sounds like you aren't a good driver and didn't teach your kid well either.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am a terrible driver and two of my kids are also because we are on the autism spectrum and really struggle to predict what other drivers will do on the road. I can’t tell if someone is about to slow down or speed up, is going to cut in front of me, is going to let me pass him etc. No idea how the rest of you do that.
If I lived in a big city with great public transport I probably wouldn’t drive but in America that’s pretty uncommon. My daughter feels the same way. I wish I didn’t have to drive.

What does it have to do with autism? You don’t need to interpret social clues. And you don’t need to try to predict what other drivers would do. Just try to look a little further ahead and not at the bumper of the car immediately in front of you

Defensive driving is all about anticipating other drivers’ actions.

And how do you do it? You look ahead and see a stopped traffic and you “anticipate” that the car in front of you will start braking hard pretty soon.

You obviously don’t know what defensive driving is. What you’re describing is reacting to something that already happened. Defensive driving is an attempt to avoid situations where you suddenly need to brake hard. If you practice defensive driving, you’d notice that traffic well ahead of you was slowing before you actually saw any stopped cars and you would slow down more gently and gradually to prevent drivers behind you from rear ending you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am a terrible driver and two of my kids are also because we are on the autism spectrum and really struggle to predict what other drivers will do on the road. I can’t tell if someone is about to slow down or speed up, is going to cut in front of me, is going to let me pass him etc. No idea how the rest of you do that.
If I lived in a big city with great public transport I probably wouldn’t drive but in America that’s pretty uncommon. My daughter feels the same way. I wish I didn’t have to drive.

I don't think you can blame this on autism at all. This sounds like you aren't a good driver and didn't teach your kid well either.

I have 10 acquaintances and family members with ASD. Not seeing ahead or making connections is very evident. It's like they have blinders on. Everything is like in a different box.
When I see a car speed as I drive and later see a car pulled over, I know it's the same car most likely and it usually is. My ASd relatives wouldn't have even noticed a speeding car. They'd be wondering why the car got pulled over.
It's like that with everything including losing job, or not finding a job, or why they are broke. They have no idea why.
They don't see reasons or consequences.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it’s only going to get worse. The bar to getting a drivers license is so low. Most parents don’t actually do the “required” hours of observed driving with their kids because no one actually checks. And the behind-the-wheel portion is a joke (at least where I live). The DMV says you’re supposed to have 8 sessions, I think, but most will do it all in a single session just to check the box.

This is a part of it. We also have NO continuing education so we are able to renew our driver's license for life as long as our vision checks out.

Another part is that we have driver's from all over the world driving in our country. We have all learned in different areas, ways, different cars, different streets, different signs. Someone in North Carolina was not taught the same way as someone in Wyoming.

We also have really old cars on the road with bad stop-and-go. They could be 500 miles late to change the tire or their brakes.

Virginia has strict car inspection rules in addition to (at least in northern VA) high car ownership taxes so you rarely see "really old cars with bad stop-and-go" on the road in Northern Virginia. The reverse is more likely which is new cars with so many bells and whistles and drivers with an overreliance on them, meaning they rely on their car to tell them when to brake, don't check behind their shoulder before they start backing up because they exclusively rely on the camera, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am a terrible driver and two of my kids are also because we are on the autism spectrum and really struggle to predict what other drivers will do on the road. I can’t tell if someone is about to slow down or speed up, is going to cut in front of me, is going to let me pass him etc. No idea how the rest of you do that.
If I lived in a big city with great public transport I probably wouldn’t drive but in America that’s pretty uncommon. My daughter feels the same way. I wish I didn’t have to drive.

What does it have to do with autism? You don’t need to interpret social clues. And you don’t need to try to predict what other drivers would do. Just try to look a little further ahead and not at the bumper of the car immediately in front of you

Defensive driving is all about anticipating other drivers’ actions.

And how do you do it? You look ahead and see a stopped traffic and you “anticipate” that the car in front of you will start braking hard pretty soon.

You obviously don’t know what defensive driving is. What you’re describing is reacting to something that already happened. Defensive driving is an attempt to avoid situations where you suddenly need to brake hard. If you practice defensive driving, you’d notice that traffic well ahead of you was slowing before you actually saw any stopped cars and you would slow down more gently and gradually to prevent drivers behind you from rear ending you.

You obviously like to argue for the sake of arguing. We are talking about the same thing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I trace it to the decline of the manual transmission. People who learn to drive manual (even if they will spend their entire lives driving an automatic) are better drivers.

Oh please, I can do without being stuck behind a stick shift driver who stalls the car on a hill or even worse start rolling back into me.

[Anonymous]

I live in Virginia and the worst drivers are the ones with Maryland plates. I assume they are rushing between gig jobs or something if they are driving around VA neighborhoods so that’s part of it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And it would be nice if people who merge on highways would understand that they don’t have the right of way and cannot simply ride the taper down and expect to slide in. I change lanes when I see people about to merge but not everyone is in a position to do so, and I swear today’s mergers don’t get that they need to speed up or slow down or do what it takes to merge, it’s on them, they don’t have the right of way. The motorist in the right lane has the right of way.

If there is constant traffic people should space out to let the merger merge at speed.

But of course you are in a rush so can’t be part of the solution.

+1
You are supposed to ride the on-ramp til the end and then merge at speed! That's the point.
If roads are too congested for this to work, then I don't know the answer.

People should be spaced out so they can merge in rather than stopping and trying to gun their way in.

[Anonymous]

Removing all signs and stoplights: would it work in US?

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2011-09-22/removing-signals-and-signs-from-intersections-just-might-make-us-safer

[Anonymous]

New immigrants. Takes time to learn. Not being mean

[Anonymous]

Everyone is a terrible driver except for me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I trace it to the decline of the manual transmission. People who learn to drive manual (even if they will spend their entire lives driving an automatic) are better drivers.

Oh please, I can do without being stuck behind a stick shift driver who stalls the car on a hill or even worse start rolling back into me.

If you know how to drive stick, you don’t stall. I can’t remember last time I stalled.

I rarely roll back when on a hill too. You’re probably way to close to car in front of you if that happens to you.

[Anonymous]

Every horrible driver I see is on their phone. Every time I go out I see something awful, always the person is on their phone, sometimes texting. 2 nights ago I went on 355 to avoid 270 and someone literally almost stopped in front of me before a fork in the road.

Is there a device that makes honking a horn any louder???

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:ADD, inattentive, impatient, distracted, aggressive and two generations of people who played video games.

The video game drivers are a huge problem. The other issue is lack of experience/lack of recent experience. Many people who don’t drive much aren’t very good at it, even if they’ve been driving for 30 years.