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"... I had to pay close attention to what all the other cars around me were doing..." Jesus H. This is what you should be always doing when you're driving. Thi
by olyjohn 6y ago
"... I had to pay close attention to what all the other cars around me were doing..."
Jesus H. This is what you should be always doing when you're driving. This is how driving has always been, but people turn off their brains and pick up the cell phone. Too bad it only takes people a week to get back to complacency.
- standardUser 6y agoAmen. Let us all treat driving like the dangerous activity it is all of the time. Because it is the most dangerous activity most of us ever partake in. If you are maimed or die before the age of 50, a car accident is one of the most likely causes. EDIT: I would love to know why you downvote this. Genuinely curious.
- perl4ever 6y agoPeople probably think calling it the most dangerous ordinary activity is palpably uninformed. Although I wouldn't have made any confident statement without checking. The Wikipedia page on "Micromort" claims giving birth is equivalent to about two years of driving, and living in NYC during the covid pandemic was equivalent to about one year of driving per day. Also, bicycling and walking seem to be at least an order of magnitude more dangerous than driving, per km. Saying if you die before 50, it's likely to involve cars is just another way of saying most other hazards don't kill people before 50, so it could be viewed as a misuse of statistics. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micromort https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micromort
- watwut 6y agoNormally you should do that automatically without additional effort. It is difference between new driver who has to think about everything.
- mr_overalls 6y agoI think the person probably meant that they had to apply effortful attention while driving. Due to practice, the process is usually automatic/unconscious.
- toomanybeersies 6y agoIs it though, or do you just get complacent? Like if you don't swivel your head and check for cyclists before opening your drivers side doors or do the Dutch reach [1], you're still probably not going to hit a cyclist. Until you do. [1] https://www.bicyclenetwork.com.au/tips-resources/know-how/dutch-reach/ https://www.bicyclenetwork.com.au/tips-resources/know-how/du...
- watwut 6y agoNew drivers and much more likely to crash then experienced ones. Doing these is realiable only if it is matter of habit and you do them automatically, without thinking about it. If you have to focus on it, you will forget about it. Same with evaluating who goes first on intersection without lights. You should not go through the whole "wait he is from right, but the other is turning ..." you should look at it and know.
- olyjohn 6y agoI think that's exactly the problem. Some things you cannot let become an automatic / unconscious habit, especially when safety is involved. There's some good discussion here on the topic. Japan's rail workers point and speak, because it keeps the safety checks in the attentive part of your brain. When things go automatic / unconscious, you tend to miss or gloss over things. This is not what you want while driving. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18952193 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18952193 Even pilots are taught to point and say their checks out loud during pre-flight. And flying happens to be one of the safest ways to travel.
- skim_milk 6y agoI think I recall reading this is why teenagers new to driving get in to less accidents than teenagers used to driving - the group new to driving felt they had to pay closer attention compared to the group that was used to driving that would constantly distract themselves.
- mam2 6y agoOMG some people have a snowflake complex .. i drive 4 times a year for super long trips and yes i'm always a bit scared at some point but it's a good fear that make you drive better, and people should treat as a normal thing not a headline-worthy thing