What to do during a (driving) commute

[RobM77]

roboxm3 said:

ShiningWit said:

I'm sorry for the droll and humourless response, but given the amount of accidents per day (4 of them fatal) on today's roads I would just stick to concentrating on driving and what is going on around you. Driving takes 100% commitment and concentration, If you are trying to multitask whilst driving then you are a bit of a dhead tbh.

I disagree.
IMO the people that require 100% concentration and commitment to drive are 100% the worst drivers on the road.
100% concentration and commitment to "normal" driving means you've got 0% capacity should anything out of the ordinary happen, which is when people panic and flap and do stupid st.

I've always found that the mind just doesn't work like that, or least mine doesn't. When I'm driving, my priority is what's happening on the road, so if something interesting comes on Radio 4, or a complicated verb is being explained on a language CD, then it doesn't matter how much I try, I always block it out and concentrate on the road - it's subconscious and uncontrollable. I've even rewinded stuff ten times to try and listen, but if I need to concentrate on driving, I block it out and can't help it. I think most people are like this, which is why the language CD idea doesn't work - you can often find that you haven't heard anything for the last five minutes and have to keep rewinding, and often you never get it. I find the only thing that truly distracts me from driving is something physically inside the car, like my phone ringing, kids playing up on the back seat etc, and with things like that you need to make a conscious effort to stay concentrating on the road - something on the radio simply doesn't distract me, or at least that's my experience.

[Jinx]

Old radio shows - Round the Horne, the navy lark, goon shows - when I used to do runs up the M1/M6 these got through the long hours.

[RizzoTheRat]

RobM77 said:

4941cc said:

Radio 4. Full of fascinating stuff to broaden one's understanding of many weird and wonderful things.

Just avoid at all costs between 10-11am on weekdays.

And as I said on page 1 - most programmes are available as free MP3 downloads. Chuck 50 on a data CD and you're sorted for the month

Quite a few of them (Friday night comedy, The Life Scientific, In Our Time, The Infinite Monkey Cage, and loads more) are also available as podcasts so if you have you have aux jack or bluetooth on your radio and a podcast app on your phone you don't even need to manually download them.

[ShiningWit]

RobM77 said:

re you saying that doing 70mph on a motorway takes 100% of your concentration? How do you manage in towns?

roboxm3 said:

I disagree.
IMO the people that require 100% concentration and commitment to drive are 100% the worst drivers on the road.
100% concentration and commitment to "normal" driving means you've got 0% capacity should anything out of the ordinary happen, which is when people panic and flap and do stupid st.

You might find it strange, but yes on the whole I do give 90 - 100% concentration to what I am doing and you know what, despite driving every day I haven't had an accident in 15yrs, previous to that (in my yoof) I did have a few. I give this amount of concentration in town and on the motorway, if I don't i'm going to be another statistic. There are on average 4 deaths in this country every day on the roads, I haven't looked up how many non-death accidents there are.
I do drive too fast, but speed doesn't kill, stupidity does.

Almost every single working day on the same stretch of the M62 someone has an accident and the whole thing grinds to a halt, this confounds me. How can a human being not drive down a straight road known as an accident blackspot with crashing into another? For me this defies belief, it's like watching Lemmings.
Maybe they are all learning Italian or something....

Edited by ShiningWit on Thursday 21st May 10:13

[Ari]

Davel said:

Have you tried texting - lots of people seem to be doing it these days!

Absolutely! Virtually de rigueur these days, especially if you're under 30.

Updating Facebook, also popular. Twitter of course, Pistonheads, naturally.

Don't forget to have a set of earphones jammed in your ears too, cut out unwanted distractions like ambulance sirens behind you, car horns, etc.

The journey will fly by!

[Ari]

ShiningWit said:

You might find it strange, but yes on the whole I do give 90 - 100% concentration to what I am doing and you know what, despite driving every day I haven't had an accident in 15yrs,

What an odd way to drive. Total waste of all the technology those nice manufacturers give us these days. What's the point of lane correction and auto braking if you're just going to look out of the window and steer yourself? And there are airbags if you crash so you can't possibly die or anything.

Waste of good Facebooking time.

[RobM77]

ShiningWit said:

RobM77 said:

re you saying that doing 70mph on a motorway takes 100% of your concentration? How do you manage in towns?

roboxm3 said:

I disagree.
IMO the people that require 100% concentration and commitment to drive are 100% the worst drivers on the road.
100% concentration and commitment to "normal" driving means you've got 0% capacity should anything out of the ordinary happen, which is when people panic and flap and do stupid st.

You might find it strange, but yes on the whole I do give 90 - 100% concentration to what I am doing and you know what, despite driving every day I haven't had an accident in 15yrs, previous to that (in my yoof) I did have a few. I give this amount of concentration in town and on the motorway, if I don't i'm going to be another statistic. There are on average 4 deaths in this country every day on the roads, I haven't looked up how many non-death accidents there are.
I do drive too fast, but speed doesn't kill, stupidity does.

Almost every single working day on the same stretch of the M62 someone has an accident and the whole thing grinds to a halt, this confounds me. How can a human being not drive down a straight road known as an accident blackspot with crashing into another? For me this defies belief, it's like watching Lemmings.
Maybe they are all learning Italian or something....

Edited by ShiningWit on Thursday 21st May 10:13

I'm currently at 21 years with no accidents, but to be fair, a sample size of 1 doesn't prove anything. As I said above, if it's anything auditory then I just block it out if my attention is needed on the number one task - I guess people vary on that. I do it with pain too - I have permanent neuropathic pain in my left leg, enough to stop me sleeping properly, but if I'm concentrating fully on something it fades away - it's really strange, but I can actually feel it fading as my concentration increases - for example when driving on track in a single seater or something else fast that grabs your attention. I do obviously make mistakes on the road sometimes which I tick myself off about, but as far as I can remember it's never been something or the radio that's distracted me, it's normally something going on on the road that makes me focus on that rather than the wider picture, or something inside the car.

I guess we're all different?

[roboxm3]

Ari said:

What an odd way to drive. Total waste of all the technology those nice manufacturers give us these days. What's the point of lane correction and auto braking if you're just going to look out of the window and steer yourself? And there are airbags if you crash so you can't possibly die or anything.

Waste of good Facebooking time.

For the record, I won't touch my phone when I'm in the car, in fact I don't really do anything other than listen to the radio or talk to a passenger.
I just think that of all your mental capacity, "normal" driving shouldn't take anywhere near 100% of it.
When I think of someone using 100% commitment and concentration to driving, I'm reminded of people that I've been a passenger with who almost panic when a lane change requires them to check a couple of mirrors, indicate and manoeuvre. God forbid they should physically check their blind-spot and physically turn their head away from the road ahead.

[RobinBanks]

MagicalTrevor said:

It's in the podcast thread but 'Gareth Jones on speed' is an essential podcast for any petrolhead

Is that just a bloke talking rubbish really fast wearing sunglasses?

[Hooli]

Jinx said:

Old radio shows - Round the Horne, the navy lark, goon shows - when I used to do runs up the M1/M6 these got through the long hours.

I tried that years ago & had to stop doing it. I was laughing so much at the Goon Shows I couldn't drive properly.

[IanUAE]

Radio LeMans podcasts on the iPod via FM transmitter works for me.

[Sump]

ShiningWit said:

RobM77 said:

re you saying that doing 70mph on a motorway takes 100% of your concentration? How do you manage in towns?

roboxm3 said:

I disagree.
IMO the people that require 100% concentration and commitment to drive are 100% the worst drivers on the road.
100% concentration and commitment to "normal" driving means you've got 0% capacity should anything out of the ordinary happen, which is when people panic and flap and do stupid st.

You might find it strange, but yes on the whole I do give 90 - 100% concentration to what I am doing and you know what, despite driving every day I haven't had an accident in 15yrs, previous to that (in my yoof) I did have a few. I give this amount of concentration in town and on the motorway, if I don't i'm going to be another statistic. There are on average 4 deaths in this country every day on the roads, I haven't looked up how many non-death accidents there are.
I do drive too fast, but speed doesn't kill, stupidity does.

Almost every single working day on the same stretch of the M62 someone has an accident and the whole thing grinds to a halt, this confounds me. How can a human being not drive down a straight road known as an accident blackspot with crashing into another? For me this defies belief, it's like watching Lemmings.
Maybe they are all learning Italian or something....

Edited by ShiningWit on Thursday 21st May 10:13

Wow, you must genuinely be exhausted after every journey.

So you don't let your subconscious take over the driving at all?

[wiggy001]

ShiningWit said:

I'm sorry for the droll and humourless response, but given the amount of accidents per day (4 of them fatal) on today's roads I would just stick to concentrating on driving and what is going on around you. Driving takes 100% commitment and concentration, If you are trying to multitask whilst driving then you are a bit of a dhead tbh.

If you think that driving and listening is "multitasking" and your dangerous on the road then I would kindly ask that you hand in YOUR licence as you are obviously not capable of driving safely yourself.

There's only one dhead on this thread...

Thanks to everyone else for the sensible suggestions. Listened to a couple of Jon Gaunt podcasts this morning and managed not to have an accident as well!

[RizzoTheRat]

Driving and listening isn't, but driving and thinking about something else is definitly multitasking.

Something like a language course CD does take more of your attention than listening to music, and I, along with many others who have posted here, find that I don't give it the level of attention required when driving. I regularly listen to podcasts in the car but quite often find I've completely missed something, like they're talking about something but I have no idea what as I completely blanked out a bit of the conversation.

[Flip Martian]

RizzoTheRat said:

Driving and listening isn't, but driving and thinking about something else is definitly multitasking.

Something like a language course CD does take more of your attention than listening to music, and I, along with many others who have posted here, find that I don't give it the level of attention required when driving. I regularly listen to podcasts in the car but quite often find I've completely missed something, like they're talking about something but I have no idea what as I completely blanked out a bit of the conversation.

Yep, this. Absolutely.

[ShiningWit]

wiggy001 said:

ShiningWit said:

I'm sorry for the droll and humourless response, but given the amount of accidents per day (4 of them fatal) on today's roads I would just stick to concentrating on driving and what is going on around you. Driving takes 100% commitment and concentration, If you are trying to multitask whilst driving then you are a bit of a dhead tbh.

If you think that driving and listening is "multitasking" and your dangerous on the road then I would kindly ask that you hand in YOUR licence as you are obviously not capable of driving safely yourself.

There's only one dhead on this thread...

Thanks to everyone else for the sensible suggestions. Listened to a couple of Jon Gaunt podcasts this morning and managed not to have an accident as well!

You quite clearly state "but does anyone use their commute to learn something new"
As the others point out this infers something else other than just listening to something enjoyable.

[Flip Martian]

wiggy001 said:

There's only one dhead on this thread...

I must be as well, as I agree with him...

[ShiningWit]

Sump said:

ShiningWit said:

RobM77 said:

re you saying that doing 70mph on a motorway takes 100% of your concentration? How do you manage in towns?

roboxm3 said:

I disagree.
IMO the people that require 100% concentration and commitment to drive are 100% the worst drivers on the road.
100% concentration and commitment to "normal" driving means you've got 0% capacity should anything out of the ordinary happen, which is when people panic and flap and do stupid st.

You might find it strange, but yes on the whole I do give 90 - 100% concentration to what I am doing and you know what, despite driving every day I haven't had an accident in 15yrs, previous to that (in my yoof) I did have a few. I give this amount of concentration in town and on the motorway, if I don't i'm going to be another statistic. There are on average 4 deaths in this country every day on the roads, I haven't looked up how many non-death accidents there are.
I do drive too fast, but speed doesn't kill, stupidity does.

Almost every single working day on the same stretch of the M62 someone has an accident and the whole thing grinds to a halt, this confounds me. How can a human being not drive down a straight road known as an accident blackspot with crashing into another? For me this defies belief, it's like watching Lemmings.
Maybe they are all learning Italian or something....

Edited by ShiningWit on Thursday 21st May 10:13

Wow, you must genuinely be exhausted after every journey.

So you don't let your subconscious take over the driving at all?

Long journeys do tire me out, but then I don't drive a modern car and doesn't driving long distances tire anyone out? I wouldn't say my subconscious doesn't intervene to some level, but I don't think that thinking of something else whilst driving is multitasking is it? I mean it's not like learning a language course or using the phone. But true, if you are so deep in thought after something terrible has happened your overall driving skills will be impaired. It depends on how deep and far away your brain goes I guess, it is entirely possible to get to destination B whilst barely remembering how you got there from A!

Let me put it this way, if I wanted to learn Spanish I would have to give it 100%, if I tried to learn it while driving I would not learn anything and my driving would be impaired by whatever percentage I was donating to the cause of learning so it would be a waste of time. Well it makes sense to me

[Davel]

Jinx said:

Old radio shows - Round the Horne, the navy lark, goon shows - when I used to do runs up the M1/M6 these got through the long hours.

When I was a child, my Dad used to listen to these on the radio - and I loved them too. Oh and The Clitheroe Kid!

[ShiningWit]

RobM77 said:

ShiningWit said:

RobM77 said:

re you saying that doing 70mph on a motorway takes 100% of your concentration? How do you manage in towns?

roboxm3 said:

I disagree.
IMO the people that require 100% concentration and commitment to drive are 100% the worst drivers on the road.
100% concentration and commitment to "normal" driving means you've got 0% capacity should anything out of the ordinary happen, which is when people panic and flap and do stupid st.

You might find it strange, but yes on the whole I do give 90 - 100% concentration to what I am doing and you know what, despite driving every day I haven't had an accident in 15yrs, previous to that (in my yoof) I did have a few. I give this amount of concentration in town and on the motorway, if I don't i'm going to be another statistic. There are on average 4 deaths in this country every day on the roads, I haven't looked up how many non-death accidents there are.
I do drive too fast, but speed doesn't kill, stupidity does.

Almost every single working day on the same stretch of the M62 someone has an accident and the whole thing grinds to a halt, this confounds me. How can a human being not drive down a straight road known as an accident blackspot with crashing into another? For me this defies belief, it's like watching Lemmings.
Maybe they are all learning Italian or something....

Edited by ShiningWit on Thursday 21st May 10:13

I'm currently at 21 years with no accidents, but to be fair, a sample size of 1 doesn't prove anything. As I said above, if it's anything auditory then I just block it out if my attention is needed on the number one task - I guess people vary on that. I do it with pain too - I have permanent neuropathic pain in my left leg, enough to stop me sleeping properly, but if I'm concentrating fully on something it fades away - it's really strange, but I can actually feel it fading as my concentration increases - for example when driving on track in a single seater or something else fast that grabs your attention. I do obviously make mistakes on the road sometimes which I tick myself off about, but as far as I can remember it's never been something or the radio that's distracted me, it's normally something going on on the road that makes me focus on that rather than the wider picture, or something inside the car.

I guess we're all different?

Yes we are, but I can agree with all you say, distraction is what you describe and is quite normal.