Driving Miss Dizzy

Originally posted on Themestream
Driving is very therapeutic for me. It doesn’t necessarily matter where, just the act of driving itself calms me. Unless I’m driving to work, since I’m usually running late anyway (see why in Meds in the Morning). Then, I let my aggressive-driver instincts take over.

When I’m not in a rush, though, I enjoy a drive: on the highway, on a two-lane road, on major thoroughfares and side streets. Dirt roads aren’t fun, my car is too light to really drive well. I have trouble with gravel, too.

Road trips were always a special treat. With as many as we took, you wouldn’t think so, but they were. If we were taking a vacation, it wasn’t uncommon for mom to pull off the highway at an exit that looked “interesting.” I first set foot in Canada on one of those trips. We were on our way to Wisconsin Dells, and saw a sign saying “Canada 9 mi.” Couldn’t pass that up. We drove over the bridge, bought McDonald’s (that Canadian delicacy) and gas, and drove through the tunnel.

Once I got my own license, and, more importantly, my own car, I decided to maintain that tradition.

In the first three months that I had my current vehicle, I drove 6000 miles. Considering I took the bus to work, there was an awful lot of driving going on.

I would wake up on a Saturday morning and decide to go somewhere. Not anywhere in particular, just somewhere. Often, I would get in my car and pick a direction. One Sunday, I decided to drive down US 27, just to see how far I could get. I got as far as Lexington, KY, before I decided to turn back.

Another Saturday, I hopped on I-75 and drove north. Let me tell you, Ohio is a pretty boring drive. Outside of Toledo (3 hours north of my home), I saw a sign saying Detroit wasn’t all that much farther. I continued, and eventually wound up in Windsor in Canada. I didn’t buy gas or McDonald’s, but I did get some yummy chocolate and a small jug of maple syrup from a duty-free shop on the border.

One of the hardest things about driving is understanding the other drivers, and anticipating their next moves.

Some drivers experience tunnel-vision. They can only focus on the car right in front of them, and their destination. No energy left for carrying on a conversation, or noticing the field of colorful wildflowers on the left, or the deer on the right, or the car stopping two cars ahead of them.

These people drive me nuts.

Other drivers like to weave in and out of traffic, behaving like Mario Andretti, cutting in front of unsuspecting drivers, crossing four lanes of traffic at 90 mph (or faster) just to make their exit.

I’m not too thrilled with these folks, either.

I’m somewhere in the middle, leaning a bit more toward being the driver you’re defending against. I adjust my driving to the conditions of the road, traffic, other drivers and my passengers, if any.

So what does this have to do with distraction and ADD?

One of the symptoms of ADD is distractability. The distractable ADDult appears to not be paying attention to the immediate issue – in this case, driving – and noticing the signs and trees and flowers and other things not obviously related.

I can’t necessarily tell you what the make and model of the cars around me are, but I can tell you what they’re likely to do. While observing the cars, I notice the interesting billboards, telling me where the nearest flea market or Cracker Barrel is, and if I’m going to have enough time and space to pass the dude in front of me who insists on going below the speed limit in the right lane a mile before my exit.

Okay, so I’m not a patient driver.

This distraction, this absorbing all stimuli, helps me considerably while driving. I can judge the traffic far enough in advance to make my plans, to adjust my driving style. The car right in front of me may have slower reflexes, and may not stop in time to avoid hitting the car in front of it.

In my visual scan, however, I already noticed that two cars ahead of me, traffic has slowed considerably, and I need to either switch lanes or slow down. I, of course, already know how far back the cars in the other lanes are, and have judged the relative speed of the traffic flow, estimated the time it will take me to switch lanes, observed how much further I have until I have to get off, and noted when the next Cracker Barrel will come along.

All that scanning can make a person hungry.

Yes, I’ve been known to break the speed limit a time or two – okay, I’ve had some passengers say the sound barrier, but I think that’s an exaggeration – and I have had my share of near misses. Only one accident, though, and it was with a professional victim. I make a conscious effort to not cut off other drivers. I don’t drive faster than I’m comfortable driving, I don’t tailgate (often), I don’t run red lights, and I definitely observe the speed limit in school zones during the school year.

Those kids can’t run as fast on those little legs.

I do get distracted. If I’m not interested in what I’m doing – and sometimes when I am – I can very easily leave the room, mentally. I spent plenty of geometry classes contemplating the run-down tenements outside the school, and assemblies counting the tiles in the ceiling. Reading books is a special challenge. If the author is dull to me, I can’t get through it without a great deal of struggle. If the author is a favorite, any sentence can send me off on tangents. I can read several pages without seeing a single word.

While I’m driving, though, that propensity for distraction is very valuable. Yes, I see the cars and the road, I see the traffic and my exits or streets. I also see the car just a bit ahead that is having trouble, and may have to cross the highway to pull off the road. I see the deer considering crossing the street. I see the pickup that is barreling down on me with reckless abandon. I see the emergency vehicles long before I hear them.

And yes, I see the Cracker Barrel, two miles, exit 39D.
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Learn More About It
Driven to Distraction – Dr. Ed Hallowell. Not about driving, but about distraction.
The Story of D – What can happen when others don’t see our gifts.