Does driving overstimulate you?

roundabouts are always a pain, because other drivers dont know how to use them and dont know their left to their right.

its simple when you understand you give way to the right, but then you have idiots that stop on smaller roundabouts for people on the left that should be giving way to them instead.

then you have people who have that lack of left and right who instead come straight out instead of giving way to the right and plough right in the side of someone because they didnt give way. this happens alot and is how alot of people on motorbikes get run over, because people in cars just pull out at a roundabout when a bikes coming round and they expect the bike to somehow be able to magically break when its bent over on a corner? ... bikes cant do that.... once your on a corner on a bike your committed and if you break you crash... car drivers dont understand this and then pull out expecting the 2 wheel thing to defy gravity and logic and break when its angled over lol

no.... but my response might be worse because instead of being overstimulated i instead find i probably zone out or lose concentration instead lol

think on other things, mind gets distracted, voila im somehow at my destination having blotted from my memory parts of the journey 

Ooh good shout with the glasses

I've been tempted to get some just for my phone and computer usage because my eyes sting and feel tired a lot and the light from devices really upsets them at times :-/ 

I didn't know you could use them for driving to but that makes much more sense :) 

I love driving at any time. Like flying, it's a breath of fresh air of freedom that I don't get anywhere else. Both when I got my driving license and PPL was the happiest day of my life. I go driving and flying when I need that break from everything else.

What is your favourite vehicle? Where do you enjoy travelling to?

My Dad bought a Land Rover in 1975, at Elsmere Port. Heading by ferry from Liverpool to Belfast, before bringing it here. My Great Uncle was a Car Dealer from the Wirral. 

Today, I took my Artist friend to Belfast, and back, I parked at Little Donegal Street. Then we went to the Art Gallery, then the Oh Yeah! Music Centre, and got a taxi back to where I parked; my mate has a bad knee.

On the way back, I ended up blocking a junction where the light was green. Thank God I was able to switch lane, then get back on the lane towards the M2. First real experience of Rush Hour traffic in the city. 

Driving calms me, I find it relaxing 

Hello,

that is a very kind offer but sadly I live in the Midlands. I agree, the SD1 was amazing especially the V8 model. She was called Lucy long before I rescued her from a local field.

Actually no, I really like driving and motorcycle riding, I have a full license for both, to the point that I'm wondering if I should just gradually take lessons tests for more and more vehicle types just so I can have the experience of driving a wide variety that most people just don't.
I find that my energy and focus for it is about the same max as for most tasks that I like, if I don't take a break then my max focus on any one thing is about 2 and a half hours, maybe just 2 hours if I start getting thirsty or hungry half way through. That might not seem like a lot but that's the same approx max time on any single activity I have as anything else, even other stuff I really enjoy doing, like I can't watch movies no matter how enjoyable for too long either. Might be an AuDHD thing. But if I feel myself getting tired or dropping focus I will just pull over and give myself a while to hit the reset button before going again because I'm pretty self aware like that. I have wondered if I were to take ADHD medication would it increase the length of time I could spend on individual stuff but I am pretty sure I also rely on my ADHD in the car in a way so that I don't get too hung up on individual details and can keep looking up the road scanning for the next hazard, I wouldn't want to get mind-stuck on say a bit of deer "road-pizza" and not see the car emerging at the next junction 50 yards up the road.

I get fatigued to the point of drowsiness in about 20 minutes, 10 if the sun is shining, if anything too-taxing happens I completely lose the ability to think..

Hello. I like your name choice, it's well suited! If you're ever in the Highlands feel free to bring Lucy over and I could do welding for you, I've got a Senator and it's needed a lot of welding in the last couple of years! 

Thanks. The SD1 is an awesome car, it's on my list of projects to do but so far I haven't got round to it. I need a new window for it as a tree branch went through it. My mum keeps trying to get me to sell it but so far I still intend to do it at some point.

Hello,

I have owned Lucy for thirteen years now. I check all the fluid levels frequently and carry oil and spares. I am taking Lucy to have some much needed welding repairs as I cannot weld.

Your SD1 project sounds fun as I remember them well.  

I absolutely hate roundabouts. If I'm going to stall at anytime it will always be at a roundabout.. and there will always be someone behind who decides to blast the horn like they think I'm just stalling for fun.

I always make sure I have my stereo on blasting out some great tunes and that helps me stay calm.

Planning is always a good idea. If you're unsure of parking and road sizes then I suggest checking Google maps out before so you know the general layout. I do this a lot and it takes a lot of anxiety away for me.

Some of the car lights out there are crazy! Those harsh blue/white ones. Even to the less light sensitive they must be so dazzling. My car has soft warm/orange lights so I'm glad I'm not inflicting the same. 

Yes - I always park a bit out of town for most bigger places we visit. We walk in though (I like your idea of having a bike in the boot - but generally there’s 3 of us and one of us can’t ride a bike so that’s not something we can do). Also this way we hardly ever pay to park, and we don’t have to worry about watching the time for car parks either. I much prefer doing this and we have some interesting walks going into towns too. Much better! 

Not sure I'd call it overstimulation. I'm hypervigilent so always tense, on a long journey that's exhausting. I'm okay night or day but then I've been driving a long time. I find the worst thing is when you're in an unfamiliar city, with fast four lane roads etc., and everyone else knows exactly where they're going, so they're flying round with their foot to the floor, and you're there scrabbling to try to work out where to go and they're up your exhaust pipe. I also find I can't have music or radio on, with watching everything and seeing a hundred things at once, and always being ready to take evasive action, the distraction is too much. (by evasive action I mean, such as, an oncoming car came round a blind corner overtaking the other day and almost caused a head-on, I'm always ready for that kind of thing on the local country roads). I don't find driving too pleasant in the main.Doesn't help when you have an underpowered car! We just went down to 20mph zones here, and it has massively added to journey times. 20mph is a crawl and you can see that everyone's frustrated.

Your Landy sounds epic! Have you owned it long? I had a great Defender 90 pick up, nice diesel but it's one of my many to do projects parked next to the SD1 but I AM determined to do the Defender at some point. It's in no way rotten and was in every day use but it's been parked up now for about 4 years.

LucyLandRover said:

I am looking forward to a trip to North Wales soon but will plan the route and take breaks

I hope you enjoy your trip!  Good idea planning. I always plan well in advance of taking a long trip, always make sure I do the trye pressure, take spare oil, water, everything I might need. Will you be taking your Landrover? I'm hoping to go to Scotland soon and I'll be taking my Senator, if I can get the right boot spoiler for it.

I find the worst thing with roundabouts is the reliance on the road itself as signage. It takes time to scan all the lanes to compare what's painted on them either in terms of arrows or very abbreviated road names. Once you have any amount of traffic on them then such markings are obscured and obviously the paint wears out after a time too. Obviously you get the obligatory sign showing all eight thousand exits about 10 meters before you enter the thing :) If you have problems with executive function / short term memory then that's fun.

I enjoy driving and drive a classic land Rover with an overdrive so you need two pairs of arms at times. I too, find modern car headlights too bright and loath people not applying the handbrake and relying on the brakes and blinding me with the brake lights. I also find roundabouts confusing with knowing which lane to be in. if only people were more considerate. I do have a slow vehicle warning sign and this does help.

I am looking forward to a trip to North Wales soon but will plan the route and take breaks.