Driving Rant - Driving Amnesia

As the first rant in the series, I would like to discuss something that I have a bit of experience with while driving. I like to call it driving amnesia. This is a situation where you are driving and you have several miles under your belt and you suddenly don't remember getting to where you are at. You can't remember all if any of the details of a segment of your trip.

I'm not saying that you forget everything about every the trip you are making, however, there are holes in your memory that cause you to say, "Wow, I didn't realize I was was this far along." An alternative statement might be, "Hmm, how did I get here?" Or my all time favorite from a passenger, "Where are you going?" and you realize that you are not going in the wrong direction because "auto-pilot" kicked in.

As soon as I had decided to leave the radio off, I consciously decided to not slam any brain cells against any of the projects that I am current working on. I have learned in plenty of previous situations that driving amnesia is much more frequent with these topics. Thinking of code and development concepts requires so much concentration that the events that transpire while flying down the road are discarded before they can be committed to memory.

I have not ever had an accident during one of these mental states, however, I'm pretty sure that it can't be safe. I have recently begun trying to actively avoid allowing the driving amnesia from occurring. In the past, the radio blaring with development project contemplation has almost certainly lead to the forgotten miles under my wheels. Lately, almost any time that I am on the road, it is for a distance. The last thing I need is to allow myself to be whisked into a state of mental occupation and disregard what is going on in front of me. With a monthly pilgrimage north to Greenville and the less frequent travel to Pittsburgh, my trips are far from short.

I have thus far in my life taken for granted that I can safely multitask while driving. Generally people like to blame external items like food, drink, cell phones, iPods, radios, flat panel displays, or even GPS units for taking a driver's attention off of the road. However, I will tell you that the internal distractions can be just as worrisome. Driving is not an act to be taken lightly. If you really think about it, it doesn't take much of a distraction to get into a bad situation that could result in the loss of life. If you take for example that my average driving speed from home to Greenville is often at or above 80 miles per hour, it wouldn't take much at that speed to get into that bad situation.

Something as simple as an inconsiderate driver cutting me off when I'm in my head could cause my reaction time to be impaired. How about something else that could be a little bit less out of my control. What if I were to blow a tire or encounter a suspension or steering assembly failure? What if it wasn't my car, but a car in my vicinity? Either situation would likely lead to a catastrophic ending. In an emergency, reaction time could be the difference between life and death when you're going that fast. Sure some of you may say that with that much speed, the worst can be assumed. You may be right, but do you want to take that risk? I don't think I want to.

Another thing to take into consideration is when you are driving on a trip to be considered interstate. One should generally have enough experience in the vehicle to readily identify what are normal sounds and what are sounds that should raise concern. Since I am always driving my own car when I drive solo interstate, I can easily recognize the good and potentially bad sounds in my car. However, if I were to allow myself to zone out in deep thought, any attempt of my car to give me warning signs about problems could easily be missed. For that matter, cruising down the highway blaring my radio could have the same effect.

So, in conclusion, I am admitting that I have a real tendency to not pay enough attention to what I'm doing when I'm driving. I am also saying that I am going to try to become better at applying enough focus on my driving that I don't end up forgetting how I got to where I am at. I would also like to challenge everyone else to pay more attention to what they are doing while behind the wheel. I know for certain that some people are worse at this than I am (I've never run a red light because I treated it like a stop sign, although, my record is far from perfect). With that, I shall close this first topic and await the responses from you, my reader.