The Forums › Forums › Most X-treme! › Is It Just Me? › My son and his driving › Re: My son and his driving
Larynxa, I agree with your Big 3 comment. It’s crazy that we allow driving at 16.
My experience with driving is a bit different. I took to it quickly and easily. In the early years I kept the tickets under control and caused only one crash (which is enough!). I won a trophy for car racing and participated in motorcycle competitions in my late teens and early twenties.
However (!!!), I had a lot of close calls that I managed to avoid because I was technically very good even if I was a terror on the road. I still remember one day when I was going far too fast in the city and, while coming out of a bend in the road with poor sight lines, I was almost upon a woman crossing the street. It was all I could do to avoid her although I came so close I must have scared the bejeezes out of her.
I certainly scared myself and realised that I wasn’t making very good decisions about driving. Since then I have become very careful. I follow the speed limit, leave lots of following distance, stop at stop signs, slow for pedestrians and animals etc. All of these have become habits which have served me well because they give lots of opportunity to recover from a daydreaming session or momentary loss of focus. I still have a few close calls but they would have been crashes before. I also save a lot of fuel.
The only down side of driving like this is that most drivers are horribly impatient. They will tailgate aggressively and pass in stupid places but I have accepted that I’m not responsible for their bad habits. If someone persists in tailgating I just slow down or pull over to let her pass.
I unfortunately have to drive a lot but since cleaning up my act, I haven’t had a ticket in about 25 years, my car has no dents and no one has died because of my driving. I’m very happy about the last one.
REPORT ABUSE