Hello everyone! I am wondering if anyone else ever feels unsafe on the road. I am not talking speeding tickets, because I can't help but to speed, but I mean distraction. I find myself getting distracted on the road all the time, especially when on long highway drives. Maybe not so much in the city because there is so much going on at once, that it's easier for me to focus, and I'm actually very intune with everything that's going on. I just went on a long drive and found myself getting distracted several times, either in my head or by things outside and realized that I think I have always been like this. I am newly diagnosed and am not taking any meds yet. I was taking Wellbutrin for PMS up until a few months ago, but stopped because I have been feeling much better. Now, I don't know if it's because now I KNOW I have ADD or if it's because I'm not taking the Wellbutrin anymore, but my symptoms seem to be much more obvious to me.

Funny you should say that. I recently found an article that discusses this:

http://www.addforums.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=270

Wow, thanks! Very interesting. How do physicians decide which medication to put who on?

I feel unsafe on the road because of the other drivers. Other than when I 1st begain drving I have never felt unsafe because of my own driving. I do day dream when I'm drving but I also pat attention to the road too. Every once in while I do get a little freaked out when I arrive at the exit and don't really remember getting their.

Ohh, that happens to me all the time. Isn't it funny how we can pay attention without actually paying attention?

i enjoy driving i find it relaxes me, i tend to day dream to and cant remember sometimes how i even got to were i was going!!!!


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MAY THE ROAD ALWAYS RISE UP TO MEET YOU!!

Regarding feeling "unsafe", I've had times -- when I've felt more "ADD" than others -- when I've found myself reading while driving, or even typing out a message on my PDA. I thought this was bad... then I saw someone reading the newspaper (unfolded!) while he was driving, and shaving at the same time.

:)

Oh, I used to be pretty bad. There was a time when I used to drive to & from work and while driving, would be instant messaging to folks on my PDA or Cell Phone.

Been there, done that too. Once I purged all the duplicates (about 500) from my PDA's address book while driving, in the rain, all the way from Detroit to Cleveland. Before I knew it, though, I was there, and my contacts were cleaned up! :)

Oh yeah, and did I mention that because I spent so long packing, I didn't get to *leave* for Cleveland until 1am?

Do you find that you are ever in a race to beat your own record? I have a set time...I know exactly how long it takes me to get from a to b. If I start taking longer than that, I really start driving like a maniac! I am kind of always in a contest with myself to beat my own driving time!

I used to drive like that when I had a sports car, but now that I drive a van and a friend from Oklahoma asked why everyone drives so fast in LA, I realized that no matter what I do, the van will not go as fast as the celica I used to have, so I just cruise, and it's very relaxing.
Also, if you do the math, you really don't save enough time for speeding to be worthwhile, you'd be better off running to your car, you'll save more time. And get a little exercise.

....running to your car.....ha ha!

;)

I'm a driver professional, in some ways my ADD makes me a very good driver because I see everything....The only trouble I have with my driving is the sleepy feeling I get if I'm not on my meds.

I am a Big Truck driver (big big Truck) Tractor and 2 trailers

Its were I feel most comfortable All alone and in Control of the truck

(and cursing 4 wheelers for reading and playing with there PDAs and cell phones when they should be paying attention to the road and other drivers)

I guess some of them havent figured out " that Being Dead is for a LONG Time "

Oh, I always wished my 5-speed could be an 18-speed!!! It just makes sense to have more shifting gears once you've used them all!

Yeah, duh, Garry huh, re; dead being for a looong time. My boss (in a telecommunications firm no less!) was SO cheap (hoooow cheap was he? Well someone was gonna say it, so I figured I'd get it out of the way) that instead of paying for a celphone for me, (and I was asst. Project Mgr. for a multimillion $$ project, not some flunky, so the $50-100 it would have cost would have been a minor expense, cheap bastid) gave me his old text pager (like a blackberry, tiny little keyboard) to keep in touch with.

It was only like the 2nd or 3rd time I was on the freeway and trying to type in a (usually technical and long) reply to his message that I decided my life was not worth him having an instant reply, and would deliberately wait at least 2-3 hours to reply to his messages whether I was on the freeway or not.

In other news, I had a minor fenderbender today, and learned that some people will make a conscious choice to be an evil jerk, even when there's absolutely no reason to do so.

Case in point; My car was MOTIONLESS, so the accident was ENTIRELY her fault, but she says; "I'm saying you cut me off..." etc.

What I did NOT learn is WHY a person driving a BRAND NEW mercedes SUV, which HAS to have insurance just to get financing, not to mention the common sense aspect of it, looks at my 84 chevy van and feels the need to blame it on me and run up my insurance rate?

Can someone please explain to me what POSSIBLE reason there could be for this? Is it just to save their $100 deductible? Are there people who are really that lame, that they will screw someone over just to save $100? Maybe their insurance lapsed for some reason? Maybe this is not the first car she's messed up, and hubby's gonna be mad?

There are definitely two kinds of people on this planet, and she's the other kind.

People are so godd*mned annoying sometimes. ADD or no. Sheesh.

Perhaps she didn't like the color of her SUV and wanted to try out a new color? :D

j/k.

Sorry about the accident!

well, it wasn't that bad, but she's gonna need a new bumper. My big ole american chrome bumper tore her little piece of plastic right off.

Honestly, I can't fathom WHAT the heck she was thinking. And yes, I did ask.

And she's only had the car for two months, so if she's tired of the color already, maybe she's ADD too...

Tara, I don't blame you one bit for not feeling safe while driving in good ol' MA! I don't feel safe when rodd's driving.
I'm learning how to drive now, and we have to plan the time of day that's best for me to get behind the wheel, Every time a transport passes me i feel the urge to scream in fear.
I"m proud of my self though, i drove from MA to NH with only screaming once (at a transport ~ I screamed five more times at the other cars coming onto highway).

any tips for someone just learning?

Eh, not that I can really contribute much to this thread, but if nothing else, I'll at least link to my own driving-related thread in one of the other forums...

Driven To Insanity (http://www.addforums.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1358)

what's really ironic, is that i hate driving in ma, i'm constantly worried that someone is going to hit me, or cut me off or sid swipe me. However, i love driving at home in ontario (canada). because i know that no one's going to do that to me.
of course, i become the aggressive driver b/c i'm overly confident,
and then i try to drive like rodd. Yeah, that's a bad scene.

Originally posted by andrea76
what's really ironic, is that i hate driving in ma, i'm constantly worried that someone is going to hit me


What are ya saying? That we are scary drivers in Ma. ?.....lol...

Paula

i grew up where everyone (with the exception of my parents) is a defensive driver. You can't always drive defensively in MA, otherwise you'd get your butt kicked and you can't tell me I'm wrong.

you're not wrong andrea.actually you're 100% on the dot correct.boston drivers are scarey drivers. i drive into downtown boston each and every weekday morning and it is scarey indeed some of the stuff i see on the road.

force: perhaps that lady didnt want to claim fault no matter what. some people are like that.yes she was a jerk.to put it mildly:D

I'm thinking it's one of three things; that her simplistic view is that even though she stopped too close to my car, she wasn't moving when I started forward and tore her front bumper off, so AT THAT MOMENT she wasn't doing anything, so she thinks it's my fault,

OR that she is just going to go ahead and claim it's my fault and hope the insurance company doesn't investigate and just writes a check,

OR that her husband is going to be really mad, and so she's just gonna do the big denial thing to avoid more wrath. Maybe she's screwed up more than one car, I don't know.

personally,
i'm thinking that only option 1 and 2 are viable.

I find out things like exactly how fast I must drive to not hit the next light red.

I also noticed (when I first started driving) that many of the traffic lights around here have a set of 4 vehicle (loop) detectors installed in the pavement starting from about 200' back from the stop line, one about every 50 feet (in the through lanes).

(I guess I should point out that the loop detectors are often pretty easy to see, as they install them by saw-cutting a square-shaped groove into the pavement and then sealing it up with tar, so they stand out a bit).

I noticed the light would generally NEVER change to yellow as long as I got to the first loop detector while it was still green. Very rarely, it would change anyway.

So I developed a habit of speeding up to beat the yellow before the light even changes to yellow.

I found out later on that those things are called "dilemma-zone detectors", designed to keep the light from changing to yellow while a car is in the dilemma-zone. (Which is the point at which a driver may not be sure whether to stop or keep going if the light changes to yellow).

In heavy traffic it'll eventually time out if if it never sees the dilemma-zone free of cars, and change to yellow anyway.

Unfortunately, many of the roads where these detectors are installed have since been repaved, and apparently they just put the asphalt right over the detector, without leaving a telltale tar strip.

Loop detectors in front of the stop line are for red-light cameras, which is a nice way to tell that an intersection has one if the local government feels that disclosing the locations of red light cameras would shrink their revenue stream.


Originally posted by misclee
Do you find that you are ever in a race to beat your own record? I have a set time...I know exactly how long it takes me to get from a to b. If I start taking longer than that, I really start driving like a maniac! I am kind of always in a contest with myself to beat my own driving time!

UN. FREAKING. BELIEVABLE. I just found out from my insurance company that they're basically considering holding me partially at fault since I didn't check my rearview to see if some idiot stopped so close to my car that when I started forward I'd tear her bumper off.

COME ON! Am I wrong here, or didn't she create the accident? Just because I wasn't a SUPERdriver, constantly checking my mirrors to see if some moron was doing something stupid then it's MY fault? What?!

Just reinforces my belief that insurance companies SUCK. We'd all be a whole lot better off if the whole thing was handled by the governement. Put a ten cent tax on gas, everyone has no choice but to pay, ergo everyone's insured, and a rebate for good drivers at the end of the year.

I've a strong feeling they're going to make me 50% responsible just because it's way cheaper than going into court. Aholes!

Can they prove you didnt check your rear view mirror

Fight them

Originally posted by aforceforgood

Just reinforces my belief that insurance companies SUCK. We'd all be a whole lot better off if the whole thing was handled by the governement.

Move to Virginia. No auto insurance needed, provided that you're willing to (1) pay a $550 (might be $650 now) annual "uninsured motor vehicle" fee and (2) possibly get dragged to court to make good on any damage you cause.

I have no idea why your insurance company would say that it's your fault if the other driver did indeed pull up too close behind you. I do know that letting the government handle it will NOT make it any better. They're probably run it about as well as they do the public schools.

Originally posted by aforceforgood
UN. FREAKING. BELIEVABLE. I just found out from my insurance company that they're basically considering holding me partially at fault since I didn't check my rearview to see if some idiot stopped so close to my car that when I started forward I'd tear her bumper off.

Even if you had checked your rearview, how would that have changed anything? What could you have POSSIBLY done differently to ensure that her bumper didn't get torn off? Just sit there and call a tow truck to unstick her bumper from yours?

Her vehicle collided with yours. It was mere luck that she wasn't going fast enough to damage your vehicle.

What insurance company is this, out of curiosity?

So I noticed I left my notebook PC at home on the way to work and so I made a U-turn.

On the way back, the one traffic light on that road which is equipped with a red light camera changes to yellow. Uh oh.

I push the gas...not accelerating as quickly as I'd like, so I downshift to 2nd and let 5 litres of American V8 displacement even up the odds just a little bit.

The light was still yellow as I went under it.

Unfortunately Garry, stupid honest me told them I didn't check my side mirrors before proceeding forward after the light turned green again.

Thank you, Brian, it makes me feel a little better that at least someone sees the common sense side of it. Talking to that bureaucratic supervisor who just kept quoting the law "you are responsible to make sure it is safe to proceed before proceeding" was SO frustrating- what a jerk. He knows full well there's a big difference between using REASONABLE caution and being negligent.

Actually, I'm not sure her car touched mine before I started forward, but my point to the supervisor of the AAA California auto club insurance was that WE WERE SITTING AT A RED LIGHT FOR OVER 30 SECONDS during which time, she could have done a number of things, like back up (even an INCH would probably have prevented this accident) or move over into the center lane, or beeped her horn if she couldn't back up.

I feel I exercised a reasonable amount of caution, I mean, really, who checks their side mirrors before going forward? Especially when you've been sitting at a red light for over 30 seconds? And like I told the insurance superdoofus, that's a 2-dimensional image, it wouldn't have necessarily shown me that she was that close to me. And just because there is SOMETHING I could have done that might have prevented the accident I am partially at fault? Am I at fault for not just staying in my house and never going out? Sheesh.

I mean really, we ALL depend to a certain extent on other people to drive safely. If someone guns their car right at me and I'm not on the ball enough to swerve out of the way, am I also at fault then? Apparently, according to the rationale this insurance company is using. Just because my defensive driving wasn't over the top enough to compensate for her poor driving or spatial judgement skills, somehow I'm partially to blame? Gimme a break.

I used to work for AIS (an insurance brokerage) and if I remember correctly, if I insist on going to court over this, I believe I have to sign off the insurance company's responsibility to pay for the damage. BUT I am currently $5000 in debt, considering bankruptcy, and unemployed. So even if I lost, I could see to it that she got NOTHING.

And I think I've got a pretty good case, I think I would win. I'm going to think about it- anyone got any advice for me? Have you had your insurance raised due to an accident? How much? Been through court over an auto accident?

Did you really say only that you hadn't checked your side mirrors? The side mirrors won't tell you ANYTHING about what's directly behind your car, only the rear-view will (and the rear-view certainly won't tell you that her bumper is in contact with yours).

Given that your bumper is directly behind your car, and not a single mirror on it will give you a view of your bumper or anything within several feet of it, I think it is moronic of them to try to say that checking the mirrors could have prevented this accident.

About the only way, from what you have told me, that you could have prevented this accident is to GET OUT AND CHECK.

And any reasonable person would not assume that someone sitting in a vehicle for 30 seconds, presumably well aware of the situation since they caused it, would not have tried to take some action to prevent it, so they would NOT get out and check.

If you HAD checked your side mirrors, assuming that she wasn't in your blind spot, what about that picture would have told you there was a problem? The fact that she was "too close"? She was in control of "too close", and she has to make that determination when stopping her vehicle, not you before you start moving.

Really, it sounds like had she gone another couple of inches, she would have collided with your vehicle.

Was she attempting to change lanes into your lane? The law says that anyone currently in a lane has right of way.

I'll bet a portion of her vehicle had to be over that white line in order to make contact with yours...

The ADDA conference had a session on AD/HD and drving this past year. The tape can be ordered through http://www.add.org

The number of this tape session is ADDA-B14

I always have to do something else besides "just driving." I love to drive but I have a hard time with "just driving", like looking at the mail-I've been fussed at by my family, organising my purse while on the interstate-have been fussed at about that too, as I should. So yesterday while driving a long distance on the interstate, I took bubblewrap and toothpicks and a pen to tap and pretend I'm conducting as I listen to music, etc.,etc.,etc.,.... Anybody else have the same problem?