What Do You Look At When You Drive?

 

Yesterday I witnessed an accident on our local beltway (I-695). I was behind another vehicle. The driver partially moved into the left lane, realized another car was there (though it was tight, she was not actually going to hit it), thought she was going to collide, over-corrected (twice) to get back into her own lane, almost rolled, and ended up glancing off the concrete median barrier. No other cars were hit, but it could very easily have become a multi-car pileup.

I avoided the collision because I watched it happen, and took appropriate evasive action. But I know that had I been distracted at all, we would have been in the middle of a lot of dissipating kinetic energy. 

But then I thought: in the movies and TV, the driver turns his/her head to look at the passenger, during a conversation. Invariably. And I wondered: do real people, real drivers of cars, ever turn their heads while driving, in normal conversation? Or do they do as I do: keep looking ahead, and talking while seemingly addressing the road?

In other words: is the entertainment depiction accurate for some people, or is it just a convention to allow conversations in cars to not look too weird?

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  1. Annefy Inactive
    Annefy
    @Annefy

    The Scarecrow (View Comment):

    Whenever I see the driver turn and talk to the passenger – and they sometimes do this for a full ten seconds – I reflexively shout “Watch the road, you imbecile!” It’s very irritating, the stupidity of the scene (for me), and me (for everyone else in the room).

    Same here. I’m constantly yelling “look where you’re going” at the TV 

    • #31
  2. RufusRJones Member
    RufusRJones
    @RufusRJones

    iWe:

    But then I thought: in the movies and TV, the driver turns his/her head to look at the passenger, during a conversation. Invariably. And I wondered: do real people, real drivers of cars, ever turn their heads while driving, in normal conversation? Or do they do as I do: keep looking ahead, and talking while seemingly addressing the road?

    In other words: is the entertainment depiction accurate for some people, or is it just a convention to allow conversations in cars to not look too weird?

    If you get Subaru Eyesight, you don’t have to worry about it. It’s largely self driving. I don’t know about the other brands.

    • #32
  3. iWe Coolidge
    iWe
    @iWe

    Barfly (View Comment):
    When people talk on the phone, they are somewhere else. … One is physically there but not mentally. Hands-free does not help in any way.

    Some people manage this very easily and well. I am among them. Different parts of the brain.

    Others clearly cannot drive well and be in a conversation at the same time. I have a son like this: when he talks, he drives more slowly. It is a running joke in our family.

    • #33
  4. MarciN Member
    MarciN
    @MarciN

    iWe (View Comment):

    Barfly (View Comment):
    When people talk on the phone, they are somewhere else. … One is physically there but not mentally. Hands-free does not help in any way.

    Some people manage this very easily and well. I am among them. Different parts of the brain.

    Others clearly cannot drive well and be in a conversation at the same time. I have a son like this: when he talks, he drives more slowly. It is a running joke in our family.

    I can’t do both at the same time. When we first got cell phones, I would talk to people while I was driving. The call would end and I would realize I had no idea where I had just been driving.

    I’ll bet it is an individual trait.

    I wonder if people who have played the piano can do it while others can’t. A youth orchestra conductor I knew years ago said he thought all kids should learn to play the piano while they were young because it was the only instrument that required the player to use each hand separately–that is, to do two different things simultaneously. I would think it would open brain pathways. Just as learning foreign languages does.

    When I was teaching my kids how to drive, I noticed that whenever they were talking to me, they were not paying attention to the road. It was very obvious that they could not split their attention. But of course I was in the car. That’s different from looking forward while talking to someone who is present only in voice. :)

    I know it is possible to talk and drive at the same time. My husband does it with his hands-free phone frequently. He seems to handle it okay. :)

    • #34
  5. Randy Weivoda Moderator
    Randy Weivoda
    @RandyWeivoda

    MarciN (View Comment):

    iWe (View Comment):

    Barfly (View Comment):
    When people talk on the phone, they are somewhere else. … One is physically there but not mentally. Hands-free does not help in any way.

    Some people manage this very easily and well. I am among them. Different parts of the brain.

    Others clearly cannot drive well and be in a conversation at the same time. I have a son like this: when he talks, he drives more slowly. It is a running joke in our family.

    I can’t do both at the same time. When we first got cell phones, I would talk to people while I was driving. The call would end and I would realize I had no idea where I had just been driving.

    I’ll bet it is an individual trait.

    I wonder if people who have played the piano can do it while others can’t. A youth orchestra conductor I knew years ago said he thought all kids should learn to play the piano while they were young because it was the only instrument that required the player to use each hand separately–that is, to do two different things simultaneously. I would think it would open brain pathways. Just as learning foreign languages does.

    When I was teaching my kids how to drive, I noticed that whenever they were talking to me, they were not paying attention to the road. It was very obvious that they could not split their attention. But of course I was in the car. That’s different from looking forward while talking to someone who is present only in voice. :)

    I know it is possible to talk and drive at the same time. My husband does it with his hands-free phone frequently. He seems to handle it okay. :)

    Different circumstances require different attention levels.  I don’t want to have a conversation (or listen to a podcast) if I am driving in a snowstorm or trying to find my way around a city I am unfamiliar with.  But if I am driving on a divided highway across the Great Plains, having a conversation is probably a benefit to safety because the monotony of seeing nothing but wheat fields and corn fields for hundreds of miles could put a person to sleep.

    • #35
  6. Max Knots Member
    Max Knots
    @MaxKnots

    DonG (CAGW is a Scam) (View Comment):

    iWe: a lot of dissipating kinetic energy

    Nice phrasing!

    I saw somewhere that future cars are supposed to automatically brake to avoid hitting pedestrians, cars, objects. Will that make people care less about driving carefully paying attention?

    They’re already here. If a car has adaptive cruise control, it can maintain set distances from the car in front of you by speeding up, slowing down or braking if that car stops. They’re still getting the bugs out. My 2021 Honda brakes for mailboxes on curved residential streets even when the cruise control is off because the radar is also linked to the collision avoidance system. Yes, mildly annoying. But this is their first generation version. And it also nudges the steering wheel if you’re straying from your lane. I’ve seen other manufacturers already advertising completely hands-off cruise control. These Lane Control Systems use the painted lane markers (stripes and dashes) and can be fooled in construction zones, making them less useful here in the midwest with our two seasons: winter  & construction. 

    Will my next car have this feature? Probably. They’re helpful on longer trips and with sons and family scattered across several states, we accumulate miles on our road trip car quickly.

    • #36
  7. Stad Coolidge
    Stad
    @Stad

    J Ro (View Comment):
    spend more time on the scenery and blessed billboards.

    Especially the South of the Border billboards up and down I-95 . . .

    • #37
  8. Brickhouse Hank Contributor
    Brickhouse Hank
    @HankRhody

    I’ve read a book while driving.

    I was going twenty five, with no other traffic on the road, and largely to see if I could do it. As I was only glancing away from the road for roughly half a line at a time I couldn’t properly immerse myself in the story. It ruins the enjoyment.

    • #38
  9. Annefy Inactive
    Annefy
    @Annefy

    Brickhouse Hank (View Comment):

    I’ve read a book while driving.

    I was going twenty five, with no other traffic on the road, and largely to see if I could do it. As I was only glancing away from the road for roughly half a line at a time I couldn’t properly immerse myself in the story. It ruins the enjoyment.

    I read a paperback on the back of a motorcycle. But it made me sleepy and I nearly fell off. Had to have the driver pull over and I did jumping jacks 

    • #39
  10. Brian Wyneken Member
    Brian Wyneken
    @BrianWyneken

    I’ve never much shared in the temptation to “rubber-neck” at accident sites. On the other hand I’m pretty interested in roadkill. But yes, it’s eyes out if you’re gonna get inside their OODA loop.

    • #40
  11. OccupantCDN Coolidge
    OccupantCDN
    @OccupantCDN

    iWe: In other words: is the entertainment depiction accurate for some people, or is it just a convention to allow conversations in cars to not look too weird?

    I think in car conversations, are either filmed with the car being towed on a filming rig – so the driver is not actually driving the car. Or the car is on a sound stage with green screens or in a StageCraft type set were the car is actually stationary.

    The Hollywood depiction of driving is very unnatural. I keep my attention of the road and traffic around me. In proportion to the traffic around me … I am a little paranoid about blind spots, and try to keep an eye for traffic in adjacent lanes and slightly behind me. So if I change lanes I know where cars are… 

    • #41
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