Living Car Free - Could a person forget how to drive a car?

I drive less than 10 miles a month--and never on freeways or real busy streets. So far I haven't forgotten how to drive, but I think that my skills have declined.

They say you never forget how to ride a bike--and since I easily resumed bike riding after 30 years, I believe it. But what about car driving skills? Can they be forgotten?

When I was growing up in So Calif I learned to drive on the freeway about the second day I was in a car. But when I was 25 I moved to the Big Island where there were only 2 lane roads, and stayed there 8 years. I was able to drive on the freeway again after returning to the Mainland, but it sure was like culture shock. Then, after moving to Arizona I didn't have a car for a few years, and seldom drove, mostly rode bikes and took the bus. I also lost skills at that time, but then I got a CDL to become a school bus driver. Now I make part of my living via driving the bus.

Anyway, yes, I think your skills can decline, although you won't completely forget how to drive. But you may find yourself in the unenviable position of being one of those slow, scared drivers, like a little old man, that annoy all the other drivers on the road, with their poor skills, creeping along and generally being in the way.

For me, regaining my driving skills after having lost some of them was a kind of empowerment I needed at a certain time of my life. Long story, but I have no intention of going back to having no car at all, although I do bike commute a lot, and run errands on my bike, etc.

If you don't use it you loose it.

That's the reason why one has to have check out ride every 2 years for a pilot's ticket.
You will not forget the basics (your clutch may disagree) but without practice you will not be at your best behind the wheel.
I don't think you will have any issues driving to the store and back. Driving around the Arc de Triomphe may be daunting though.

If you don't use it you loose it.

That's the reason why one has to have check out ride every 2 years for a pilot's ticket.
You will not forget the basics (your clutch may disagree) but without practice you will not be at your best behind the wheel.
I don't think you will have any issues driving to the store and back. Driving around the Arc de Triomphe may be daunting though.

There's no question my skills have suffered since becoming car free. It hit me that one has to travel at 75 mph on a turnpike in order to stay out of the danger and I could not get comfortable at that speed for very long. Also, it seems like the highways are more dangerous now that ever. I could be wrong but I've noticed so many drivers taking chances and driving like there's no tomorrow!

There's no question my skills have suffered since becoming car free. It hit me that one has to travel at 75 mph on a turnpike in order to stay out of the danger and I could not get comfortable at that speed for very long. Also, it seems like the highways are more dangerous now that ever. I could be wrong but I've noticed so many drivers taking chances and driving like there's no tomorrow!

This is my experience, too. I do drive a car... just not a whole lot. Recently, I needed to take the freeway and went into a bit of panic at the speeds you need to keep up with traffic.

To be honest, considering the slushy condition of the roads that day, I think drivers were nuts to be traveling at the speed limit. That's probably why so many of them end up in the median or the ditch.

2 years after I changed my job, from one in which I drove a van every day, I drove the exact same van on the exact same roads for a couple of weeks. I was astonished at how stressed I got, and how much trouble I had parking, but I didn't have a problem with speed, which I put down to the experience I had as a stupid teenager. At the end of the fortnight I think I was back to where I was before. Then another 6 months of not driving, I rented an enormous van to move house, and reshaped a gate post (in my defence, the gateway was only 2 inches wider than the van).

I knew I had a problem when I squeezed the steering wheel to stop the car! To remember to use the car's brake pedal instead, I had to keep reminding myself, "coaster brakes...coaster brakes!"

If you don't drive for ten lifetimes you might forget how to drive. When I moved from Louisiana to Montana I drove a 36' U-haul truck. It was my first time driving such a huge thing. On the fifth day I was driving it fully loaded over a curvy mountain pass with snow at sixty miles per hour. That really wasn't the best time to learn how to drive on snow. I just remembered common sense things like going slower than the speed limit for a while, not making sudden moves or to brake suddenly, and to keep plenty of distance between my truck and anything in front of me. It all worked out fine.

If you have the skills and intelligence to do the job right then it won't really matter how much time passes between the times you get to drive a car. Car driving isn't really a difficult thing to do. Forgetting a foreign language seems possible but forgetting how to point a car with a steering wheel seems too self evident to forget. You just need to know to use the steering wheel to point it, use the brake to stop it, and use the accelerator pedal to make it go faster.

In reality driving a car is a realitive complex task that requires a reasonable amount of training and cognitive skills. Yes the basics are pretty straight forward, the real challenge comes in processing the information that the brain receives and processing it in time to avoid problems. I think way too many people in the US take driving for granted and fail to pay proper attention to it. I have long felt and advocated that drivers education should be an on going process and require periodic testing requiring skills testing as well as written.

In answer to the OP's question...yes you will forget many of the nuances of driving, it will be different for each individual. Some people will remember faster than others. I drive different vehicles, I spend most of my time in a stripped down work truck, on the rare occasion I drive my personal truck, which is a fully loaded large truck, I quite often find myself reaching for a window winder handle instead of the electric window button.:o

Aaron:)

There are many drivers who have forgotten how to drive. The problem is that they are still driving.

I drive less than 10 miles a month--and never on freeways or real busy streets. So far I haven't forgotten how to drive, but I think that my skills have declined.

They say you never forget how to ride a bike--and since I easily resumed bike riding after 30 years, I believe it. But what about car driving skills? Can they be forgotten?

I would say that once you master the art of driving a car, you will always be able to steer and operate the thing. For me, when I do drive (very rarely), I am not so afraid of the car itself, but all the crazy drivers zooming around haphazardly around the Los Angeles area. This includes my own experience riding a bike around here.

How many miles have you driven? My guess is that I've driven close to 200,000 miles in thirty-four years. Some of that was done as a delivery driver for two different pizza restaurants and one multi-restaurant delivery service. Most of the rest was commuting to jobs. It was only in my teenage years that I did cruising just for fun.

Once the basics of driving are known the rest of the learning is just fine tuning. Forgetting some of the finer points might happen for people. Those would come back immediately once a familiar situation happened. Of course many people never grasp the finer points of driving and therefore will never react properly to some situations because they lack the ability to understand them.

If you don't use it you loose it...That's the reason why one has to have check out ride every 2 years for a pilot's ticket.

Too true. The flight school that I rented planes from required you to fly every thirty days if you held a private licence, and every sixty days if you held a commercial licence. I'm sure that was for insurance purposes.

Even though I no longer hold a valid licence, I never regret getting it. It's taught me a level of responsibility that I wish all car operators would aspire to.

I got rid of my last car five years ago. Since then, I have averaged one session per year behind the wheel. Each and every one, it was like I just drove yesterday.

Sure, my skills have rusted a touch -- puts me three steps instead of four above the rest of the rabble out there that drive every day.

(When you experience advanced driving as a daily thing, you tend to develop a finer edge -- three years in Germany....)

If you have the skills and intelligence to do the job right then it won't really matter how much time passes between the times you get to drive a car. Car driving isn't really a difficult thing to do. Forgetting a foreign language seems possible but forgetting how to point a car with a steering wheel seems too self evident to forget. You just need to know to use the steering wheel to point it, use the brake to stop it, and use the accelerator pedal to make it go faster.

But that's the easy stuff. A child could do that, and from time to time we read about children who do (http://www.wndu.com/watercooler/headlines/37197794.html). (I've even seen a chimpanzee driving an Austin Healey, a deed that became illegal in Florida a few months later after a cop saw the chimp driving down the road with his human asleep in the passenger seat. )

Other stuff like knowing what traffic will do, navigating in a strange place taking in the signs, reading the drivers around you while modulating your speed and knowing the subtle signs that tell you what they are about to do, that disappears all too quickly.

A couple of years ago, I got out at the San Jose airport to drive to Santa Cruz after having not driven for a year or so. I had never taken that journey before so I had to learn the route and refresh my driving skills simultaneously. For the first 20 miles or so, I found myself going slowly and really amazed at all the things I had to pay attention to at once. Slowly things kicked in and my speed picked up.

nah, it's like riding a bike! wait...

No, it's like riding a bike :)

I drive once every few months, and it's no problem, I don't forget how to drive.

I do forget how to navigate. Boulders excellent bike facilities mean there are great ways to get around town by bicycle. But they are entirely different than how to do it by car, so trying to drive downtown I realize I can't use that MUP, don't want that side street, etc. It's like driving in a town I don't know, but worse, because I think I do.

There are many drivers who have forgotten how to drive. The problem is that they are still driving.

:thumb::(

Unfortunately...if they even learned how to drive properly to begin with.

Aaron:)

Over the holidays, after a two year hiatus, I drove a borrowed car a few times.
I was initially annoyed by not being able to see my front wheels.
That lasted about 1/2 a second.

The rest was fine.
Other than, that is, the traffic jam, the suffocation, the aggravation, the boredom, the detachment, the fear, and the $40 tank of gas.

interesting question. reminds me that last summer after riding a lot when I got back in the car I was trying bike moves cuz they had become second nature. certain things like passing on the right and other things I can' remember exactly. there are "rules-of-the-road" for cars and they are different than those for bicycles, and I'm not talking about laws.