Roody

Sorry but it sounds like you have a few things mixed up in your head.

cycleobsidian

[QUOTE=I-Like-To-Bike;15405851]Perhaps, but I find it a bit odd that this specific fear/phobia keeps popping up on this list. Does anybody think that their own reason for being car-free is due to a phobia about being in a car?

QUOTE]

My own reasons for being car lite had little to do with a phobia about being in a car.

However, after being car lite, I am more anxious now when in a car. The anxiety is a side effect of not travelling that way very often.

Gojohnnygo.

No I rock climb and have been actively ICE climbing the past few years. Arm chair dude!

Roody

I just returned from some ice biking at a local lake. Fun! But a lot of people are scared to go on the ice. I never heard them brag about their irrational fear of 8 inch ice cracking, come to think of it.

Winter activities are still in full swing here. The sledding hill by where I was ice biking has a good 3 feet of snow on it. (Artificial snow. We didn't get much of the real stuff this year, even though its been pretty cold.) A year ago the temp was 86F. This morning the wind chill was 10 degrees F. Not a good day to have an irrational fear of getting cold.

mustang1

The pillars have become quite thick over the last 10 or 15 years. Back in the 80s the pillars were far thinner thus affording decent visibility.

bjjoondo 

Well I kinda understand it, the wife and I rode motorcycles for 30 years. We've been "motor vechical" free for 6 years, a certain motorcycle came into the Chevy Dealership, as a trade-in, that my wife works at, she wanted it so we bought it. It was a bit scarry being "IN TRAFFIC" at SPEED" for the first time in 6 years, your now traveling at the "Speed of car", not the speed of bicycle and the feeling of the cars wizzing by on both sides, felt a bit like panic. It subsided after a few miles but it was there so at least for me it was real! JMHO, YMMV.

krobinson103

Phobia? Perhaps not. Uncomfortable is more like it. Who really wants to be shut in a small box for hours on end when you can be out in the elements enjoying life? Besides, cars are so cumbersome compared to motorcycles or bikes.

I was almost killed by a 10 tonne truck on my motorcycle about 2 years back. A few more centimeters and my head would have been pancake helmet or no helmet. I rode for 3-4 months after that but I lost the fearlessness you need to ride a motorcycle. You really have to believe that you invincible to safely ride at speed. Once I lost that it was just a matter of time before I screwed up again. Bikes are the way for me.

bjjoondo 

Understand. We haven't given up the bicycles, infact their still our main transportation and local area rec. machines! The motorcycle, I guess will be treated like a "poor man's RV", LOL. It's to use to go longer distances in shorter time spans, if that makes any sense? My wife has a weird vacation schedule, She's been at her job for 13 years so she get's "3 weeks vac." a year BUT, she can't take vacation in June or July and she can only take, "one week at a time". We are almost 60 and not fast bicycle riders so for us to "really" get out and see the sight's via bicycle we NEED 3 weeks, that ain't happening!! So the motorcycle will let us get "out and about" our lovely state of Colorado much quicker and out of State MUCH easier.

Dahon.Steve

What's unnatural is having to drive at 75 mph on the turnpike or parkway. The state police could care less if people are driving that speed so everyone takes advantage. I feel comfortable driving at 45 or 50 mph tops! However, you become a road hazzard at that speed. You want to get abused on the road. Drive 50 mph on a 55 mph road.

Roody

That's interesting. I had thought that feeling invincible would make you take bigger risks, and you'd be more likely to get hurt. Do you have to feel invincible only on motorcycles, or on bicycles and other activities also?

the reason I wonder is that I just had a talk with my 13 year old grandson. I told him that adolescent boys are much more likely to have accidents because they are big risk takers. I told him to be a little safer than he thinks he needs to be for the next few years. Now I'm wondering...maybe that wasn't such great advice?

frantik

riding as a passenger in a car can be nerve wracking, especially if they are driving kinda crazy. I drive a pedicab so I'm still used to driving sort of like a car, but it's a lot different. Driving in a car through downtown San Jose feels so slow compared to on a bike..

Newspaperguy

The only change for me is that I don't like driving nearly as much as I did in the past. As a result, I'll try to find other practical ways to get where I'm going.

Sixty Fiver

I have driven well over 1000,000 km in my life and was car free for five years and last summer started driving again... the skills were there but my mind had to re-adjust to driving at speeds in excess of 60kmh. Found the same thing happened when I rented a car as I did on a few occasions during that five year break as driving or being a passenger in a vehicle was also a pretty rare happening.

We were not designed to move at 100kmh and our brains can adapt to this... high speed driving courses are designed to do just.

Look at new cyclists who freak out when they exceed their comfort level on a bicycle and slow down because 20kmh seems too fast... the same thing applies as we need to condition ourselves to activities we were not designed for.

wphamilton

It all comes back within a few weeks. Beyond adjusting to the higher speeds - which doesn't take that long - the biggest issue I had was with judgment of traffic. The drivers take more risks, routinely much higher risk of collisions, than I'd usually accept on a bicycle. It's ironic that most of them believe that cycling is hazardous yet typically they maneuver such that other drivers must react quickly to avoid them.

Sixty Fiver

I am amazed that there are not more accidents on the road with motorists... you get a different view when you are driving and I see too many people that simply don't know how to drive in a safe manner.

A lot of this stems from so many people being in such a hurry to get places and treating their commutes and errands like they are races.

Seems like a lot fail to look ahead to properly plan lane changes or be aware of the issues on their routes, race up to stops and then have to slam on their brakes, and fail to yield the right of way to anyone else.

Most annoying to me is those people who get behind you and start honking as soon as the light turns green because that extra second I take to make sure no-one is blowing through the intersection or trying to cross against the light is apparently too much for them to take.

This has saved me on more occasions than I can count when that little delay and extra check to make sure traffic has stopped has prevented me from being broadsided by folks who think the amber light means go faster and end up blowing through a red light.

In 30 years of driving for personal and professional reasons I have never been in an accident while driving.

Winnershcyclist

I am nearly there I own three cars and five bikes, where I used to average around £250 a month on fuel I now average about £20 a month

gerv 

£20 ? Better than 250, but why do you need 3 cars to support this? Hope you don't live in the city and pay parking.