Could a person forget how to drive a car?
#1
Sophomoric Member
Thread Starter
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?
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?
__________________
"Think Outside the Cage"
#2
Junior Member
Join Date: Nov 2009
Location: Flagstaff, Arizona and Needles, California
Posts: 101
Bikes: Surly Disc Trucker, Salsa Journeyman, 05 specialized stumpjumper full susp.
Mentioned: 0 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 4 Post(s)
Liked 0 Times
in
0 Posts
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.
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.
#3
Senior Member
Join Date: Sep 2005
Posts: 4,697
Mentioned: 0 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 6 Post(s)
Likes: 0
Liked 10 Times
in
9 Posts
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.
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.
#4
Senior Member
Join Date: Sep 2005
Posts: 4,697
Mentioned: 0 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 6 Post(s)
Likes: 0
Liked 10 Times
in
9 Posts
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.
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.
#5
Senior Member
Join Date: Dec 2001
Location: New Jersey
Posts: 7,143
Mentioned: 0 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 261 Post(s)
Likes: 0
Liked 11 Times
in
10 Posts
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!
#6
In the right lane
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: Des Moines
Posts: 9,565
Bikes: 1974 Huffy 3 speed
Mentioned: 4 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 44 Post(s)
Likes: 0
Liked 7 Times
in
6 Posts
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!
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.
#7
Senior Member
Join Date: Oct 2008
Location: Aberdeen, Scotland
Posts: 482
Bikes: '07 Brompton S6L; '10 Brompton M6R
Mentioned: 0 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 0 Post(s)
Likes: 0
Liked 0 Times
in
0 Posts
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).
#8
Sophomoric Member
Thread Starter
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!"
__________________
"Think Outside the Cage"
#9
Senior Member
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: I'm in Helena Montana again.
Posts: 1,402
Mentioned: 0 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 19 Post(s)
Likes: 0
Liked 2 Times
in
2 Posts
You Can't Ever Forget How To Drive A Car.
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.
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.
#10
Membership Not Required
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: On the road-USA
Posts: 16,855
Bikes: Giant Excursion, Raleigh Sports, Raleigh R.S.W. Compact, Motobecane? and about 20 more! OMG
Mentioned: 5 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 70 Post(s)
Likes: 0
Liked 15 Times
in
14 Posts
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.
Aaron
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.
Aaron
__________________
Webshots is bailing out, if you find any of my posts with corrupt picture files and want to see them corrected please let me know. :(
ISO: A late 1980's Giant Iguana MTB frameset (or complete bike) 23" Red with yellow graphics.
"Cycling should be a way of life, not a hobby.
RIDE, YOU FOOL, RIDE!"_Nicodemus
"Steel: nearly a thousand years of metallurgical development
Aluminum: barely a hundred
Which one would you rather have under your butt at 30mph?"_krazygluon
Webshots is bailing out, if you find any of my posts with corrupt picture files and want to see them corrected please let me know. :(
ISO: A late 1980's Giant Iguana MTB frameset (or complete bike) 23" Red with yellow graphics.
"Cycling should be a way of life, not a hobby.
RIDE, YOU FOOL, RIDE!"_Nicodemus
"Steel: nearly a thousand years of metallurgical development
Aluminum: barely a hundred
Which one would you rather have under your butt at 30mph?"_krazygluon
#12
Banned.
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Anti Social Media-Land
Posts: 3,078
Mentioned: 0 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 0 Post(s)
Likes: 0
Liked 3 Times
in
2 Posts
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?
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?
#13
Senior Member
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: I'm in Helena Montana again.
Posts: 1,402
Mentioned: 0 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 19 Post(s)
Likes: 0
Liked 2 Times
in
2 Posts
How Many Miles Have You Driven?
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.
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.
#14
aspiring island dweller
Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: island off of an island
Posts: 267
Bikes: Easy Racers GRR, Cannondale T-2000/Rohloff Custom, Cannondale R-700, Custom Fixie/Single Speed, Santa Cruz
Mentioned: 0 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 0 Post(s)
Liked 0 Times
in
0 Posts
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.
__________________
Life is either a wild adventure or nothing - Helen Keller
Life is either a wild adventure or nothing - Helen Keller
#15
Banned
Join Date: Jun 2009
Posts: 4,788
Mentioned: 0 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 0 Post(s)
Likes: 0
Liked 2 Times
in
2 Posts
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....)
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....)
#16
Pedaled too far.
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: La Petite Roche
Posts: 12,851
Mentioned: 0 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 11 Post(s)
Likes: 0
Liked 7 Times
in
7 Posts
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.
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.
__________________
"He who serves all, best serves himself" Jack London
Last edited by Artkansas; 01-27-10 at 01:59 PM.
#18
Retro-Direct Fan
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Boulder, Colorado
Posts: 159
Mentioned: 0 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 0 Post(s)
Likes: 0
Liked 0 Times
in
0 Posts
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.
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.
#19
Membership Not Required
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: On the road-USA
Posts: 16,855
Bikes: Giant Excursion, Raleigh Sports, Raleigh R.S.W. Compact, Motobecane? and about 20 more! OMG
Mentioned: 5 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 70 Post(s)
Likes: 0
Liked 15 Times
in
14 Posts
Unfortunately...if they even learned how to drive properly to begin with.
Aaron
__________________
Webshots is bailing out, if you find any of my posts with corrupt picture files and want to see them corrected please let me know. :(
ISO: A late 1980's Giant Iguana MTB frameset (or complete bike) 23" Red with yellow graphics.
"Cycling should be a way of life, not a hobby.
RIDE, YOU FOOL, RIDE!"_Nicodemus
"Steel: nearly a thousand years of metallurgical development
Aluminum: barely a hundred
Which one would you rather have under your butt at 30mph?"_krazygluon
Webshots is bailing out, if you find any of my posts with corrupt picture files and want to see them corrected please let me know. :(
ISO: A late 1980's Giant Iguana MTB frameset (or complete bike) 23" Red with yellow graphics.
"Cycling should be a way of life, not a hobby.
RIDE, YOU FOOL, RIDE!"_Nicodemus
"Steel: nearly a thousand years of metallurgical development
Aluminum: barely a hundred
Which one would you rather have under your butt at 30mph?"_krazygluon
#20
Primate
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: gone
Posts: 2,579
Bikes: Concorde Columbus SL, Rocky Mountain Edge, Sparta stadfiets
Mentioned: 0 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 0 Post(s)
Likes: 0
Liked 5 Times
in
5 Posts
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.
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.
#21
Senior Member
Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: 25 miles northwest of Boston
Posts: 29,501
Bikes: Bottecchia Sprint, GT Timberline 29r, Marin Muirwoods 29er, Trek FX Alpha 7.0
Mentioned: 112 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 5216 Post(s)
Liked 3,555 Times
in
2,325 Posts
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.
Thread
Thread Starter
Forum
Replies
Last Post
1nterceptor
Living Car Free
128
05-11-14 03:12 PM