Report 6: My self-Witnessing Experiment

NAVIGATION CONTROL

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I selected my problem of going too fast on the freeway as the topic for my self-witnessing experiment. I set out to record data about my speeding while driving on the H1 freeway between downtown and the King Street off-ramp (exit to my apartment). I also decided to do repeat trials (one weeks worth) of each driving style because the distance I was traveling was rather short being that I live in town now. The first week was characterized by anxiety, anger, swearing, stress, specific feelings and thoughts about physical destruction, resentment and one time, bitterness. Most of these negative aspects were a result of getting stuck being people on days 1,2, and 4 which lead to me cognitively equating my tardiness with someone else's poor driving habits. The first two days I got extremely pissed off because I felt other drivers were incompetent and often dangerous. Days 3 and 5 of the first week were a lot better and characterized by short trip times and what I called in my notes at the end of those trips the mission accomplished feeling. On these days I was not encumbered by other drivers and was able to travel at what ever speed I desired and thought would best serve my purpose of completing the mission (getting there in the shortest possible time). My maximum speed on days 3 and 5 was about 65 or 70 miles per hour as I headed toward the King Street off-ramp. Those two days were still characterized with some negative emotions and thoughts. On day 3 I had a close call with a car that merged straight into the center lane as I was trying to disembark the freeway. He crossed the white line and I had to weave around him in avoidance and then cut across quickly to the inside lane to make the exit. In my notes, I wrote, "a lesser driver would have had an accident." and I cursed the unknown driver for the rest of the day.

The next week I tried to drive in exactly the opposite manner as the week before. This added effort came to be affected on many levels and began with me leaving a little earlier because I felt that getting to my destination on time was important and I wasn't going to be able to speed. I thought, "I'm going to be at the mercy of some stupid and possibly incompetent drivers on my journey so I better give myself a little cushion. This in turn lead me to thinking about how much control over the driving situation I really had anyway. I mean if someone makes a bone-head maneuver how much control do you really have over that fact. None I thought. The only thing you really have control over is your own vehicle and actions. The rest is left up to the statistical gods. The problem in my mind however was that I knew that statistics and they made me afraid and gave me a sense of doom. I mean it's only a matter of time before we all experience a really shitty situation that might even be life threatening to not only others but also ourselves. This A-C connection, the connection between my affective feelings and my cognitive thinking began to swirl around in my head as I hopped into my truck on day 1 of my reversal of normal driving habits (speeding).

Day one was characterized by feelings of wonder and amazement. I wondered what the hell some of these maniac's around me were thinking and I was amazed at how many near accidents and inattentive drivers (who happened to be in the fast lane doing 60 plus) were out there. I also seemed to have an extremely high bone-head encounter rate on day 3 as well. Driving slower allowed me to become more observant, partly because I had an observer's perspective as people zoomed by me on the left and also because at a lower speed my vehicle was easier to control and required less constant attention. In fact as I got behind somebody's grandparents in the family Honda, I even felt slightly relaxed as I could "coast" and "ride" as opposed to "evade" and "drive".

Day 4 of the style reversal proved to be very interesting. I was riding in the right lane at about 12:30 p.m. I wasn't speeding, felt relaxed, in control of the rig, and altogether pretty good. Then as I'm cruising along, I see this Taurus coming up behind me in the outside lane merging toward the center lane to go around a slower car in the left lane. I'm thinking that's usually me. Well, low and behold the next thing I know, the Ford is in front of me, his brake lights are on and I have to slam on my brakes. You see I mistakenly thought I could read the idiot's mind, assuming wrongly that it was something like mine. He in the end was trying to reach the off-ramp and squeezed his car in between myself and the Van in front of me. In the end however I was no worse for the wear and if anything this sudden alert exemplified in my mind how actually relaxing my driving had become. I remembered the previous week and how ,on the whole, the trips had seemed to be filled with the level of intensity and urgency that slamming on my brakes had provided.

All in all, I think that I'm a better driver after this experience. I'm more aware of some things and less likely to speed if I don't have to. One of the main keys to improving on my driving that I learned is that I can't put my self in a position where I have to rush or I'll be late. By removing these affective constrictions and the cognitive thought patterns that are formed by the affective-cognitive connection I can avoid negative sensory motor actions that compound the initial affective motivators and thus break the cycle of dangerous habits. I also think that it's important to note that there is an aspect of non-attentiveness that I notice when I drive slower because I feel more in control and want to do things like change the radio station, look at other people in their cars, and think about other things. I could see where this might get dangerous and it motivates me to try other experiments on other aspects of my driving behavior; like mental focus, defensive habits, and yes I still need to work on my speeding (although it's getting progressively better.