I've always liked to drive fast, it's a terrible but happy obsession I've always had since I started driving, and one I'm dire need of working on. Over the course the first week I observed my usual driving habits as well as my reasoning for driving the way I did. To summarize this week of driving I will write of it as it were one day taking from a week how I came to know my typical driving style. I pull out of my driveway going 35 mph through my neighborhood. I see a stop sign ahead slow down a little and roll through. I reach the highway where I began as usual to pass as many cars as I could keeping my car at an average of 75 mph. While I am quite aware of the risks I take when I drive, I compensated for these risks this week as well as every week of my driving experience before this with the conviction that I am a good driver and am very much in control over my automobile. I noticed this week that I really didn't drive fast out of craziness, no I deemed my driving as an art form, I was always perfecting my skill, everyday taking a turn just a little bit closer, just a little bit faster. However, during this week of observation I noticed that while I found satisfaction and pride in my driving capability, I did have a few doubts. I noticed I was often times frustrated with other drivers blocking my way, keeping me from going the speed I wanted to go. This is the first time I noticed how deep my frustrations really ran. I often found myself swearing under my breath and thinking evil thoughts about slow and incapable drivers.
On the second week I promised myself that I would try my hardest to take my time this was not an easy process. In fact I can assure you that at times I could swear to you that my right foot was possessed as I caught it a great many times this week pushing the gas pedal to the floor despite my efforts to control it. My right hand did not help my new cause either and only thwarted my right foot by sneaking over to the gear shift and griping it before I could catch the sneaky beast. Of course I must correct myself here it is all to easy to blame my absence of self control on my subordanent body parts. This week was a trial for me however, and it was only through carful focus on my feelings and thoughts which allowed me to actually change my driving style (for more info on building self control while drivng see my reports on driving nirvana report 3 and report 4 I can only say that the power of the mind is weak and that despite meditation and my determination to drive slower I can not in truth say that I did drive under the established speed limit for one whole day, though I did come very close. I did learn to make complete stops at stop signs. I was very impressed with the change I made in my driving after only a week of effort. In the past I have always regarded the highway as a sort of motor cross, a battleground where I could prove myself as well as show off the powers of my Ford Ranger. But holding back my urge to speed became less and less of a curse through out the week, and I was less stressed and got to school, and came home more relaxed and happier than usual.
In conclusion I learned more about traffic psychology in these two weeks than I would have ever learned in over 1,000 lectures. I saw how my impatience and read warrior attitude as a handicap for the first time. Driving like a maniac made driving fun but it also made me crazy and mad at other drivers. I know that I do not need to rush and can easily take my time and get to the same location in the same amount of time. This experience allowed me to utillize traffic psychology in a practical sense bringing about a positive change in my driving habits. The most important thing that I noticed while reviewing my self-witnessing experiment was the fact that I was not commited to changing my driving skills at all at the begining of this exercise. I basicly did it because it was a requierment for a class. This lack of commitnent to my purpose of improving my driving potentiated on my insitance that I was a perfect driver only lead to the problems I had the second week while tyring to improve my driving skills. Like all successful change driving personality makeovers must be aproached in the same way. First you have to admit you have a problem and then commit yourself completely into defeating this problem. Changeing my driving habits is a continuous and something I have to focus on every time I drive a car. I miss being bad sometimes but changing my negative aproach to driving to positive technique has only made driving more fun leaving me much happier that I ever was on the road.
Report 1: What is Traffic Psychology
Report 2: What's the big deal about tailgating?
Report 3: The Three Domains of Traffic Psychology
Report 4:What is a Driving Personality Makeover?
Report 8: Incorperating Traffic Psychology to Driving Topics on the Internet