Driving is probably the one everyday activity that I take for
granted. I never really thought about how I felt when I was driving and
I never really took the time to observe gow I was driving. Not until
someone compliments or complains. When someone actually does say
something about my driving, I automatically go through my mind my own
personal driving credentials
Before taking this course, I truly believed I was a good driver.
Observing my behavior and referring back to past driving experiences it
is evident that I am more a bad driver than a good one. In the
self-witnessing phase, there were many behaviors that I could have chosen
to observe, but the one chose that I felt is a real problem was
speeding. Other behaviors such as signalling, head checking, and deeping
a safe interval behind cars, as well as other begaviors, are all
important themselves, but speeding should be a more serious one than
others. Those behaviors that I listed are more of a courtesy to fellow
drivers, but speeding is a blatent disregard for the safity of other
drivers, the driver himself, and his passengers.
What is speeding? It is the exceeding of the posted speed limit.
Everyone has their reasons for speeding. I tried to find my reasons
during the self-witnessing phase of this report. Siims that I was always
rushing, because I was late waking up for school or work. The thing that
I witnessed about having a hard time waking was that I never got mad. In
the instances that I observed my driving and remembering back, there were
never situations that I would speed because of anger.
It seems that you can't avoid speeding sometimes. For me, and this is not related to my driving but rather as a person, I am really a laid back kind of guy who likes to "cruise" while driving. That's why I drive an automatic. I enjoy an occasional stick shift, but I even speed mor when I have no reason to.
Methodology
At first, I didn't know how to approach this self-witnessing project. One way was to record myself on tape, but I didn't have the appropriate funds to purchase one. That is probably one resistance to doing certain things in life, the need for money to be involved. Sometimes that is out of our hands if "you gotta pay to play." Probably the best way could be to videotape every time I drove, but then again that would take a lot more serious equipment that was impossible for me to accomodate. The first two methods are the best self-witnessing tools because you get the true emotions and you get a better sense of the situation when trying to recall driving experiences.
I wasn't able to use either of the first two methods I mentioned, but I worked out a plan that worked just as well. I needed a way that could catch my emotions down on paper while I was driving, so since I sometimes drive my girlfriend around, I asked her to record situations where I would express feelings or behaviors, as situations occur. But I told her to concentrate on situations where I would speed.
Something very interesting came out of her observations. It has been what I have observed all along. It is not that I want to speed, I have to in order to get somewhere. It's not like I am exceeding the speed limit by that much. My observer records my speeding at 5 miles over the speed limit, and others are still flying by me like the Autobon. I admit sometimes I don't even know I am going that fast because everyone's going faster than me.
People nowadays are just to damned impatient. Shane Akagi talked about people always in a rush. I speak of people's inability to get out of the house earlier to avoid that problem, which is my problem.
Shane also speaks about people's hostility and agressiveness. He speaks about men being more aggressive than women. Maybe in general, but I can personally detest to that. My girlfriend, when she gets behind the wheel, or even as a passenger, I feel as if she could make some enemies with her agressiveness. During her observations of my driving, she made a comment on how I kept my cool during stressful driving situations and during her hostile behaviors, as a passenger, on other drivers. She states "One of us has to be the calm one in the relationship."
Resistance
Probably the biggest resistance that I had even before this self-witnessing report was the notion that I was actually a good driver The thing about resistance is that nobody ever resists something that is to their benefit, unless they are truly modest. But when it comes to taking criticism, their seems to be a voice in the back of the person's mind saying something bad about the criticizer.
In my methology, I stated that my girlfriend was my recorder for my driving situations. You ask someone to do you a simple favor like take notes on how I drive, and they try to give me a road test like the one given by the DMV. It got me in trouble when I sort of was thinking out loud when I said, "I'm not the one that drives a car that badly pulls to the right with a slight let-go of the wheel due to one's driving in the best." Then she really let me have it. She states in her report that although I don't get angry at other drivers or passengers, I tend to talk "stink" about them and laugh behind the person's back, or while on the road, in the person's face.
A resistance on my part is trying to divert the debate away from all the comments that she made, or simply shut my mouth. Then she firmly says,"you know I'm right!" I thought I had an argument when I stated what that had to do with my trying to modify my speeding habits. This is where it's helpful to have someone else observe your behavior. She attests that I tend to press on the gas pedal more when I taunt others. At first I resisted to that comment, saying the fluctuations of the speedometer is natural. She rebuttles with the statement that it does not fluctuate up to 5 miles per hour.
People tend to be biased in their self-witnessing efforts. In our minds, we tend to fudge our own beahaviors rather than fudging the actual behaviors.
Conclusion
As we read papers and websites on driving, we tend to always agree on what they are saying. But when it comes to observing our own behaviors, we detest any type of wrong doing.
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