On Free Driving
When I was first introduced to the concept of slow-driving and the principles of the SDoA (Slow Drivers of America) I thought, “Ok, this makes sense, from a fuel efficiency and safety point of view.” I was however a bit skeptical when it came to the ideas of decreased stress and increased productivity to be seen when you don't have to monitor your speed. After all, in a world filling more and more with distracted cell-phone-wielding drivers, “productivity” behind the wheel sounds a bit dubious. After some thought and debate on the topic, however, I came to the conclusion that perhaps these things can be realized through slow driving, but in order for that to happen there are two key components that need to be in place. First and foremost of those components is cruise control. I realized that the whole reason I couldn’t imagine a world where I didn’t have to worry about speed was that I didn’t have an onboard computer to do it for me. The second factor was traffic volume. Some of the freeway routes I travel to work each day are so packed with cars and have such a high on-ramp-off-ramp volume that traveling in the right lanes and not tailgating is downright impossible. At that traffic volume in most cases no one is traveling anywhere near the speed limit, let alone more than five mph over it. This constantly shifting volume of autos and trucks makes driving at a constant speed in any lane a difficult proposition at best. Some cars are getting on the highway, some are changing lanes for position, some are changing lanes and slowing to exit, all are leaving no more than two car lengths between them, and I’m left going nuts trying to get around them. This led me to think about how to incorporate SDoA principles to a more, shall we say, “dynamic” driving environment.
How do you free yourself from the constant stress of reacting to the merging car in front of you, the speed demon on your tail, and the cell-talking busy-body two lanes to your left who needs to get off at the exit 100 feet ahead? There is a path, and I call it Free Driving. I say Free, because it’s based on freeing yourself from the controls we allow into our lives. Free, because the technique is free-form. Free, because with it, driving can become one of the best things in life.
To this you may say, “You’re speaking from your anterior orifice.” (Alright no one really talks that way, but we’re trying to keep it clean here, kids.) After you say that, and after your next near death/road-rage incident, you may finally say, “OK, I’ll bite. How do you make driving relaxing?” I will agree that it seems totally counter to the concept of high-traffic driving. When you drive you need to be conscious of the other vehicles on the road, you need to be aware of your surroundings, and you need to constantly react and be ready to react to the changing movements around you. I therefore propose something that may seem counter-intuitive. I propose that the problem may be that we're over aware. I understand you may respond to that with, “Now I know you’re nuts. I just saw someone talking on the phone, shaving, and replying to email while listening to a podcast and tuning through three satellite stations. They were so distracted that they missed an exit, swerved over two lanes, tried to use an emergency turnaround, and traumatized a squirrel.” Yes, people on the road are distracted. Everyone thinks that once they’ve driven for a little while they can do most of the required tasks on autopilot. The problem is that people don’t respect the amount of attention they are putting towards driving, even while in autopilot.
The brain is a highly complex organ, and it can adapt to and repeat extremely complex sets of tasks almost in the background. The problem with all this background processing is that the brain continues doing all the same work; you just don’t have to pay attention to it. The act of driving including the list of all the rules and standards we set for what is a “responsible driver” is an enormous task for the mind. Those rules are so complex and strict that most people burn out and rely on the autopilot as a defense mechanism. Even the people who are intently focused on jockeying for position amongst crowds of commuters are really paying very little attention to most of the elements of good driving. Are they prepared for the animal about to run into the road? How about the wet patch around the next curve? Are they aware of the car in their blind spot? In most cases, No.
The result of all this misplaced focus is stress, frustration, anxiety, anger, and worst of all violence and accidents. The state of affairs on the highways of America is grim indeed. Where did we go wrong? Where is the path back to peace and freedom on the freeway? The answer to that question is simple; I just don’t know it yet. I think I have a seed that can grow a beanstalk to freedom, or it may grow to a castle in the clouds inhabited by Englishmen-eating giants. Either way, we’re talking about US highways, so most of us are safe.
One of the elements of that seed, the thing I do know, is that the path begins with the end. When you’re sitting in the car, ask yourself, “Where you are going? When do you need to be there? How long do you expect to take getting to your destination? Who is waiting for you there?” How do you feel when you’re done asking these questions? If you’re like me you feel a little bit of stress already. There’s subconscious guilt associated with “not being there” for the people at your destination. There’s a responsibility to other people and to yourself that is driving you to go where you’re going. These are the first things that drive us, pardon the pun, to push down on that accelerator, and it’s the last thing that we have control over. All of those factors were set before you sat down in the driver’s seat, and as any slow driver, or traffic cop, will tell you, all the effort you can muster on the highway may get you all of a minute or two of time. Most time delays on the road are from traffic lights, bottlenecks, and traffic jams, the things you can’t avoid. When traveling 45 minutes from one door to another you’ll most likely spend the first 15 minutes in traffic, navigating local roads to get to the highway, and you’ll likely spend the last 15 doing the same on the other end. Time on the freeway, when most people speed and weave through traffic to pick up precious seconds, accounts for little to none of the real delays that add up to your final “time spent on the road”. What advantage is there to going 80MPH between one light and the next when the person going 55 rolls up next to you at that second light just as it turns green? Letting go of the destination as soon as you turn on the ignition is your fist step to driving free.
Now, by “letting go”, I don’t mean forget where you’re going. We all have destinations in life, and we’re always on a vector towards them, but most of those destination moments don’t occupy a single neuron of worry in our minds. Somehow though, getting from point A to point B seems to stress us out as if our lives are put on hold while we’re in transit. The first step to letting go of the destination is to realize that our lives are not on hold when we’re on the road. The “me” behind the wheel is the same “me” that got into the car at home which is the same “me” that will be at the destination. In every moment from point A to point A¹,A²,A³,...,to point B there is one and only one me. Once we get to that destination we’re on to B¹ just as fast. No single one of those moments in the past or perceived future matters any more than the moment you are in. That moment, the one you are in right now, this moment, is the only one you have the ability to do anything about. Wouldn’t you rather spend this moment and each subsequent one in your life appreciating life? The alternative is pushing through it as fast as you can in a soulless autopilot?
Now, while that line of thinking may appeal to the Zen thinkers out there, there are other ways to look at it. One such way is in terms of strategy and tactics. If the current strategy is to get to the destination, and the resulting tactic is to focus on speed at every step and to delegate non-speed affecting driving tasks to subconscious systems. Then I propose we make a slight adjustment to the strategy and see what the resulting change in tactics may be. I propose that the scope of the strategy be expanded slightly. Instead of focusing on just one destination, let’s focus on how we’ll feel at the destination as well. For example, if you want to get to that business meeting with a clear, cool head, then speeding in and out of traffic may not be the best tactic. If you’re late to that meeting (which as I’ve mentioned earlier can’t be avoided if you left late), then getting there with a cool head will leave you better prepared to explain and smooth over your tardiness. You also leave open the mental door for thinking about what you can speak to at the meeting with your newly found calm demeanor. The resulting tactic should be to look at the traffic from the eyes of a person who doesn’t want to be bothered with other people’s drama. You have your own issues to deal with, and getting around someone who’s cruising in the left lane, arguing with her baby’s daddy while putting on lipstick is not in your best interest. Let her get a few hundred feet in front of you and preferably a lane or two or three to the side of you, and any dumb decision she makes will work itself out before you catch up to her. Maximize your decision making time, and minimize the road-influenced decisions you need to make.
You see, decisions are the enemy of the free driver. The only time a decision need be made is when you allow something out of your control to control you, forcing you to make that decision. Not all decisions are avoidable. That is the nature of life, but it should be the purpose of the free driver to minimize the factors around him or her that force a decision to be made. Minimize decisions; this is the second element of Free Driving. In this model, thinking in the strategy/tactics mode, your minimum number of decisions is your strategy.
- You have decided that you want to get to your destination.
- You have decided that you want to have a cool head at the destination.
- You have made the implied decisions that you want to be alive when you get there.
posted by Screaming Harry Armadillo at 7:37 PM
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