Fear of highway driving?

[Lady Arianrod]

Sometimes, my friends ask me to drive them to the mall or somewhere distant when we want to hang out. On some of these occasions, the route follows the perilous and often frightening path of the highway. I don't have a true driving phobia, but I'm something of a homebody and I rarely drive to places that are farther than 30 minutes away. Because I never drove on a highway, I have some natural (if not unrealistic) fears of the freeway. It could be my parents, who are caring but sometimes wary, or my lack of experience. Either way, I sometimes get complaints or criticism from friends who tell me I'm and adult and that I should learn how to drive on the highway. My recurrent fear of the road and the unknown prevents me from driving on the highway by myself, and at times I feel like the only 19-year-old who hasn't learned to drive on the highway.

How should I overcome this fear? I guess practice will help. Has anyone else experienced this? What should I say to the friends that tell me to learn how to drive on the highway becauase I'm 19?

Thanks!

[ChristianKitsune]

OMGosh! you are just like me!!!

Only I am a bit worse..^^; I am 17 and I just got my learner's permit renewed... I am really afraid to drive on the highways too! I had a bad experience during driver's ed..and I just can't shake that feeling! LOL

Anyway, your friends are complaining are they? You should ask them if they want to drive instead of you. I mean, sure you need to learn how, but if you don't feel you are ready why put yourself and them at risk?

Also, mabye you can practice with someone you trust will help you. I tend to like to drive with my mom and dad They help me out a lot when I practice! ^_^

[Ayres91]

Yeah, I have (and still) have fears of driving on the freeway. I suppose the inexperience could supplement this fear, though practice is definately the route I'm taking to solve this. Remember the fear you would have driving the very first time on the main roads? It's simply a matter of getting used to it.

Sometimes I practice driving one exit at a time, until I am able to withstand a "full" drive on the freeway. Perhaps stay in the right lane for now and keep doing short hops until you are able to feel more confident in maneuvering between lanes. And don't worry about the criticisms from your friends - only you are in control of the wheel.

[Esoteric]

It must not be that uncommon. Personally, it's good to have a healthy respect for highways. Higher speeds do mean less room for error and its good to be aware of the dangers.
I had the very same problem for a long time, always taking the back roads instead of a the freeway. I got my license at 17 and barely did no freeway driving until I was 23! The change came in the form of a job which required me to drive alot and on freeways. With no way around it, I had to bite the bullet, and of course, praying about it helped alot.
I still don't like driving, and subconciously I loathe freeways, but I have gained enough experience in two years of driving them to feel comfortable. Onramps are no longer one of my greatest dreads.

Give it time. You don't have to like using freeways and you don't have to be comfortable with it right away either. At nineteen you're still a new driver and forming driving habits which will be with you all your life. Caution is one of the best habits to keep.

Personally, I found it less distracting to drive freeways without someone else in the car, or even the radio on at first. And when you do decide to drive somewhere using the freeway, give yourself plenty of time to get there. Freeways are intended to get you there faster, but the stress of rushing won't help you become comfortable with them.

[Lady Macbeth]

I'm actually glad to hear from young drivers with a hesitancy to drive on the highway. The biggest problems I've seen on the highway have come from the under 25 crowd driving too fast and/or recklessly or the elderly crowd driving too slowly.

However, highway driving is something that you'll end up needing to do sometime in your life, and being afraid or overcautious can create just as many problems as being reckless.

Practice is the best solution. Stay in the right lane until you have a feel for highway speed and the behavior of other drivers. This way, if you do get too nervous, you can exit at any exit along the highway (save for the rare left exits) and pull into a gas station until you have time to breathe and readjust.

Once you feel relatively confident in the right lane, learn how to drive in the center lane. Staying in the center lane means that you can maneuver as you need to for exits - right or left - and you should be looking far enough ahead that you'll also be able to maneuver as necessary for road construction or other obstructions in the right or left lanes without too much difficulty. It's sometimes intimidating to ride in the center lane because traffic tends to cut in and out in front of and behind you, but you'll come to realize that while they're making risky maneuvers to cross three or more lanes of traffic for an exit, you only have to move once.

Just don't follow the average highway driver's example and end up using various hand gestures at other drivers. That never solves any problems.

[Mr. SmartyPants]

>_> I'm unlike a lot of people, I don't really want to learn how to drive. I mean it would be great to beable to drive and stuff. But I am just REALLY scared of the idea of driving

[Arnobius]

I had this problem... I hated the freeways. It went away when need required me to use them frequently. I still feel uncomfortable when I need to go somewhere new.

[termyt]

I'd rather drive on the highway than the surface streets. The only trick to highway driving is merging onto the highway from the entrance ramps. Other than that, it's much safer, faster, and easier than the surface streets.

Most people get into trouble on the entrance ramps because they do not go the proper speed. Going too fast can be a problem, but going too slow makes for an even bigger problem. You want to be going at the same speed as the traffic on the freeway by the time you get to the end of the ramp. It’s much easier to merge into traffic when you are going the same speed. If you are going much slower, then you will require a much greater amount of real estate to merge in and you may be forced to stop.

Unfortunately, doing that is counter intuitive and most people only get a feeling for how to do it with a lot of experience.

[Arnobius]

That really is true. All traffic is travelling the same direction and around the same speed... while on the streets you dodge idiots left and right.

They say most accidents happen within 5 miles of home... so why don't people move?

Also they say it's safer to fly in an aircraft than to drive in a car. The statistic they don't mention though is when you get in a car crash, people ask "Was anybody hurt?"

In an airplane crash they ask "Was anybody identifiable?"

(Wish that joke was mine, but I stole it from commedian Brad Stine)

[TurkishMonky]

i used to be afraid of highway driving, but since the highway is the quickest way to college, i have outgrown that fear, and now prefer the highway, because of how much quicker it is. detroit and chicago freeway driving still freak me out though, so i usually let my dad/another adult drive in these areas.

[Sai]

I was forced to get my drivers license and i really depised freeway driving for a long time but i had to use the express way to get to classes every friday and now i am sort of used to it.

[Ashley]

I'd echo what everyone else has said: practice. Also, if you drive with someone else, have them turn around and look behind you as you merge or switch lanes; that eased my nerves a lot.

What really helped me was the sheer unavoidable circumstances I found myself in. The university I attended was 30 minutes away and only accessible via freeway. I had to do it. Same with living far from home; driving 5 hours straight used to terrify me, but now I've done it 6 times, and it's not such a big deal. Practice, practice, practice.

[Warrior4Christ]

I like freeway driving. But there are only two of them in my state... so going somewhere 30 minutes away would most likely not put you on a freeway. I don't think freeway driving was one of my greater obstactles when learning to drive, though.

Perhaps you could choose some unearthly hour to practice (so fewer people are using it).... like late at night. Or would night driving be another difficulty?

[~Natsumi Lam~]

i feared the highways when i first thought about it... one day i up and left my house and decided to drive 200 miles alone. I was all good and i lost my fear. Now i think they are kinda fun and enjoyable.

~NL~

[agasfas]

I drive the freeways daily. I communte to Texas State which is like 30mins away, travel downtown almost daily and occasionaly go to San Antonio. The first few times I drove on the freeway it was a bit nerve racking, but I eventually got used to it- it's like second nature. Though I personal find street driving more dangerous then highway driving for many reasons. THe one thing that helps is to never trust your side mirrors- ever. Those blind spots are probably the most dangerous aspect of freeway driving. I still remember what my driving instructure told us, "Never be afraid to crank your neck back like a chicken before merging or switching lanes."

[Lady Arianrod]

Thanks for the advice, everyone. I'll definitely practice more.

[ashfire]

The worse interstates I have found to be problems are beltways or intrestates that go through cities. With commuter and interstate traffic running together. There are times I don't want to be in that mix but I have to with my job and being a volunteer firefighter/emt or traveling on trips for cons or family trips.
With my job I have to pickup and deliver parts at vendors from Wash. DC to Baltimore for the government agency I work for. When you drive a government vehicle you have to follow driving rules, but everyone around you flys around and past at speeds 30 MPH or more than you are. Then you have large trucks, from tractor trailers to dump trucks to deal with.
If you have to be out working a emergency call on a interstate today like I have. You hope there is enough emergency vehicles to provide a protection zone around a incident.
Many emergency personnel are killed because of accidents on interstates or emergency vehicle accidents responding on calls.
I think there have been too many distractions added to driving from cell phones to TVs in vehicles so its no wonder to be worried about driving on the roads or interstates.