I’m not talking about if you have a l-o-o-o-n-g driveway or acreage. I’m asking if you automatically put on your seatbelt when you get into a car that is headed for the street. By “your” seatbelt, I mean the seatbelt that is available to the seat you are sitting in, whether you are the driver or the passenger. Also, this applies to cars, SUVs, trucks, etc.
It’s a simple poll, but I know how [del]nitpicky Dopes can be[/del] Dopers demand precision in their questions, so if the black-and-white options don’t apply to you, please elaborate in your post.
Also, please share any “Holy crap, I’m glad I/<whoever> was wearing their seatbelt that day!” stories.
When the seatbelt laws first came in (before many of you were born), I really resented them. I often didn’t wear mine or just fastened it if I saw a cop car on the street. Or looped it over my shoulder so it looked from outside the car as if it were fastened. After so many years, it’s totally second nature to fasten it, and I like the feeling of being securely anchored to the seat.
Yes, regardless of laws, I wear it 100% of the time while driving or in the front passenger seat. It’s actually hard NOT to put it on, if I’m just pulling the car from the driveway to the garage or something, my instinct is to buckle up and I have to stop myself from doing it.
It’s possible that I might occasionally not wear it in the back seat of a vehicle, but I rarely ride in the back and I wear it most of the time there as well.
I always put my seatbelt on. Usually it’s before I’m on the public road, sometimes I am pulling it on as I leave my driveway or wherever I was visiting.
I’ve had it drilled into me since I was a kid, and I’ve never seen a reason not to. And I have subsequently been in accidents where it would have mattered if I hadn’t been wearing it.
I’ve never felt or understood the discomfort some people talk about as the reason for not wearing one. I am very rarely conscious of the fact that I have it on, and buckling is completely automatic.
My first car accident involved a tyre blowing up as I turned to enter the factory’s yard; I figured there was no way I could stop the car, stepped on the clutch and did my best to steer from facing the wall (which formed a sort of vee in) to hitting it with the side of the car. I managed to scrape a month’s salary worth of bodyjob out of the car, but the only personal damage I suffered was a real big scare. I remember being in the car, looking at my left side and saying “I’m not hurt? I haven’t broken anything?” Without a belt, I would have zigged and zagged on the seat and would have had even less control than I did.
My coworkers were saying “you’re whole? You’re whole!” Later they started making jokes about my bad driving, but the maintenance manager told them off and told me that I’d actually done the best possible thing anybody could; his attitude was a very big help when it was time to get behind the wheel again.
When I took driver’s ed in the early 70s, our instructor made us buckle up every time we were at the wheel. That’s when it became a habit - at least for driving. I didn’t start doing it as a passenger till it was the law. Dunno why - I just didn’t.
But now, I always do… OK, if I’m pulling the car from the driveway into the garage I might not, but it’s only because I stop myself as I reach for the end. As for comfort - we have the little gizmosthat slip over the lap belt that you use to adjust where the shoulder belt hits you. I love 'em - it keeps the shoulder belt on my shoulder and off my neck.
The only recent time that I didn’t use my seatbelt was yesterday, backing my car a short ways to repark it on a remote dirt road. Otherwise, if the car is moving, I’m belted.
A long long time ago, getting a taxi from the airport to my accommodation on my very first trip to the US from the UK, I managed to annoy the taxi-driver by putting on the seat-belt. Mind you, I had also automatically tried to get into his side of the car.
The last time I was in a moving car and my belt wasn’t fastened was when I was pulling the car into the garage after washing it, and it felt out of kilter.
When I was in driver’s ed they showed us a film called (IIRC) Wheels of Tragedy that was designed to scare us into always wearing our belts. It worked.
My first car was a '78 Celica that beeped incessantly if I didn’t put my seatbelt on, so I got in the habit of doing it. Then when I was about 17 I was in an accident where my car was forced up onto a snowbank, came to a stop, and then rolled over onto the roof. My seatbelt kept me in my seat. I haven’t NOT worn a seatbelt since then if I am on the road.
Recently I moved my car from the driveway to the garage - about 20 feet - and I felt a little reckless not belting up.
This is interesting. I’m wondering if there’s anyone left who just flat refuses to wear one-- you know, in the spirit of Rugged Individualism “no gummint can tell me what to do in my own car.” There’s got to be a Doper somewhere who clings to his right to die (or be left in a permanent vegetative state) in his own way. Are we all just a bunch of wimps who want to live and keep most of our body parts attached? Where’s the defiance? Where’s the one who will give the Fickle Finger of Fate the finger?
I always wear my seat belt, either as the driver or a passenger, front seat or back seat. I am a firm believer in their effectiveness. One of my brothers would not have survived a wreck had it not been for his seat belt. The Idaho State Patrol officer who came upon my sister’s accident fully expected to find fatalities. My sister and niece came through with minor injuries, thanks to the usage of seat belts and child car seats.
I know it’s tongue in cheek, but you win. I wear my seat belt almost all the time, even just moving the car, it feels really strange not too. I also wear it in the backseat, though I didn’t always in taxis and such.
I also always wear a helmet on the motorcycle. There were a few times when I wanted to know what the fuss was about, until I almost hit a buffalo, in which case I figured I found out it’s not worth it.