I have noticed in my extensive (3 years) experience driving that some people are better drivers then others. Is there a chance that some people are just born to be better drivers then others?
A lot of driving skill comes from hand-eye coordination, reaction times, and the ability to notice things outside of the center of your field of vision. Insofar as there are variations in these things, some people start out as better drivers. Whether these variations are natural is another question.
In addition to what ultra said about raw physical ability, driving is so much a mental excercise. Any fool can make a car go, stop and turn right/left. Doing those things properly, thinking through situations, anticipating dangers and identifying solutions ahead of time is what driving is really about.
unfortunatly, all they seem to teach is how to go, stop and park. Nothing about the thoery behind the actions.
i agree with you on your point. there seems to be some people who just don’t belong behind the wheel of a car, and others who clearly know whats happening.
It’s possible, I suppose, but it’s not simply a nature-or-nurture question. Truly good drivers also need training and experience, and not necessarily only in cars.
As far as I know, all of the suggestions ultrafilter offered can be improved through training and practice. Hand-eye coordination improves with constant practice–one needs only to teach oneself to juggle to know that. I’m not so certain about reaction time, but mine seems to have improved since I started playing video games again. British night-fighter pilots trained themselves to use their peripheral vision to spot faint aircraft exhaust at night, while Japanese pilots trained themselves to spot stars in daytime.
Nevertheless, there is no real question that some people have advantages in some or all of these qualifications. Specifically regarding vision, the greatest fighter pilot ever, Erich Hartmann, appeared to have superlative skills–he was almost never surprised in five and a half years of combat.
The reason I’m mentioning good pilots instead of good drivers is because the two seem to almost go hand-in-hand. Eddie Rickenbacker was a race car driver before he ever flew, while Ayrton Senna was an avid RC plane operator.
If I may drop to the anecdotal level, while I was thinking about this question I realized that all of the people I know whom I consider to be exceptional drivers are musicians as well. I’m sure that’s just a coincidence in part, but I cannot help thinking that the two abilities might somehow be related, especially the ability to use each appendage differently in concert with one another.
A final component of driving appears to have something to do with an understanding of how the vehicle works. If I may go out on a limb here, if you see someone standing helplessly on the side of the road with a flat tire, well, let’s just say we can assume the guy hasn’t been to Bob Bondurant just yet.
Some 3 year olds can catch a ball better or draw letters better than their siblings. What do you suppose happens when they grow up?
I’ll just look at my two twin sisters as an example. One, R, drives excellently. The other, W, drives (well, I won’t even call it driving) pretty scary. My mom drives pretty good, my dad was a driver instructor. My point? I’m not sure, but I think yeah, there are just some people who really shouldn’t be behind the wheel of a car. Instruction just can’t help some people.
Just like I should never be on a tennis court with a tennis racket, lest I kill someone someday.
I think a lot of it is situational awareness. I’d guess that most accidents occur simply because someone didn’t see the other guy in time. I tend to notice the really bad drivers are the ones that get fixated on something rather than trying to observe and keep track of all the things going on around you.
Agreed here, when I first started as an ambulance driver my trainer wished to instill an attitude he called “ground vehicle pilot” I was to pretend that I was a fighter pilot, not an ambulance driver and pay attention to the road like I was on patrol in hostile airspace. Eyes always moving, check instruments, look behind me. I was drilled for 4 days on various manuvers, getting into and out of tight spaces, backing into damn near any spot imaginable, and learning to start and stop like a limo driver, in a 4000lb modified ford cargo van. It was hell at the time but that training still holds today. Might seem kinda hokey to hear me do a checklist but I still catch myself doing it out loud once in a great while…fuel 3/4… temp OK … oil pressure OK … electrical OK…
[flashback]
B766 sign on EMT-1 Hopkins, EMT-1 Moore, requesting post…
Copy 766 standby for traffic, area of Cedar and Dakota…
[/flashback]
:eek:
Actually, I do the ‘ground fighter pilot’ thing too… Years and years of obsessively playing flight sims has me moving my eyes all over the place 