I’ve always had this stupid irrational fear of some punk-ass kid lobbing a brick/rock over the overpass as I drive under it going 80mph on the freeway. Needless to say, the chances of this are very rare - but it has happened (not to mention a train-derailment on a freeway overpass that spilled onto the freeway a mile from my home. Miraculously, no one was killed!)
Anyone else got any weird irrational fears (that maybe I can add unto my own - god knows why?)
I don’t have any driving fears. Lord knows I should get some, it would be safer for me 
But OTHERS seem to have this irrational fear of bridges. Whenever people drive on a bridge, they slow down. We’re talking a highway bridge here, e.g. one crossing a river. Look, granny. The lanes are just as wide ON the bridge as they were BEFORE it. It’s just that the guard rail is a bit closer now. Now stop crying, and floor that #@%#%^ Suzuki Alto already - trust me, it FITS between the lines.
Ironically, people will speed UP in tunnels. What happened with driving a constant speed, all the time? Is this becoming some sort of lost art?
Don’t think this has ever happened, and it’s pretty irrational. When I pass a large log truck or tractor-trailer going the other way I always wonder what would happen if there was a large metal rod or something sticking straight out the side. I’ve even imagined a giant saw-blade. Now, if we’re both going 60 that’s a combined speed of 120mph. Probably take the roof of my car (and my head) clean off. Heh, you wanted irrational.
Last year, when I lived in Birmingham, a couple of kids threw a rock off a bridge and killed a U. of AL professor. Now, not all the time, I’ll try to look at overpasses to see if I see anyone there. I never do, but I still get the willies every now and then.
Driving down dark rural highways, I’m always afraid that a deer will jump in front of my car. I’ve known many people that it has happened to.
There’s an intersection on the road I take home from work that used to be a stop for the other people but is now a traffic light for everybody. For some reason I was never nervous of that turn before they put the light in but now every time I go through the intersection I’m partially convinced some stupid Hudson punk-ass kid in a ghetto blaster’s gonna come screaming through his red light and t-bone me, killing my car and probably me.
Clogmod: My mom’s like that. Typical bridge-crossing:
Me: "Go faster. [repeat Coldy’s scolding]
Mom: “But it feels like the car’s sliding out…”
Me: “It probably is! The turn is BANKED! So you can go fast and not have to worry!”
[continue until off the bridge]
Coldfire there is a service on several long bridges in the US. For those who are afraid to drive over a bridge, someone will drive for you. There is a name for this phobia, sorry can’t remember it. Apparently not uncommon, though.
I don’t have any irrational fears in regards to driving. If I’m on a long straight road, I sometimes imagine suddenly there won’t be a horizon, only an infinite sheer drop-off. That doesn’t appear to stop me from going over 100mph if I think I can get away with it, though!
Well, back when I did a lot of early morning and night driving, I had a huge fear of this. So much so that I would change lanes under the bridge if possible, because in my mind I figured then the rock would miss me.
I also tense up if I’m between 2 semi’s and I hate being behind open carriers-the ones with the cars on them, or logs, or things like that. I can just see something falling off one of those trucks.
None of these keep me from driving, because I know that in all likelihood nothing will happen. But these are irrational fears, right?
From The Phobia List:
One of my former co-workers suffers from this. A few years ago he wrote a column about how he was terrified of driving over bridges.
You want irrational? How’s this: I try to avoid running over any objects with my tires. I have a weird, irrational fear that whatever it is could be a bomb. Obviously, most would move to avoid a rock or a pothole or something. But I can’t even stand to go over a plastic bag. I will aim my car either around it, or so it’s right in the middle and my tires won’t touch it.
I have no driving phobias, but my GF Creaky has enough for both of us. Come to think of it, she has enough for the entire SDMB.
We’ll let her explain when she gets here…
I’m afraid of my basement. I have to do laundry down there and it scares me.
[list]
[li]Big trucks[/li][li]Kangaroos jumping out at twilight or dawn (US dopers, some of these guys are NOT cute and cuddly - a Big Red can total your car. A small 'roo will damage it).[/li][li]Bridges - not because I’m scared of falling over the side, but because there’s no escape if some ratbag falls asleep and crosses onto the wrong side.[/li][li]My sister -she gets so edgy that I get edgy.[/li][li]COPS[/li]Angry young dickheads in powerful cars.
I have this fear that a man hidden in the back seat of my car jumps up and starts to choke me when I’m driving 80 MPH down the freeway
I am terrified that I’ll just forget to drive…not forget how, just get so wrapped up with thinking or something that I’ll forget that I’m supposed to be driving.
However, I’m not sure if this counts as an irrational fear or not because I’ve done it a couple of times.
This isn’t really a driving fear, but I’m always terrified that TinyTot will inexplicably decide to toss himself out of the car and get run over by a bus. Or that I’ll forget and lock him in the care and he’ll die a slow agonizing death from heat stroke.
I’m also afraid of running over a person that I love and tragically killing them and having to live with the guilt for the rest of my life.
I also keep expecting a baby buggy to just appear out of nowhere and I’ll have to slam on my breaks and just barely miss it and it’ll turn out to be full of soda cans. Think I got this one from the movies.
And don’t y’all laugh at me either! My neuroticism has served to keep me alive for nearly 27 years now, thankyouverymuch.
Maybe if you’d stop cruisin’ down the basement stairs in that Jag?
I’m sure it’s actually quite nice once you try it on foot.
One bridge I drive over every day creeps me out. It’s about half a mile long and about 150 feet above the ground. The concrete curb only rises about 5 inches above the pavement, which is hardly a bump for my big red truck. Above the curb are the rails - 5 or 6 horizontal rows of hollow square steel tubes. I often doubt that they’d restrain my truck from going over if some random mechanical failure (tire blow-out, tie-rod breaks, wheel falls off) caused me to lose control of the truck.
And even if the truck never fails, the bridge still might. Ever since it was built in 1973, structural and civil engineers have criticized it’s design considering its support pillars are anchored in saturated glacial silt and clay, (which turns into jelly when shaken) coupled with the fact that it’s in a very seismically active zone.
I don’t want to be on that bridge when “The Big One” hits, and it is due any time. (The last Big One was on Good Friday 1964, magnitude 8.6-9.2, depending on who’s estimate.)
Back when I lived at my parent’s house, the basement creeped me out to no end. I was convinced that there was a rapist down there and I hated having to do laundry. Even now it creeps me out if I have to go down there for any reason. Boy, I’m glad I don’t live there anymore.
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Coldfire *
**
You want me to walk!? All the way down the stairs?
Okay, so it’s not a fear of driving. But it is a “driving fear” of sorts. And completely irrational.
Says Coldy
Not in the Tidewater area in Virginia!
We’ve got five major bridge/tunnels and invariably the folks here slow 5-10 mph as they get to the mouths of the tunnels. Normally, this wouldn’t be a problem, but it really fucks up the morning and evening commutes.
And let’s not even talk about how they act when it’s flurrying…