Driving Development Driver's Handbook: Index
Your senses play a vital part in your driving performance. Sensitivity and performance tend to develop together, but it is sensitivity that ultimately limits performance. You cannot perform a skill beyond the level that your sensitivity will allow.
All of the senses apart from taste contribute to your driving performance. So let's see how you can ensure that each sense makes the fullest contribution, how you can tune up each sense.
Sight is obviously the most important sense in driving. How good is yours? The only way to be sure is by having regular vision screening, followed up with full eyesight testing by an optician if appropriate. And by making sure that any spectacles or contact lenses that you need to wear exactly match your current eyesight prescription.
The standard of eyesight that would just get through the driving test is too low to provide the level of detailed visual information needed for effective driving in modern road and traffic conditions (the standard hasn't changed since the driving test's introduction in 1935). Yet a recent survey found that 16% of current drivers can't even reach that low standard. Another survey found that half of Britain's drivers have eyesight below the standard that is appropriate for modern conditions. So even if you're sure that your own vision is up to scratch, spare a thought for all the drivers out there who may not see you coming.
Peripheral vision plays a major role in driving, as most of what you see is outside the sharp central field of vision. You can get your peripheral field of view checked on a driver vision screening apparatus. You can also run a quick check right now as follows:
Look straight ahead at an object in front of you. Hold your arms straight out in front.
Swing your arms outwards while continuing to look straight ahead. Note the point at which your hands disappear. Waggle your thumbs to check.
Holding your arms in that position, look at the angle between your line of sight and each arm. Are your arms evenly spread, or is one further round than the other?
If you find limited peripheral vision (much less than a right-angle) on one or both sides, take special care to check the affected side(s) frequently when you're driving.
Spectacles or sunglasses with thick frames obstruct your peripheral vision, and should be avoided when driving.
If you wear spectacles, they should be kept spotlessly clean, especially at night. Carry a spare pair in the car in case your usual pair gets broken or lost.
Good sunglasses (particularly those specifically designed for driving use) can be a valuable aid to driver vision. They help to reduce glare and increase contrast when the sun is both bright and low in the sky, in hazy conditions and when sunlight is reflecting off snow or wet road surfaces. However, if they are worn in inappropriate lighting conditions, such as on dull days or at dusk, they can seriously impair vision.
See chapter 4.1 Observation for advice on developing the ways you use your eyesight in driving.
If driver vision screening is available in your organisation, use it regularly (at least annually). If screening isn't available and you've not seen an optician within the past couple of years (whether or not you currently wear corrective lenses), play safe and book an eyesight test.
Vision: rules 34 and 35
Hearing is not an essential sense for driving; there are many excellent drivers who are deaf or who have impaired hearing. But well developed and finely tuned hearing can make a big contribution to effective driving.
Sounds provide two sorts of important and useful information. Firstly, they may be your only way of knowing that something exists, such as the sound of an approaching vehicle's horn at a narrow, blind bend. Secondly, sounds enhance your awareness when combined with other sensations. For example, a change in the noise made by a tyre as it rolls across the road surface combined with a slight pull to one side felt through the steering wheel helps you to appreciate that you have a slow puncture.
Especially in town driving, sounds from the environment help you to be aware of hazards around you. Among the hundred and one significant sounds from the environment are distant emergency sirens (from which direction are they approaching?), the voices of playing children, dogs barking, the distinct engine note of a small motorcycle, or the screech of tyres as a driver brakes sharply.
In addition to being aware of any environmental or unusual mechanical noises, good drivers also tune in to the normal sounds of their vehicles and use those sounds to enhance their vehicle control skills and their mechanical sympathy.
Next time you're driving, notice how much attention you're giving to the sounds around you. How often are you able to anticipate the appearance of a hazard before you can see it?
Notice how much you listen to what your car is "saying" to you. How much notice do you take of the pitch and tone of the engine, particularly when changing gear? Do you listen to the gearbox? What about the tyres and suspension, particularly when cornering?
An effective way to develop your ability to focus on different sounds when driving is to practise "actively listening" to music. For this exercise preferably listen to music played by a small number of acoustic instruments. String quartets are ideal.
It doesn't matter whether you like the music; you'll probably find the exercise easier with music you wouldn't normally choose to listen to. Then it's easier to remain detached and analytical.
Listen to the whole sound of the instruments playing together and then focus on one instrument at a time. Listen to your chosen instrument while ignoring the other instruments around it. "Tune in" to the particular frequency range and tonal quality of that instrument. Follow the melody line being played. Be aware of how it contributes to the overall sound.
Notice how easy it is to be distracted or confused by similar instruments. It's easier to isolate the cello from the rest than the first violin from the second violin.
If you practise this exercise until you can follow any instrument at will, you'll find that you're getting clearer and more useful aural information when you drive. You may even find that your general driving sensitivity improves too.
Your sense of touch plays an essential part in your driving performance. Consequently, developing your touch goes hand-in-hand with developing your performance.
All expert drivers have excellent "feel" - not just in the sense of feeling the controls and the balance of the car, but also feeling the tensions and strains within their bodies. By "getting in touch" with these feelings you'll notice any inefficiency and awkwardness in your movements, and naturally make adjustments to improve smoothness and fluidity. You'll also get feedback on your level of relaxation.
See chapter 2.5 Relaxation for information of the importance of relaxation in driving and for ways of achieving and maintaining a relaxed state.
Chapter 3.6 Basic control skills guides you through a process of developing your touch on the controls and your feel of the car's balance and behaviour.
Perhaps surprisingly, even the sense of smell is relevant to driving. The ability to recognise and attach meaning to certain smells can help you to avoid trouble.
Smells from the environment outside the car may enable you to predict hazards. For example, the smell of burning might alert you to the possibility of a smoke screen across the road, or a strong smell of diesel oil might indicate a slippery oil slick just round the next blind corner.
Smells from the car itself may give early warning of mechanical problems. For example:
Are you fit to drive? If you enjoy good health and you're reasonably fit, you have the right foundations on which to build an effective driving performance. On the other hand, if you allow your state of health and fitness to deteriorate, your driving performance will inevitably suffer.
The links between physical fitness and mental performance are well established. By keeping reasonably fit, you're more alert, have faster reactions, resist fatigue better and think more clearly - all of which help your driving performance.
Regular aerobic exercise improves the efficiency of your heart and lungs, so more oxygen gets pumped to your brain.
To check the effect of increased oxygen in your brain, try taking a few really deep breaths right now. Notice what happens to your general level of alertness and to the tensions in your body.
Don't get the impression that to be a good driver, you've got to train for the Olympics. If you make time for regular exercise, so much the better. Otherwise just do something active whenever you get the opportunity - such as walking or cycling on local journeys instead of taking the car, or using the stairs instead of the lift.
Just how much does your state of fitness and health affect your reaction time?
If you're in good health and well-rested you might react to a hazard in 0.6 seconds. Travelling at 60mph you'd travel about five car lengths in that time.
After a heavy meal your body slows down a little and your reaction time would probably rise to around 0.8 seconds. That takes you an extra car length.
When you're physically tired but not sleepy it creeps up to about a second. Another extra car length - it's now taking you about seven car lengths to react at 60mph.
If you're drowsy or in poor health your reaction could take two seconds or even longer. That's a heck of a long way to travel between a hazard appearing and starting to respond to it!
Of course, it's not just the speed of your thinking that's affected, but also the clarity.
Any illness or ailment can effect your driving. A common cold can slow your reactions, reduce your ability to concentrate and affect your vision. Even mild headaches are distracting. To attempt to drive with a severe headache, such as a migraine attack, is highly dangerous.
Only you can judge whether to drive when you're feeling ill. Obviously, if you're too ill to work, you're not fit to drive. But what about minor ailments? You might be tempted to "dose yourself up" with medicine and carry on as normal. But there could be side effects.
Always ask your doctor or a pharmacist whether it's safe to drive when taking any particular drug. And read the packaging. If there's any mention of causing drowsiness or impairing judgement, either don't take the drug or don't drive. And never drink any alcohol if you've taken or if you're going to take any drug - even one that's safe on its own.
If you ever use any of the following types of medicinal drugs, it might be unsafe to drive.
It's obviously dangerous to take any form of sleep-inducing drug before driving. If you've taken sleeping pills, make sure you know how long they take to wear off, even after you wake up.
Tranquillisers should only ever be used under direct medical supervision. Your doctor may well advise you not to drive while undergoing treatment.
Some painkillers are safe to use when driving and some aren't. Always ask professional advice when buying painkillers, and never take them from a friend without checking the packaging very carefully.
Some cold remedies and decongestants contain amphetamines and antihistamines; these should be avoided. Never drive after taking "night-time" cold remedies - they're intended to knock you out.
Some cough remedies contain opiates and other drowsiness-inducing substances. Take care.
When you're prescribed any drugs by a doctor, always ask whether it's safe to take them before you drive.
Tiredness or illness: rules 31 and 33
About a fifth of drivers who die in crashes (and nearly half of those who die in crashes between 10.00 p.m. and 4.00 a.m.) are over the legal alcohol limit. And many drunken drivers kill or injure other road users.
Even a small amount of alcohol impairs your driving ability: there's no such thing as a "safe" limit. At the legal limit of alcohol concentration most drivers are five times more likely to crash than they are when sober - but they may feel safer.
Apart from the safety aspect, if you're convicted of driving "over the limit", you'll lose your licence for at least a year. If you need to drive in your job, you'll probably lose that too.
The effects of alcohol depend on your weight and build, familiarity with drinking and whether you have a full stomach. Women are usually affected more than men because they have a lower percentage of body fluid.
You can be a safe driver and still enjoy the pleasures of social drinking. Just keep them entirely separate. Make sure that you allow time for the effects of alcohol to wear off. You may still be over the legal limit the morning after an evening of heavy drinking.
The following table sets out the effects of various quantities of alcohol based on ordinary strength beer or wine. It gives:
Alcohol and the motorist: rule 39
Managing your energy both in and out of the car is a vital aspect of your whole approach to driving, particularly if you're a high-mileage driver. By conserving energy and by replenishing your energy reserves at regular intervals you're able to maintain a state of relaxed alertness and clear thinking. On the other hand, if you drain your energy excessively and/or fail to replenish your reserves adequately, you'll inevitably experience the high risk, low energy state known as fatigue.
It's more useful to act in ways that help to ensure an abundance of energy than to try to avoid fatigue. However, the importance of energy management for the driver is more apparent if you're fully aware of the dangers of fatigue.
Fatigue is a major underlying cause of road collisions.
Fatigue can kill, particularly when it leads to falling asleep at the wheel.
It's not just by inducing sleep that fatigue can increase your level of risk on the road. In a fatigued state your mental and physical responses slow down and your thinking lacks clarity. Consequently you may:
We all experience peaks of alertness and troughs of fatigue as part of the natural rhythm of life.
An energy cycle operates throughout the day. You may, for example, feel alert in the middle of the morning, early afternoon and middle of the evening, but find that your energy level is lower in the early morning, late morning, in the middle of the afternoon, in the early evening and, of course, before you go to sleep at night.
Larger energy cycles operate over the longer term. Many people find that their average energy level drops during the working week and then recovers at weekends. You might start on Monday morning with a spring in your step but be pretty well spent by Friday afternoon. (Perhaps not surprisingly, more road collisions occur on Friday afternoon than at any other time.) And your energy levels are likely to fluctuate throughout the year, probably reaching their lowest just before you take a holiday.
Over the next week or two, notice your overall level of energy at intervals throughout the day and across the week. It would be useful to jot a quick note in your diary to keep track of it. Perhaps award yourself a score from 1 to 10, with 1 being virtually comatose and 10 almost exploding with energy. Particularly note any especially high or low energy levels. At the end of each day record a score for your average level of energy during that day.
After a couple of weeks, look back over your energy scores and sketch a chart to indicate where your peaks and troughs of energy tend to fall during the day. You can draw another chart to reveal your weekly cycle. This personal information is invaluable in allowing you to take control of the management of your own energy.
Becoming aware of your own particular energy cycles is the first step in managing your energy effectively. Then you can accommodate the cycles you currently have, whenever possible travelling at your most energetic times and avoiding driving when your energy reserves are depleted.
When you have to drive at times when you know your energy is low you can make sensible allowances for your state. For example, if you notice that your general level of energy is lowest on Fridays, allow extra time for Friday journeys, drive at a lower average speed and, on long trips, take more frequent rest breaks.
The second step in effective energy management is to change your behaviour as necessary in order to even out large fluctuations in your energy levels, and to raise the average level. You do this in two ways:
The following conditions cause you to use up energy particularly quickly; thus you can become drained before you realise it's necessary to replenish your reserves.
The next set of conditions are dangerous because they either lead to setting out on a drive in an already depleted energy state or prevent you from replenishing your reserves when you need to.
The remaining conditions can encourage drowsiness.
Avoiding or dealing with some of these conditions is dealt with in the remainder of this chapter while others are covered elsewhere in the Driver's Handbook:
See chapter 2.2 Driving fitness for advice on medicinal drugs and alcohol.
Chapter 2.4 Stress management provides advice on eliminating or reducing stress - a major energy drain.
Chapter 2.5 Relaxation gives advice on posture and the release of muscular tension.
Chapter 3.1 Vehicle safety draws your attention to some aspects of vehicle design that contribute to fatigue.
Chapter 3.4 Optimum set-up offers advice on optimising the car's features to minimise sources of fatigue.
In chapter 3.6 Basic control skills you're encouraged to consider the efficiency with which you use the car's controls (and thus the efficiency of your energy usage).
All of the chapters in Part 4: Road and Traffic Management provide examples of strategies that can reduce the mental demands on the driver, even in congested traffic conditions.
Avoiding or reducing the influence of energy drains has a beneficial effect on your overall energy level. If you also give positive attention to boosting your energy:
There are three ways of boosting and maintaining high levels of energy that can easily be fitted into the daily routine of even the high-mileage business driver:
We all know (and at some time have probably experienced) the dangers of burning the candle at both ends. Without proper rest your performance in every area of your life will suffer: work, home, family, social life - and your performance as a driver.
On any morning when you feel inadequately rested, perhaps because you had little sleep the night before, you run a much higher risk than usual of being involved in a collision. So it's important to get a good night's sleep before driving, especially if you're making a long journey.
Many people find that they don't sleep well the first night away from home on business or holiday trips. If you have this problem in hotels, be aware of it and take steps to compensate if you have to drive the next day, such as taking more frequent rest breaks than normal.
Whenever possible try to avoid going directly from a demanding work session to driving. Take a rest break in between. After a full day at a distant office it's sensible to take a tea break before starting the long drive home. If you let the rush hour traffic clear while you're enjoying your rest, the following journey will be more pleasant too.
On long journeys, drive for no more than two or three hours before stopping for a break. Make sure it's a proper break; whenever possible get out of the car and have a complete change of activity. Take at least a quarter of a hour between driving sessions and, if you're driving all day, make sure you take a longer break every couple of driving sessions.
If you're one of the fortunate people who have the knack of cat-napping, a short nap during a longer break can be very restorative, particularly when you're driving at night.
You wouldn't expect your car to perform properly if you filled it with the wrong grade of fuel or allowed the tank to run dry. Yet many drivers give scant attention to the refuelling of their own bodies, with consequently detrimental effects on their driving performance.
Obviously, nutrition has an effect on your overall health - which, as was explored in chapter 2.2 Driving fitness, effects your driving performance. Here, however, we'll consider nutrition purely from the perspective of its effect on daily energy management.
Complex carbohydrates such as whole grain cereals, fresh fruit and vegetables, low-fat high-protein foods and plenty of plain water boost energy. As well as having positive cleansing effects on your whole system, these sorts of foods help to maintain a fairly stable blood sugar level.
In contrast, too much sugar, salt, fat, cholesterol and caffeine lower energy levels, interfere with the chemistry of your brain and impede mental performance. Not to mention clogging up your cardiovascular system, causing your heart to pump harder, your cells to get less oxygen and toxins in your blood to be less effectively filtered out. This sort of poor nutrition causes wide fluctuations in blood sugar levels, with consequently large and abrupt swings between alertness and fatigue.
If your blood sugar level falls too low - as it does if you go without food for too long - your metabolism automatically slows down to conserve energy. This has the effect of lowering mental and physical performance - clearly not a desirable state for driving. On the other hand, too high a blood sugar level throws everything out of balance and triggers the release of insulin into the bloodstream to bring the level back to normal.
The ideal state of affairs is to maintain a normal blood sugar level through slow and steady extraction of sugars from the food in your digestive tract. You can do this by eating the desirable "energy foods" mentioned above. These contain fairly low concentrations of naturally occurring sugars and are high in fibre, which slows down digestion.
The concentration of sugars in refined foods such as confectionery or sugared soft drinks is far higher than those in "natural" foods. And the simple structure of these foods allows a very rapid breakdown and absorption of the sugars.
The driver whose response to feeling a bit sluggish is to grab a chocolate bar and a can of cola initially experiences a "lift" as blood sugar rises rapidly and substantially. The blood sugar level rises so much above normal so quickly that the body over-reacts and releases a very large dose of insulin, which quickly brings the blood sugar level down below normal. So within an hour the same driver is suffering from this "insulin rebound" and feeling more tired than before. And the "food" has been digested so quickly he's feeling hungry again. So he reaches for another high sugar snack... Clearly, making your blood sugar level go up and down like a yo-yo is poor energy management.
From our perspective of maintaining high enough levels of energy to drive safely throughout the day, the most important meal of the day is breakfast. Any drivers who leave home in the morning without eating anything are putting themselves (and other road users near them) at unnecessary and easily avoidable risk.
When you wake in the morning your blood sugar level is likely to be at a low ebb. You probably haven't eaten for ten to twelve hours. Imagine how hungry you'd feel if you didn't eat for twelve hours during the day. Many people who regularly skip breakfast don't realise how low their energy level is in the morning because a) their metabolism slowed down during sleep, and b) they pour some juice or coffee into their stomach after waking, so they don't feel hungry. But there's no way a cup of coffee can provide the calories your body needs until lunch-time. By the time lunch-time comes round your body has gone into full energy conservation mode, with the low level of alertness associated with that state.
Many of these breakfast-skipping drivers think that drinking frequent cups of coffee throughout the morning will keep them alert. Apart from the adverse health implications of consuming large quantities of caffeine (though the occasional cup won't do any harm), drinking coffee on an empty stomach actually stimulates the symptoms of fatigue you're trying to overcome. A classic vicious spiral.
While skipping breakfast is the worst way to start your day, eating a breakfast that's high in fats - the traditional English fried breakfast - and/or simple sugars is not much better. You're likely to feel sleepy and sluggish after a heavy meal of fatty foods. The ideal high energy breakfast is selected from the "energy foods" described earlier: for example, fresh fruit, whole grain cereal (not sugared, highly processed "empty calorie" ones) or wholemeal toast, juice, water or perhaps a single cup of coffee or tea.
Skipping lunch is nearly as bad as skipping breakfast; you're likely to droop in the afternoon if you do. Eat a nourishing but fairly light lunch; soups and salads are ideal. A heavy (and particularly a fatty) meal at lunch-time is likely to induce drowsiness around twenty minutes later. If you're fond of fatty foods, leave them until your evening meal, after you've done your driving for the day.
Avoid all alcohol at lunch-time. Even a single drink can make you feel very sleepy, especially in warm weather.
Lunch is not just a time to replenish your physical energy with nourishing food, it's also a valuable opportunity to restore your mental energy reserves; so make lunch a pleasant break from working routine. Grabbing a snack at your desk or in a lay-by isn't a very restorative activity.
If you feel in need of a snack during the day, a piece of fresh fruit provides the energy boost you need without the "insulin rebound" associated with high-sugar snack foods and fizzy drinks. And drink plenty of water or fresh juices. It's easy to get dehydrated when you're sitting in a car for long periods. Dehydration clouds your thinking and is a common cause of headaches.
Review your own eating patterns and compare them with the daily energy chart you plotted. What have you eaten - or not eaten - in the hour or so prior to energy dips? For example, if you feel sleepy in the afternoon, do you usually have a heavy cooked lunch? Or do you skip lunch altogether?
If you feel that that your normal preferred diet is perhaps less than ideal from the energy management perspective, try out the suggested eating patterns for a few days and then review your energy levels. Do you generally feel more alert at the wheel?
People who exercise regularly enjoy higher levels of energy and alertness than predominantly sedentary people. Unfortunately, a sedentary lifestyle goes with the territory of the high mileage business driver. So make time for at least a little physical exercise, preferably on a daily basis.
On long journeys stretch and loosen your muscles gently when you get out of the car. Include a brisk walk or a short jog in rest breaks. Even a bit of vigorous cleaning of the car's windows and lights helps to get the circulation going again after a long stint at the wheel.
Sometimes, despite your best efforts to manage your energy, you might find yourself in an energy hole, in a fatigued state, and still some way from journey's end. So what can you do about it?
The most important thing is to recognise as early as possible that you are entering a low energy state and take steps to boost your energy. The deeper you get into the hole, the harder it is to get out - and the more likely you are to fall asleep and never wake up.
Some symptoms of fatigue may be obvious, others less so and some are not commonly recognised as being indicators of fatigue. Any of the following indicate that you need to take action to boost you energy level before proceeding any further:
As soon as you recognise any of the above symptoms, look for a safe place to stop off the road, in a lay-by or service area. If you wait until your head has dropped a few times, you're already on the very edge of continuous sleep and likely to crash before you can stop.
If you only have a few miles left to drive, you may be able to give yourself a temporary energy boost by getting out of the car and having a good stretch, taking a brisk walk or a jog, eating a snack and (despite its inadvisability as a long-term strategy) drinking some strong black coffee. You may be dehydrated so it's a good idea to drink plenty of plain water. When you drive on, set the heating or air conditioning cooler and the fan on a higher speed to increase the throughflow of fresh air, turn the radio up, sing or talk to yourself (assuming you're alone) or ask a passenger to engage you in conversation.
If you still have a fair way to go, or jogging and coffee don't wake you up fully, there's only one safe way to deal with the situation: go to sleep. Even a nap of a few minutes may be enough to revive and refresh you. It's far better to arrive a bit later than expected than not arrive at all.
Think of a time when you've been fatigued while driving. Has it happened very often? Have you ever nodded off at the wheel? If so, how had you got to that point? What warning signs were there, that you chose to ignore?
Are there symptoms of fatigue that you've not been recognising as such? What will you do differently in future to monitor your state of alertness/fatigue, and to maintain a safe level of energy while driving?
Tiredness or illness: rule 32
The balance of risk in driving is shifting. As manufacturers pay more and more attention to safety features and structural strength in their cars the risk of being hurt in a crash is diminishing. On the other hand, as roads become more congested the average level of stress that drivers experience is increasing. This leads to an increase in long-term damage to health.
The management of stress is therefore assuming a position of greater and greater importance within personal state management and effective driving as a whole.
Stress related disease is the fastest rising category of illness in the Western World. An estimated 91 million working days are lost every year in the UK through stress, and stress-related sickness costs at least £4 billion per year. Much of that stress has been linked to driving, with high-mileage business drivers most at risk.
Stress is a general term used to describe a wide range of ways in which people's behaviour and circumstances bring about both physiological and psychological harm. A well established and widely accepted definition is: "Stress is an imbalance between the demands and pressures placed on an individual and his or her ability to cope."
The perception of stress can be represented like this:
As the definition and the picture imply, individuals who are vulnerable to stress tend to:
The opposite of stress could be represented like this:
Individuals who are unstressed tend to:
The essence of stress management is to ensure that the arrows point outwards and never inwards! This may be done either by avoiding apparent "outside pressures" - stressors - or by adopting the characteristics of unstressed individuals.
The conditions that often give rise to stress are known as stressors. They can be found in all areas of life - work, family, social, sports, and so on. Common work stressors include:
The following list ranks some typical stress indicators from the most common and least harmful to the rarer but more harmful:
Stress causes harm through various mechanisms. There is now a vast body of research on the subject. Here's just a couple of examples.
Dr Malcolm Carruthers, a UK expert who treats and lectures on stress, believes that driving stress probably kills at least as many people as road crashes. He says that when you experience tension on the road you release blood noradrenaline, which raises your heart rate and blood pressure, releases blood fats, and makes you feel competitive - just what our ancestors needed to run away from a sabre toothed tiger but less useful in everyday modern life. Unless the fats are burned off (difficult to do when you're sitting in a car), they damage your heart and fur your arteries.
Dr Hans Seyle, who was director of the Institute of Experimental Surgery at the University of Montreal and author of Stress Without Distress, has shown that unrelieved stress suppresses the immune system, which is responsible for fighting viruses and cancer. So a stressed person is more likely to get sick. The physiological key to this appears to be the hypothalamus, which is part of the limbic system. We know that the limbic system is largely the seat of our emotions and spontaneous reactions. In the long run, anger or anxiety can literally kill you!
A recent three-year research project carried out by the Driver Behaviour Research Unit at Leeds University has concluded that: "The levels of stress that drivers are exposed to are very much higher than in any other everyday task."
A long-term clinical study in Scandinavia has linked driving stress - particularly amongst high-mileage business drivers - with:
You may scoff at the last item in the list above, coming as it does from the suicide capital of the world. However, research nearer to home lends support to the above findings.
In the UK, a research programme into the effects of high-mileage and high-speed driving produced some alarming findings. Over a period of some months, 200 drivers who regularly drove from Leeds to London were wired up by medical experts with sensors fed into a "black box" recorder. Most of the drivers were executives. Half of them were known to be "pushy," aggressive drivers while the other half were "steady".
Over half of the aggressive drivers recorded physiological distress, mainly through accelerated heart beats and strain on the kidneys. Only a fifth of the steady drivers recorded similar distress. To put this in perspective, on a single trip from Leeds to London many of the aggressive drivers raised their cholesterol levels by the equivalent of a weekend spent bingeing on fatty foods!
From an inspection of the personnel records of a number of companies, a correlation was found between the annual mileage of company drivers and premature death or serious disablement, nervous breakdowns, broken marriages and, yes, suicide. Virtually all of the victims were high-mileage "fast laners," proud of their prowess behind the wheel and who often boasted of the minutes they had cut off their journey down the M1 to London. The study concluded that the driver covering 35,000 miles per year is five to seven times more likely to succumb to early heart disease, stroke or kidney failure than the relatively desk-bound colleague doing a job of similar importance.
A long-term study in Oxford of people who had been involved in road crashes (some of whom had been injured and some of whom had escaped unhurt) produced surprising findings. Over half of all the people surveyed were experiencing the symptoms of post traumatic stress disorder (such as insomnia and anxiety) more than a year after they had been involved in a crash. This was a far higher proportion than the researchers expected, but they were further surprised to find that those who hadn't been injured were affected to the same degree as those who had. This indicates that "invisible" psychological damage may be done when the body escapes injury, and that the psychological scars often take longer to heal.
There is a strong possibility that many of the people in the Oxford study of the after effects of crashes were stressed before they crashed. Stress increases the likelihood of being involved in collisions. Stress impairs driving performance and mistakes become more frequent. As the driver becomes aware of these mistakes his or her stress level increases further, more errors occur and involvement in a crash becomes more and more likely, in a vicious spiral.
The research findings on driving stress make pretty depressing reading. Does it mean that if you have to drive a lot in your job you're condemned to a short life full of medical and social problems? The short answer is it all depends...
If you approach driving in a manner likely to cause stress (in other words, like the majority of drivers) and you do little or nothing to relieve that stress, then it's likely that driving will have a detrimental effect on your health. On the other hand, if you take driving stress seriously and take steps to manage stress at the wheel, you have nothing to fear.
Note: If you're experiencing stress generated in other areas of your life - perhaps work pressures, relationship problems, moving house, bereavement and so on - you'll take that stress into the car with you and it will inevitably affect your driving performance. Dealing with stress issues outside the area of driving is, of course, beyond the scope of this Driver's Handbook. We recommend that you take a stress assessment and make use of any available stress counselling if appropriate. Having said that, if you do have stressors in your life outside driving you may find that some of the stress management techniques described here can be applied equally successfully in a different context.
To say that someone is stressed, anxious or frustrated is a description of that person's state. Being able to change undesired states and to relieve the stress these states generate is an important aspect of stress management. It's "first aid" for the mind.
Even if you usually approach driving with a very relaxed, easy going, tolerant attitude, and so avoid getting into stressful situations, every now and again you might have an off day or be stressed in other areas of your life. By tuning into what your body is telling you, you can recognise when you're in a stressed state and set aside time to relieve that stress rather than carrying it over to the next time you drive.
See chapter 2.5 Relaxation for advice on sensing and releasing tensions in the body.
There are many well known ways of relieving stress. You probably have a favourite way of winding down after you've got wound up. For example, you might like to:
All of these stress relief methods and many others are valuable in driving stress management. However, while relieving stress is important, a more effective way of dealing with driving stress is to avoid accumulating it in the first place.
Remember, the most widely accepted definition of stress is: "Stress is an imbalance between the demands and pressures placed on an individual and his or her ability to cope." So avoiding driving stress hinges on increasing your ability to cope with whatever apparent "outside pressures" you encounter. It's all about BEING IN CONTROL, of being in a resourceful state.
There are both general and specific aspects to this. Driving stress is influenced by your general level of confidence and relaxation, while specific stress management techniques may be applied to particular situations and external pressures that arise.
The more confident you feel as a driver, the more likely you are to be in a resourceful state when you drive. So not only is stress management inseparable from personal state management, it also can't be separated from effective driving as a whole. We can state quite categorically:
The closer you feel you are to your desired outcome of effective driving, the more in control you'll feel and the less you'll experience driving stress.
Defining your desired outcome of effective driving and the structure of performance development are covered in chapter 1.4 Becoming a more effective driver.
It's difficult to get stressed when your body and mind are in a relaxed state. On the other hand, it's very easy to get stressed about the smallest things when you're tense.
Relaxation is so fundamental to personal state management and to effective driving we've given the topic its own chapter.
See chapter 2.5 Relaxation.
Many of the specific situations that act as stressors can be changed by common sense actions that put you firmly in control rather than at the mercy of outside forces. For example, one of the most common experiences of driving stress comes about through being anxious about being late for appointments. Here are some common sense actions you could take:
Notice that most of these actions to take control of the situation take place before you start driving. It's often the case that the major part of managing stress inherent in an activity comes about in the preparation for the activity (in this case driving to an appointment), not the activity itself.
Think about some specific situations that make you feel stressed, and work out what common sense actions will allow you to take control.
Often, if you find yourself getting wound up about a situation, focusing your attention on something you consider to be more important in your life helps you to put your little spat into perspective. Having some sort of reminder of that higher value near at hand provides the means to "flip" you into a more resourceful state very quickly.
Proof that this works came from an experiment carried out in Austria. A large representative sample of drivers were asked to tape a picture of a family member or loved one to the dashboard. Members of the group reported reduced aggression at the wheel, and they had 17% fewer crashes than the norm.
When you encounter stressful driving situations, the same process that underlies the development of your driving performance can also be used to change your experience of the situation.
Chapter 1.4 Becoming a more effective driver explains the process of performance development.
You'll remember that the power of that process lies in holding in your mind both where you are now and where you want to be. Then you're naturally compelled to move from one to the other.
Perhaps you also remember that if you should become obsessed with where you are and don't look beyond it towards what you want, you get stuck where you are. When you find yourself perceiving a situation as stressful, you do become obsessed with what's happening (the "arrows inward" stick man model). This obsession effectively erects a barrier that blocks your awareness of where you really want to be, and you do get stuck. The Driving Stressbuster allows you to recognise, and then remove, the barrier that you have erected.
The Driving Stressbuster technique works in four steps. You ask yourself a series of questions. Here we set out the questions with some example answers drawn from a typical potentially stressful driving situation.
The purpose of this step is to raise your awareness of what's actually happening. Not only the situation but also your response to it. So stick to the facts. Just the "whats". Certainly no "whys". No "he's doing that because..." No name-calling. No blaming. What are the road, traffic and weather conditions? Who are the other key players in the situation, where are they and what are they doing?
Example: It's the rush hour. The road's wet but it's not raining. I'm driving at 70mph in the right-hand lane of a busy motorway and a car has just overtaken on my left and swung right in front.
I'm holding my speed steady. So I'm still the same distance I was from the car I was following before. Now this extra car's jumped in, I'm driving just two car lengths behind it. I'm operating the windscreen washer to clear the spray coming up off that car's wheels. And I'm shouting, swearing at the driver in front.
I'm thinking about this guy in front. Time he learned a lesson. I want to put pressure on him.
I'm angry. Really angry!
My breathing is fast and shallow - panting almost. I can feel my pulse throbbing in my ears. My arms feel very tight and I'm squeezing the steering wheel hard. And I notice that I'm clenching my teeth - when I'm not swearing, that is.
This may be specific or general. Focus on what you do want, not what you don't. "I don't want this guy on my territory" is not answering the question. Separate what you want from what you think is possible. Have you included your state or feelings?
Often, simply asking this question produces an instant change in your experience of the situation.
Again, simply asking this question often changes everything - when you realise that you're standing in your own way!
Example: Well, the first thing that comes to mind is that I'm driving at 70mph with no safety gap in front. That's just crazy. I'm also choosing to be angry, so I feel anything but relaxed. That's stupid too. I suffer, while the guy in front takes no notice anyway.
You'll always have some sort of choice, even if it's simply to stop doing whatever it is you have been doing. There may be a brick wall in front of you but you don't have to keep bashing you head against it!
Example: The first thing is to deal with the immediate hazard. I want space. So I'll gently ease off the throttle and open out a safe separation distance. That'll make it much easier to see, too: I won't be getting so much spray on the screen.
I'll soon start to feel relaxed again if I take a few deep, slow breaths. I'll also monitor the tension in my body and let it go - for example by unclenching my teeth and by loosening my grip on the wheel.
Don't worry if you can't remember all the steps in the technique. The essential shorthand version is:
What do you really want for yourself?
And what are you doing right now to prevent yourself from getting it?
These are the questions that produce the biggest shifts - often automatically.
The ideal state for driving is relaxed concentration. That is, while your mind is alert and focused on the here and now, your body is as relaxed as possible. And how relaxed is that? Basically, unless a muscle is being used to move a control, hold your head up or keep you alive (such as that chunk of muscle known as your heart) it should be loose. With a relaxed body it's relatively easy to maintain concentration because internal distractions are kept to a minimum.
There are two sides to managing your level of relaxation:
The opposite of relaxation is muscular tension. When you feel tense you contract muscles - muscles that don't actually need to be contracted. Muscles are either contracted or extended - there's no in between - so as you get more tense you contract more and more muscles. As more muscles tense up they work against each other and your movements become less fluid and more jerky. When you're very tense so many muscles contract you may experience nervous spasms: shaking and quivering. And the more muscles you have contracted the more energy you use. So tension is tiring. It's also very distracting. Tense muscles working against each other soon set up aches and pains that draw your mind away from the things you want to concentrate on outside and cause it to focus internally.
Many drivers blame the road situations they find themselves in for "making" them tense. In truth, no situation makes anyone tense; tension linked to certain external situations is a response. It's the first in a line of responses and symptoms collectively known as stress.
See chapter 2.4 Stress management for advice on dealing with stress and particularly on adopting resourceful responses to unwanted circumstances.
Having said that, it's sound management to take steps to reduce the influence of the external environment. For example, you can minimise noise intrusion, and you may be able to reduce the level of traffic fumes entering the cabin.
See chapter 3.4 Optimum set-up.
To relax, you need a comfortable temperature and plenty of fresh air. If you have a choice of cars, a quieter model is more relaxing to drive. And stow loose items carefully to avoid irritating rattles.
It's easier to relax in loose-fitting, casual clothes. When you have to wear formal, business clothes, remove restrictive jackets, loosen your tie, change high heeled shoes for flat ones.
You may find that music helps you to relax. Well-known experiments have been carried out with different types of music. Some music produces an unconscious loosening of muscles (Bach is particularly beneficial), while some has the opposite effect, creating tension (heavy metal apparently falls into that category). So by all means relax to music, but make your selection with relaxation in mind.
Perhaps the most common cause of muscular tension is poor posture. A few minutes spent on getting the seat adjustment spot on (especially when you're driving an unfamiliar car) is time well spent. Not only does your driving position influence comfort it also largely determines how efficiently you can move the controls. Any awkward movement creates muscular tension.
See chapter 3.4 Optimum set-up for advice on adjusting the driver's seat and the driving position for maximum efficiency and comfort.
But a beautifully designed and well adjusted car seat is of little use if you adopt a poor posture when sitting in it. The most important thing is to have maximum support over the length of your spine. With good posture you should feel a fairly even pressure all the way from the back of your thighs, round your buttocks and all the way up your back to your shoulders. Any points of higher pressure suggest that either the position of the seat or your posture is less than ideal. Common examples of bad posture are:
Once you're aware of tension you can do something about it. Yet many drivers drive around in a tensed state and don't even notice. Being aware of tension is like most things - the more you practise, the better you get.
If you're not in the habit of running a tension check from time to time, you may find it helps to do it for the first time while sitting in a parked car with your eyes closed. Closing your eyes shuts out visual distractions and makes it easier to focus on internal bodily sensations. Just allow your attention to roam around inside your body and let it settle on any points of tension you come across.
When you notice tension, simply be aware of it. Don't try to resist it or try to make it go away. Don't try anything. Just be aware of it. It helps to measure it for your reference. So give it rating from one to ten. Then just notice what happens as you continue to take an unforced interest in it. Once your attention is focused on the tension, your body will start to make the appropriate corrections, usually out of your conscious awareness. After a while you'll notice the rating dropping.
Next you can use the same technique sitting in a parked car but with your eyes open. And when you're happy with that, run a periodic tension check as you're driving, perhaps whenever you stop in traffic. After a while you'll find you can be aware of any tensions within your body more or less continuously. As well as noting any tensions arising from sitting, notice the degree of looseness or tension in your control movements. How stiff is your arm when it moves the gear lever, for example? Do you tense you neck and jaw when you apply the handbrake?
There are various techniques that you can perform in the car (some while stopped in traffic and some at any time including while driving) that encourage a relaxed state. Three of the simplest and yet most effective are:
This is a technique that you can do at any time at all. It won't interfere with your driving. Focusing your mind on your breathing helps to still your mind and restore calm when you're finding yourself getting wound up. The breathing helps too. When you start getting tense your chest, throat and diaphragm constrict, and your breathing tends to become rapid and shallow. This actually starves the brain of oxygen and thus adds to your feeling of anxiety. Deep breathing increases the oxygen flow again.
This particular technique is used by many athletes when they want to calm their nerves.
Inhale slowly and deeply through your nose, and take the breath deep down into your belly. Fully inflate your lungs with your diaphragm by pushing your belly outwards, rather than by heaving your shoulders and ribcage upwards. As you do so, silently count from one to four.
Then exhale through your mouth, slowly and without blowing for another count of four.
So that's: in through your nose for four; hold for four; out through your mouth for four. After a few slow breaths to this rhythm you probably won't need to keep counting.
Begin by tensing one hand. Clench it into a fist, feel the tension for a few seconds, then release it and notice the contrasting feeling of relaxation. Repeat the procedure with the same hand, holding the tension just a second or two longer this time.
Now tense the other hand into a fist, hold it and feel it, then relax and feel that. And repeat, holding a little longer.
Next tense one arm so that the biceps is flexed, and relax. Repeat, holding a little longer, and then tense the other arm and repeat.
Tense your forehead. Relax and repeat.
Clench your jaws tight. Relax and repeat.
Shrug and tense your shoulders. Relax and repeat.
Tighten your stomach muscles. Relax and repeat.
Finally tense you toes by curling them downwards. Relax and repeat.
As you go through the sequences, concentrate on your sensations as intensely as you can. Completely let go of all tension the instant you relax a previously tightened muscle group. Become completely limp in one area after another and feel the tension draining away.
Tension often gets stored in the muscles of your neck and shoulders. By freeing off tightness in this region you'll feel more relaxed in general. This set of techniques comes from yoga and can be performed in a few moments while the car is stationary.
Start by rolling both shoulders together in circles. Do eight circles forwards and then eight backwards.
Keeping your shoulders down and level (don't hunch) drop your head sideways towards your right shoulder, hold for a count of twenty, slowly straighten and relax. Repeat on the left. Then do three more complete repetitions on both sides.
Again keeping your shoulders well down and loose, gently turn your head to the right as far as possible, and hold it there for a count of three. Return your head to the straight ahead and repeat the turn to the right four times. Then repeat five times, turning to the left.
Sitting nicely straight, drop your head back and look straight up, feeling the muscles at your throat stretching. Hold in that position for a count of five, then lower your chin onto your chest and hold for five again.
Finish by slowly rolling your head in circles to the right three times, and then to the left three times.