How to Practice Zen Driving

[Miktar]

http://www.wikihow.com/Practice-Zen-Driving

Since I know half of you are road-rage roids.

[ioiiooio]

Pffft. It should be called "Driving for Dummies", if you ask me.

[wisp]

Joeys Drivers Take note and "be like water" :P

[dislekcia]

Joeys Drivers Take note and "be like water" :P

They're already like water... At least, water in Joburg: Suddenly appears at 3:30, hammers the **** down for 45 minutes (everyone tries to beat the rush), pools in all the places with crap drainage (ie: teh N1 and every other road in greater Joburg) and slowly evaporates until 7pm.

[Fredder]

That . . . is . . . brilliant. Most relevant description ever!!!

On Topic: I just find loud music helps me enough . . . they let all the anger out for me . . . especially if you are listening to some really heavy stuff. Plus it also scares way the "mobile- mall" . . .

[Aesir]

Take your time. Do not be in a rush. Be Laid Back. If you need to be somewhere on time, leave early so you have more than enough time to get there... Drive as if you have all the time in the world. If you are late, at least you will have had a lovely ride.

I always leave early, and yet I'm still anxious to get where I am going, heat and heavy music makes this point unaatainable for me.

Sync in with the flow of traffic. Traffic moves like a school of fish. The more you try to get ahead and "beat others," the more obvious you are to the cops

You have obviously never driven in SA, this "school" has no pattern, unless you refer to a school of fish swimming in whiskey.

Turn off the radio, turn on your favorite music. Why do you listen to talk shows? Probably because it helps distract you from what you're doing, and makes the drive more tolerable. But what's so terrible about what you're doing, that you have to pay attention to something else?[1] Instead, try listening to the sounds of your car. The engine, the way the tires sound on the road. (This might even make you better at detecting problems with your car before they become expensive to fix.) Listen to your breathing, your heartbeat. This is an excellent time to learn to enjoy silence, since in our noisy world it can be hard to find.

My favorite music often makes my road rage worse not better. I cannot listen to the sound of my car the rattles will annoy the living **** out of me. The only time I drive in silence is a sunday morning with a severe hangover.

Loosen up. Look at your hands on the steering wheel. Are you clenching them? Let go of excess tension. You only need just enough grip to control the wheel, no more, no less

I have a bend in my chassis I can't let go of my steering wheel, I'll crash into whatever is left of me.

If someone is tailgating you, move out of the left lane if you're going slower than the traffic in front.

Yes all you inconsiderate ****ers.

Don't follow closely. Leave about 10 car lengths in front of you on the freeway and you will almost never need to hit the brakes.

If I do that 11 other cars will squeeze in there.

Anyway, that is my view, once the building in Hatfield is finished and I can get home in 15minutes or less I'll be happier. But as of this point the traffic, heat, taxes will continue to irritate me. Friday I finished class at 13:06 (lecturer finished early) I went to the computer shop in hatfield, finished at about 13:20. I turned to early (was aiming for Schoeman) and had to drive back to the universities side, it took me about 30-40 minutes to get to Duncan (about 4 streets away) I got home at 14:30 ish.

[Surge]

You know, I've always thought about driving this way...thinking and action however never met.

I tried driving like this on my way home now (with the radio on however) and I must say, it was the most relaxing drive I've had in a long time.

Thanks for the enlightenment Miktar.

[hawk]

Don't follow closely. Leave about 10 car lengths in front of you on the freeway and you will almost never need to hit the brakes. (Or you can count out the time between when the car in front of you passes a lane marker, and when you pass it -- 3 seconds should be the minimum interval.)

The author has obviously never driven in Gauteng. If you leave even 1/4 car gap, someone will try squeeze in there. I will be so happy when they finish all the roadworks on the R21 and in the Hatfield area. My goodness it is a real mission at the moment.

[CrashHelmut]

I prefer Dirk Gently's Zen method of driving.

He had a tremendous propensity for getting lost when driving. This was largely because of his method of "Zen" navigation, which was simply to find any car that looked as if it knew where it was going and follow it. The results were more often surprising than successful, but he felt it was worth it for the sake of the few occasions when it was both.

[dislekcia]

The author has obviously never driven in Gauteng. If you leave even 1/4 car gap, someone will try squeeze in there. I will be so happy when they finish all the roadworks on the R21 and in the Hatfield area. My goodness it is a real mission at the moment.

So it's only worth being zen when it's easy? How very zen.

I prefer Dirk Gently's Zen method of driving.

I do that all the time when I'm trying to find new shortcuts. Works surprisingly often!

[Aesir]

So today I was trying out the "don't drive to fast it won't get you there faster" thing. Infront of me was an audi and next to me a cash in transit truck. We got to a traffic light, the audi already stopped but not me and the truck, just as the truck stopped the light turend green, the audi drove off but the truck didn't. In the split second I thought he just didn't get into gear in time, I changed from 4th back to second.

I accelerated quite slowly at first but just as I sped up to around 30-40 a girl came running across the road, I jumped on the brakes and just before stopping I hit her with my last momentum. She luckly saw me and sort of jumped up to my bonnet so she wasn't hurt, I wanted to climb out to see if she was ok but she just kept running. Must have been in a big hurry to do something so stupid.

Me on the other hand when I got to the university I was shaking like a mofo, killing someone wasn't on my to-do list. It could have ended horribly if I was a bit faster.

[Karuji]

I drive every day from JHB to PTA, and back again (I study at TUKS and am looking at places in PTA to move into)

And in all honesty I don't think it would work that well. There is always an idiot on the highway. There are always taxis.

Like today coming back there was an accident where the car was almost smashed to nothing.

There isn't a flow to the traffic. You get a broken taxi going 60 in the left lane, you doing 120 in the right. And the Audi behind you doing 160. Not fun :/

And I live in north JHB it is basicaly grid locked from 6:30 to 9:00 and 16:30 to 19:00. And there is always someone so close to your bumper that roll an inch and you will go into them.

Admittedly I follow a lot of things he says. I just don't find driving pleasant.

[dislekcia]

I drive every day from JHB to PTA, and back again (I study at TUKS and am looking at places in PTA to move into)

And in all honesty I don't think it would work that well. There is always an idiot on the highway. There are always taxis.

Like today coming back there was an accident where the car was almost smashed to nothing.

There isn't a flow to the traffic. You get a broken taxi going 60 in the left lane, you doing 120 in the right. And the Audi behind you doing 160. Not fun :/

And I live in north JHB it is basicaly grid locked from 6:30 to 9:00 and 16:30 to 19:00. And there is always someone so close to your bumper that roll an inch and you will go into them.

Admittedly I follow a lot of things he says. I just don't find driving pleasant.

There's always a pattern, which is what they mean by flow in this context: The things you point out are part of that pattern, they're the things that make it work the way it does. Try to see the elements of the pattern spread out across the whole highway, that'll be the flow.