this post was submitted on 11 Dec 2023
149 points (92.6% liked)
Videos
14407 readers
325 users here now
For sharing interesting videos from around the Web!
Rules
- Videos only
- Follow the global Mastodon.World rules and the Lemmy.World TOS while posting and commenting.
- Don't be a jerk
- No advertising
- No political videos, post those to [email protected] instead.
- Avoid clickbait titles. (Tip: Use dearrow)
- Link directly to the video source and not for example an embedded video in an article or tracked sharing link.
- Duplicate posts may be removed
Note: bans may apply to both [email protected] and [email protected]
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Don't be an arse that isn't how risk works. You can claim you perform perfectly well driving for a long time with distractions but evidence suggests it has a significant cost.
you might be a freak, some people are there are people who can calculate primes in their head or recall with near perfect accuracy, but the odds are stacked against you.
Unless you've actually tested yourself you should probably proceed under the assumption that driving for more than a couple of hours without a break begins to get dangerously risky. Middle of a salt flat in woop woop? who cares. Elsewhere? Maybe pull over and spend 3 minutes doing jumping jacks or something.
Their comments jump all over the place. Their partner hates it, they have a self-driving car etc. Completely rationalising driving tired and proud of it. Worst kind of driver.
I'm willing to believe some people are vastly superior drivers to me, I'm also willing to believe I'm more cautious than ethics demands.
Even so, suppose you are the greatest driver to ever exist. If after 4 hours on the road you're at 70% of your skill, even if that skill is still really high, isn't it worth a 10 minute break to get back to like 90%?
It's not like taking a break is terribly unpleasant. Unless the weather is dreadful just have a cup of tea from a thermos and a stretch then hop back on the road.
My wife doesn’t hate it; just took a while to adjust to it. I don’t rationalize being tired and driving because I don’t do it. When I’ve been actually tired from driving I pull over at a rest stop and stretch or sleep. It’s ok though, I’m sure my 15 years of perfect driving (about 20k miles a year) without even being pulled over or ticketed means I’m a shitty driver. 👉(👁 ͜ʖ👁)👉
Evidence suggests lots of things. There’s always outliers and people who have different skill sets for different things. That doesn’t invalidate the data and certainly I agree that many people are shitty at driving. The original comment was about people only going 250 miles and needing to rest, which I don’t find true. I drove the salt flats. As I got tired my wife and switched driving since the scenery was so… flat. Usually the mountainous driving I do keeps me awake since I need to be actively paying attention or I’d die.
This isn't really about skill though. It's about mental exhaustion and what that means when it comes to safety.
Skill is having a larger capacity until mental/physical exhaustion. If someone runs every day they’re a skilled runner. Their capacity to run is greater than mine because they aren’t as quick to become exhausted. The same is true for the brain.
Maybe, but I just feel that a skilled driver would be smart enough to know that it isn't safe to drive for too long.
And don't forget the Dunning-Kruger effect.
Correct, however a driver with more skill also has more capacity for driving longer. I don’t think 250 miles (the original point of this whole thread) is long. 750 miles on the other hand… is. I could easily drive 750 miles with no problem. Get to my location, party for several hours and then finally sleep. I know this because I do it about once a year with family. Most people might not be able to go that long. Because they’re not a “skilled driver.” They haven’t built up capacity to understand. Even friends and family of mine when they drive aren’t doing the same things I’m doing. Listening to the car, hearing the inputs and feeling the inputs, monitoring grip levels, ensuring adequate room between other vehicles to ensure accidents can’t happen due to proximity. There’s ways to also lessen mental exhaustion as I mentioned. My car keeping me in the lane and keeping speed automatically for me. Camera systems to watch out for people and other cars with collision avoidance, not to mention another passenger as a set of eyes. A skilled driver would also know where there limit is. I found mine to be around mile 850~ I know this because as I was driving across country rushing back home at night that I didn’t feel I was performing at the level I needed to in order to safely operate a vehicle. No one else on the road for miles, but I switched drivers with my wife who I made nap as I knew I couldn’t do the whole 1000 miles needed in one go. That’s also the difference in skill. Knowing you’ll need assistance and making sure it’s in place when you do. Like having a hotel booked at 700 miles (or whatever mile marker a driver can safely drive) or making other stops as needed.
I’d be interested to see a study on it, but I’d wager that Americans and Canadians can drive for longer than their European/Asian counterparts. Just due to the “training” we have of driving longer distances more frequently.
https://casr.adelaide.edu.au/casrpubfile/2951/CASR197.pdf australia is even more spread out than the USA or candada, being the same size and having vastly lower population density.
This study finds that
further
literally 1 in 10 fatal crashes involved fatigue, and 4/10 fatigue crashes involve long distance driving. Maybe just take a break, 10 minutes isn't worth your life. It's not an issue of how tough or manly you are, how bulbous and engorged your testes are, or whatever other issue of ego you're having. You are an animal, you get tired.