Do you get bored whilst driving? Why?
A road safety research team at Newcastle University, headed by myself, is carrying out a research study into the nature of driver boredom.
We are interested in your feelings about driving and the way you behave whilst driving as well as the way you are in life in general.
We need as many people as possible to take part in the study. Please participate by following this link, reading a bit more about the study, and completing the questionnaire which should take about 15 minutes to complete: www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=6l2EXEoSiLw3wmkPuyk...d
I am also interested in comments you have about driver boredom which I am sure is becoming more and more of a problem as roads become wider, straighter, more congested, and safer.
Thanks for your help. It is greatly appreciated.
Simon
|
This has been accepted by HJ as being ok to post.
DD.
|
|
|
Do you get bored whilst driving?
No.
|
Same response as L'escargot.
|
|
|
>> Do you get bored whilst driving? No.
Okay, fair enough. Not even when driving all day in heavy traffic on motorways?
By the way I'm still really interested to hear from people who don't get bored whilst driving!
|
As long as I don't need to crawl in city traffic in rush hour, I'm never bored while driving :)
|
Yes. I'd always let somebody else drive given the choice (unless they're a poor driver).
|
Yes. I'd always let somebody else drive given the choice (unless they're a poor driver).
Me too.
I'd much prefer to watch the view, listen to the radio, or doze off than have to do the driving myself. It's no accident that the super-rich tend to have chauffeurs
|
|
|
|
Not even when driving all day in heavy traffic on motorways?
Who drives all day? And which motorways have heavy traffic all day? I think you're envisaging combinations of extremes which never (or very rarely) occur.
|
Who drives all day? And which motorways have heavy traffic all day? I think you're envisaging combinations of extremes which never (or very rarely) occur.
Okay - fair point.
How long does it take to get bored though? Can't the driving just suddenly become boring, like when you're stuck at 50mph behind a big lorry on a single carriageway road. Don't you want to pass it because it's boring sitting behind it? If not, why do you want to pass it (assuming you do)?
Wouldn't you say sitting in a traffic jam's boring?
What about when you're forced to drive at 60mph on a straight clear bit of a-road because of speed cameras? Don't you want to go faster because you can? Isn't it boredom that you feel? If not, what is it?
|
|
Frustration, of course. Or maybe just mild resignation?
|
|
|
|
Lorry drivers and the M25.
And yes we do get bored, moreso since we've had auto boxes, cruise control, climate control and all other mod cons.
(The next part of this post will self destruct when I press the Post Message button!)
That's why we drink endless coffee, eat sarnies, talk on hands free phones and are avid contributors to Sally Traffic's road reports, all while driving a lorry all day:(
Pat
|
|
|
|
Okay fair enough. Not even when driving all day in heavy traffic on motorways?
Ah, but the bit that's boring isn't the driving, it's the standing still ;)
No, I don't find driving boring. I still go out for a drive when bored. I even find driving boring Korean cars interesting. Maybe I'm just weird, I dunno.
|
|
When I'm bored I go driving - car or bike. That stops the boredom instantly.
|
|
|
Pardon me for this critique SimonH, but I think you're premise is slightly flawed - it will be almost impossible to disentangle the reason for travelling & relationship to cars from the reaction or 'feeling' about driving itself.
I think you can be bored driving, but not bored with driving. Let me elucidate.
I'd wager most people wouldn't be bored driving their 'dream' car - even driving to the shops or being stuck in a motorway jam - frustrated maybe.
If you're not interested in driving or cars per se, you might well get bored driving if you caught in a jam or going to work/shops - but you might not be if you were going on holiday or driving to meet your paramour.
It all depends on the purpose of the journey (destination or outcome is paramount) or relationship to the means (e.g. you love the car you're driving irrespective on environment).
Edited by woodbines on 13/10/2008 at 16:59
|
Let me reply to your critique Woodbines.
I don't think it will be impossible to disentangle the reason for travelling and relationship to the car with feelings about driving - especially if I get enough responses!
I am finding out about all these variables with statements like 'I sometimes go driving just for the sake of it' (agree/disagree); questions about what kind of car you drive; and questions about what kind of roads you drive on.
One of the hypotheses I'm testing (there are 22) is: people who love cars and driving don't get bored whilst driving, whilst those who view driving as a means to an end and a boring thing to do, do. That's why I need people who don't get bored driving to complete the survey as well!
Feel free to critique further!
Simon
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
BORING PEOPLE GET BORED!!
|
|
Just realised actually, seeing as I work for the "other side" (Northumbria Uni), would it be appropriate for me to get involved in this ;)
|
|
|
Driving isn't boring and the road isn't boring to someone who likes cars and driving. A lot of people don't though, and it shows in the untidy, waddling, tailgating, slack-jawed, well-below-the-speed limit processions on busy but not congested single-carriageway NSL A roads in the South East.
I imagine this very widespread phenomenon and its baleful effects on traffic flow and road safety are what this study is really about. Let us hope that the survey isn't in preparation for some new and hideous restriction (like 20mph average speed cameras over whole districts) or insolent piece of politician's pickpocketing like 'road pricing', cheeky carphounds.
|
Driving isn't boring and the road isn't boring to someone who likes cars and driving.
Good point Lud. Have you filled in the survey? I need people like you - well I need everyone!
Let us hope that the survey isn't in preparation for some new and hideous restriction (like 20mph average speed cameras over whole districts) or insolent piece of politician's pickpocketing like 'road pricing' cheeky carphounds.
Let me assure you that I am a driver, and intend for the results of this survey which will get me a PhD in the short-term to - in the long-term - lend support to the idea that driver boredom is a danger to road safety and thus something to be avoided through making the driving environment more interactive!!
|
|
"intend for the results of this survey which will get me a PhD in the short-term to - in the long-term - lend support to the idea that driver boredom is a danger to road safety" - which implies a bias. Fallible, I'm afraid, due to the lack of an objective approach.
|
|
|
Well, I filled yr q'aire in for what it's worth Simon, although as always that format for questions leaves a lot of, er, questions or anyway compromised responses (I used to design and apply the things for a living back in the sixties in commercial market research).
I wonder if you would be so kind as to post a summary of yr analysis and conclusions when they have gone wherever they have to go and become available in the public domain?
|
Well I filled yr q'aire in for what it's worth Simon I wonder if you would be so kind as to post a summary of yr analysis and conclusions when they have gone wherever they have to go and become available in the public domain?
I'll certainly do that. Thanks for your help.
|
|
|
|
|
One of the things I do while driving to alleviate boredom is try ot avoid interacting with the driving environment. It has worked so far but it is sometimes quite challenging.
Edited by Baskerville on 13/10/2008 at 20:52
|
|
|
|
|
BORING PEOPLE GET BORED!!
In my experience, that's completely wrong. Most of the boring people I have encountered are far from bored themselves, and may be quite enthused by some mind-numbing trivia which saps the will-to-live from the rest of us.
|
Most of the boring people I have encountered are far from bored themselves and may be quite enthused by some mind-numbing trivia
You wouldn't be referring to us and the automobile by any chance NW? Just checking...
:o/
|
You wouldn't be referring to us and the automobile by any chance NW? Just checking...
Yes, I am to some extent, but probably only to the same extent as I know that my own hobbyhorses bore others :)
Anyone who gets obsessive about something can bore others, but they rarely bore themselves. And people who are themselves bored are rarely boring, at least once they get beyond the child/teenage tendency to tell everyone else how bored they are.
|
And people who are themselves bored are rarely boring
Here I really must take issue with you NW, unless what you meant was 'people who are themselves EASILY bored'. People who are easily bored because they have very broad awareness and very quick wits can sometimes be interesting when they can be bothered. People who are bored because they have no intellectual resources outside the tabloid press and tabloid TV are in fact very often very, very boring. As you point out though they aren't the only ones. We can all be boring actually.
|
|
|
|
|
|
What I meant was, people who find every kind of driving tedious are usually left-wing dullards who see it as a faceless, supine means of transportation. It is these folk who are dangers to road safety.
|
...."left-wing dullards"....
You really do need to change your nom de plume!
|
|
|
I get bored driving of course I do. Given the choice between sitting in my favourite car listening to my favourite tunes or sitting in an average pub with a few mates, I'd take the pub any day. Unless they were talking about cars of course but thankfully none of my mates are in the slightest bit interested. Half of them don't drive.
Too many times I've been sitting behind the wheel counting away the minutes that I'll never see again. Whether you like cars or not, it's still far better to be playing with the kids, drinking beer in the garden, watching a movie, eating in a restaurant, wrestling with the wife. That's not to say I dislike driving, when I'm in the mood it's ok, sometimes it feels great even and I'm interested enough in cars to be visiting this site most days.
I once got lost in Muswell Hill on my way home on a route I'd done a million times. I found myself on a street I'd never been down before, wondering how I'd got there and having no recollection of the last couple of minutes. I must have just gone into a daydream and missed my turning. Twice I've left the engine running and gone into a supermarket and today I left the boot up and the lights on and wandered into a furniture store.
|
Car drivers should never got bored driving -there's too much to think about.
On normal roads,the brain should always be expecting the unexpected, tonight my wife managed to avoid a deer, unusual in Weybridge at 6pm.
On motorways, complacency creates boredom. I use all lanes, indicating and using mirrors, keeps me alert -oh and "Talk Sport" for entertainment.
However when I had to drive a vehicle that could only do 56mph, now that was boredom personified,as I hardly had to think at all, I did feel very sorry for those restricted to this speed
|
|
|
|
|
I'm not sure that boredom is a word you can apply to driving, at least for most people on most occasions. In my opinion, when boredom occurs your mind wanders completely from the task in hand. You stop doing what you were doing and you start thinking about (and possibly even doing) something else entirely. You might even doze off. If you truly get bored whilst driving you're going to end up having an accident. I realise that that does sometimes occur, but only in a few isolated cases.
I think that perhaps you should substitute the word "tedious" in place of "boring".
|
SQ
Thanks for your comments L'escargot. They make me think about my study, which is definitely a good thing!
I have merely used boredom as a lable. Boredom is pretty much impossible to define. Some definitions in the literature include:
- a feeling associated with depressed states
- a drive state
- a non-optimal arousal level
- concentration on the passage of time
- an inability to keep oneself amused
- cessation of exploration induced by the repeated confirmation of expectancy
- an unpleasant, transient affective state in which one feels a pervasive lack of interest in and difficulty concentrating on the current activity
I have interpreted boredom as a negative affective state associated with understimulation, vigilance and monotony. That is what I have tried to capture in my questionnaire. In an effort to capture the role of boredom - or a negative affective state associated with understimulation, vigilance and monotony - in driver behaviour and road safety, in my statements I have used terms like: boring, interesting, tedious, concentration, dull, fed up, uncomfortable, enjoyment, and alertness. Most of the statements in the driver boredom questionnaire don't actually mention 'boredom'.
I think maybe it would be fair to say I'm not investigating your understanding of boredom. Rather I'm investigating the role of a negative affective state associated with understimulation, monotony, and vigilance in driver behaviour!
Edited by Dynamic Dave on 14/10/2008 at 11:12
|
Give me a fun car (and there are lots of cars that would fit into this category, in this context, including a 1.1 1984 Polo), and an empty fun road in the Highlands, and I certainly wouldn't be bored. However, would I rather be driving or doing something else - yes, of course I'd prefer not to be wasting my time in a car.
|
|
|
Rather I'm investigating the role of a negative affective state associated with understimulation monotony and vigilance in driver behaviour!
So why didn't you say so at the outset?
|
|
|
|
|
|
Anyone who's bored by driving is not paying attention.
|
Anyone who's bored by driving is not paying attention.
Only if that's your definition of bored.
|
|
Never get bored, even in jams/heavy traffic. Of course a radio and an iPod help!
|
|
|
|
I got bored filling in the questionnaire, but I stuck it out to the bitter end!
;-)
|
I got bored filling in the questionnaire but I stuck it out to the bitter end!
I am eternally greatful, and I apologise for having caused you to be in a 'bored' state. I suggest that you might have found it rather more interesting had you approached it with a more positive attitude (I jest of course).
|
I never get bored driving, ive got the control of my car, and my fave tunes on the stereo.
There are times admittidly when i just "want to get home" and would rather be home (or whereever im going" than be in the car but driving does not bore me.
|
|
|
I am eternally greatful ...........
What a creep!
;-)
I'll rephrase my statement about the questionnaire. It was interesting (not boring), but nevertheless irksome to fill in!
|
>> I am eternally greatful ........... What a creep! ;-)
He can't spell, either.
Bu then, he is at a university, so what do you expect?
|
|
|
|
|
|
