I'm a nervous passenger.

[ringway]

Is it just me?

I spend a lot of time on the road and no matter what the driving conditions or speed are, I never have a moments anxiety. But when I'm a passenger I get the heebie-jeebies.

I find myself pressing on the passenger footwell to try to slow down the car and always feel as though we are travelling to close to the kerb.

Travelling past parked cars is a nightmare, I'm sure something will dash out into the road.

I let Mrs Ringway's brother drive me home in our Sprinter the other day and was relieved to get out.

 

[Kendon]

Would have thought being higher up in the Sprinter may have helped your nerves.

For me it depends on the driver and how many times I have been in the car with them. My mother always holds on to the grab handle on her door.

If you want to cure yourself, get out to a developing country (any will do) and get taxied around for a while. Our drive from Rio to Macae has been nicknamed death race 2000 by the guys on board and if you tried this you would be glad to be back on UK tarmac.

 

[ringway]

Would have thought being higher up in the Sprinter may have helped your nerves.

For me it depends on the driver and how many times I have been in the car with them. My mother always holds on to the grab handle on her door.

If you want to cure yourself, get out to a developing country (any will do) and get taxied around for a while. Our drive from Rio to Macae has been nicknamed death race 2000 by the guys on board and if you tried this you would be glad to be back on UK tarmac.

LOL!

Being high up in the Sprinter when it is being driven around bends too quickly is not much fun - gravity issues! Plus I can see more potential hazards being higher up.

I don't have any sort of phobia, I just hate not holding the wheel.

I can remember being in a Mercedes taxi in The Canary Islands when I was 20. New road/bypass and a driver intent on scaring me to death! On that holiday I'd been to Sioux City and the trip down the mountain in the darkness on the twisting narrow roads with no crash barriers wasn't as scary as the taxi ride... I had consumed a lot of alcohol though.

 

[Kendon]

In Yantai, China, the taxis had big metal frames, not unlike what some estate owners have for their canines, but they had it between the front and back seats, the short straw on our way to the shipyard from hotel was the front passenger seat. Scary.

Alcohol does help wonders. Next time in the sprinter have more than one for the road and you'll wake up merrily asking 'oh were there already'

 

[MOCAŠ]

I don't have any sort of phobia, I just hate not holding the wheel.

The cure?

On a serious note, I can sympathise as I too find it somewhat unsettling to be hurtling along (at whatever speed) with no control over stopping or steering, which I mainly put down to unfamiliarity as I am very rarely a front-seat passenger.

I sometimes take the Oxford Tube (a double-decker express coach that runs along the A40/M40 between London and Oxford), and have found that the commanding view offered by sitting on the front seats on the upper deck is spoiled by a feeling of queasiness that it might topple over as it sweeps around corners, or that every overhanging branch we encounter along Holland Park Avenue is going to breach the panoramic front window. So I tend to sit on one of the rearward facing seats on the lower deck and bury my head in a book for the trip.

I'm treating a mate of mine to an AMG driving experience at MB World next week, and am currently in two minds as to whether I should take up the option of a passenger ride; I've a feeling I could end up making a mess of that lovely nappa interior...

 

[d w124]

Do this YouTube - What Old People Do For Fun

 

[Mike Walker]

I have the deepest sympathy as I feel exactly the same as a passenger - motion sickness has always been my friend.
Worked in Malta a while back and would not wish the taxi journey to/from the airport on anyone. Once had a driver who was on his mobile, talking on his 2 way radio and steering with his elbows on roads that were uneven to say the least. Happy days

 

[corned]

Dr Sigmund Corned writes...

Dear Mr Ringway,

You appear to have some control anxiety issues. Sit down. Relax.

Were you frightened by being a passenger in a speeding car as a young boy? Or did your mother run around a lot when you were in the womb, and cause you to have some deep-seated issue with being bounced around against your will and control?

Try to 'let go' and learn to sit back and enjoy the ride.

Take these tablets and come back and see me in a week.

 

[camerafodder]

Corned has got it mate. Alternatively you could install a custom blind on the passenger side of the van . It could have pictures of waterfalls and farm animals in fields to help calm you down.

If its any consolation I too suffer the syndrome

 

[johnsco]

Mrs J regularly plays Hell with me for driving too slowly !!.
This is usually on Motorways at around 70 mph.

Last time I let her drive mine, she turned right at a mini-roundabout and managed to ruin two nearside tyres by bouncing them up the kerb.
Lucky she didn't bust the alloys or wreck the car.
It still cost me two new Continentals ... Ouch !

In her E300TD, she regularly tears down the motorway between 80 and 90 mph.
I remind her that Mr. Plod is never far away and he is just looking to fill his time-sheet with an easy pull.

Am I nervous ?
Just a bit.

 

[jaymanek]

Im exactly the same when my wife drives.... i always think she drives way too close the the car in front and never brakes until the last moment...

 

[wemorgan]

Im exactly the same when my wife drives.... i always think she drives way too close the the car in front and never brakes until the last moment...

Ditto.

We need to arrange a member's wivies GTG for some 'further education'

 

[219]

I don't have any sort of phobia, I just hate not holding the wheel.

When I was a lot younger , and just as juvenile as I still am , I used to have a laugh in my LHD Ponton when out with some mates : we had a spare steering wheel , and I gave it to whoever was sitting in the right hand seat - I'd then come alongside another car if in a two lane bit of road and toot to the car on my right , at which point my mate would put on a panicked expression and wave the loose steering wheel around frantically

It was sometimes hilarious to see the reactions of some other drivers

 

[johnsco]

A sign of maturity is when you are no-longer worried about acting in a juvenile manner.

 

[johnsco]

Ditto.

We need to arrange a member's wivies GTG for some 'further education'

Don't you think that this might be a bit dangerous.
Light blue touch paper and wait for fireworks.

 

[st4]

Usually an ok passanger, but scared now of my mates driving after this wee shunt

His driving lets say is more spirited than mine and slightly more dangerous...a wee drift gone wrong was this...

We had to drive it back afterwards...

 

[ringway]

Usually an ok passanger, but scared now of my mates driving after this wee shunt

His driving lets say is more spirited than mine and slightly more dangerous...a wee drift gone wrong was this...

We had to drive it back afterwards...

Here's me thinking I was worrying about nothing..

 

[st4]

I was in it too, not a scratch on us....

Phew

 

[Mudster]

After spending 5 hours (in a E230 W211) being driven to a from a factory today outside Shanghai, it was sheer relief when the car eventually arrived at my hotel and I could get out.

There were points where I was convinced we were about hit other vehicles.

There's only really 10 years of car drining history on a mass scale in this country, so it all feels like a free for all a lot of the time.

One more mad Taxi journey in the morning to the Airport then it's back the calm reliability of the M25.

 

[Gridlock]

I'm a big fan of the phantom brake pedal... Depends on the driver though.

Interesting aside - they took all the candidates to drive Thrust SSC out for an evaluation, which included a rally stage. The instructor/assessor came back singing the praises of Andy Green, mentioning 1) he was the only driver to turn on the wipes before the water hazard, rather than in it (fair point) and 2) he braked later than any other driver out there that day.

Later A. Green reveals he deliberately wasn't braking until he saw the instructors foot twitching