Fatigue, the monotony of the landscape outside the window, long hauls - all this is no less tiring than hard physical or mental labor. As a result - concentration decreases attention and reaction speed worsens driver. We offer several ways to keep cheerfulness on the road and prevent the sad consequences of fatigue.

Measure seven times

Break a long route into small segments. The trick is here. Psychologists say that a person driver quickly loses motivation when he realizes that the goal is still very far away. Loss of motivation leads to decrease in concentration and distraction of attention. What to do? Very simple: you need to try to "break" a long path into short segments - "quests". You can come up with any of them: drive up to the 300th kilometer, get to the border of the region, cross Vyatka - these are just some of the thousands of examples. Having reached the next goal, you set yourself a new one - and with such “side steps” you go through the entire route. And ideally, you can invent a kind of reward for achieving each of the intermediate results: eat a chocolate bar, smoke a cigarette, drink a can of energy drink.

Mindfulness game

Observe and remember what is happening around the car.

Professional drivers are able to notice in time even the smallest detail - a pothole in the asphalt, an insecurely behaving driver of another car, an animal crossing the road. Fortunately, ways to improve concentration exist. You can start simple. Say out loud everything that you see on the road in front of you. Road signs and pointers, brand and model names cars, license plates, counters of kilometer posts. Increase the difficulty of the exercise by adding additional elements to it: cars that are in the rear-view mirrors, buildings on the sides of the road ... Over time, you will get used to "scanning a 3d picture" around car in automatic mode, you will know exactly what is happening on the road near you and will be ready for any surprise. An additional plus: regular translation of the focus point of the eyes helps to avoid the effect of "tunnel vision" and "road hypnosis".

Sound effect

Listen to a variety of music of different stylistic directions.

Experiments have shown: fast rhythmic music with a beat of 100 beats per minute can really cheer up driver, make him drive a little more actively, look around with more attention. That's just the effect of the music lasts no more than an hour and a half. Then driver starts to get tired and lose concentration.

A simple rule follows from this: listen in car varied music. Burn a set of tracks of various directions to a disc or iPod and turn on the shuffle. Frequent rhythm changes maintain the tone of consciousness, which allows you to maintain maximum concentration.

Intimate talk

Communicate with fellow travelers, and if they are not, take in automobile CB radio

And even better - not only listen, but also speak. Communication with other people - The best way keep up the good spirits and positive attitude as long as you want for a long time. And therefore, if you are lucky enough to have fellow travelers on a long journey, turn off the music and start talking. No wonder true professionals drivers- truckers - happy to pick up hitchhikers on the tracks. They know that the opportunity to talk to a live person is hundreds of times better than any radio station.

Running out of topics to talk about? No problem. There are many games in the world suitable for the company of people in one car- "Contact", "Danetki", the same cities, finally.

By the way, you can also find an interlocutor if you are traveling alone. To do this, it makes sense to take a CB radio station with you. Almost all truckers in Russia are equipped with similar ones, and among the rank and file drivers, often traveling outside the city, such are found. With its help, you can always chat with unfamiliar colleagues on the road, tell or hear a joke, and also - a nice bonus - find out in advance about all the ambushes of the traffic police on your way.

Chew carefully

Chewing gum, marmalade and sweets help keep concentration.

A few years ago, British scientists conducted a curious experiment. A group of volunteers were asked to ride a computer simulator twice traffic. With chewing gum and without.

91% of subjects were less likely to miss potential hazards if they chewed gum. 85% of volunteers turned the steering wheel faster with chewing gum in their mouths.

61% of respondents admitted that chewing gum helps them to be more focused while driving.

The conclusions are obvious: the process of chewing helps a person to concentrate. However, if chewing gum car it didn’t turn out that mints or lollipops would do.

Energy charge

Surely you noticed on the shelves gas stations non-alcoholic energy drinks. Contrary to many prejudices, this drink is safe and no more harmful than, for example, coffee, and invigorates even better. Which of the energy drinks should you take with you on the road?

All energy drinks have caffeine - the main component that tones. But only a few add ginseng and guarana extracts, which maximize the effect.

Sleep in advance

Try to get enough sleep "for the future" before the trip, as a last resort, arrange short 20-minute sleep breaks from time to time

It is believed that sleep "for the future" is impossible. But in reality this is not so. It is possible and even necessary to “stock up” on sleep before a multi-day trip with regular sleep deprivation. You need to start preparing a week and a half before the start. Experiments have shown that people who slept 2 hours more than usual during the week, with the subsequent restriction of sleep time to 4 hours a day, performed better on various tests, including concentration than those who did not have the opportunity to "stock up on sleep."

If fatigue still knocks you off your feet on the road, you can try to cheer up with a short nap. But remember: its duration should not exceed 30 minutes. After this time, “sleep inertia” develops - it is difficult for a person to wake up and even more difficult to wake up and return to a normal state.

Minus two degrees

Set the interior temperature car a couple of degrees below normal.

Many people believe that if you start to get tired behind the wheel, you need to fully open the window in the car if it happens in winter, or turn on the air conditioner to the maximum cooling mode in summer.

In fact, a sharp cooling allows you to cheer up only for a short time. With prolonged exposure to cold, fatigue “covers” even more fiercely, you lose concentration. Instead, set the temperature in your car to a couple of degrees below your usual comfort temperature - a slight coolness will allow you to stay in good shape without the risk of hypothermia.

Can smart machines be trusted?

Modern cars able to independently solve a lot of issues that until recently the driver had to deal with. Active cruise control is able to maintain a set speed, independently brake and accelerate depending on the traffic ahead. Steering systems can keep the car in the lane without the participation of the driver. Brake assistants apply the brakes if they decide a crash is imminent.

But the trouble is: the more automatic systems of the car are involved, the less things remain. driver. And as you know, idleness and concentration are incompatible.

That is why try not to abuse the use of active systems on a long journey. Yes, active cruise is convenient, but it is better to turn it off periodically. Maintaining a constant speed - no matter what, but a task for the mind, which means it will allow you to save concentration.

Quieter you go

Our last piece of advice may sound trite to you. But it's no secret: the simplest solutions are most often effective. It is worth remembering: no matter what ways that allow you to save concentration, no matter how you use it, after 20 hours of driving your brain will not be able to maintain its tone at a consistently high level.

I've been thinking about being careful on the road recently. The factor is necessary enough for safe driving. However, mindfulness by nature is one thing, and mindfulness behind the wheel is quite another. Here's what I came up with in the process of reasoning.

It is probably logical to start with the definition of the word mindfulness, or rather what I mean by this concept. The meaning is this: attentiveness behind the wheel makes it possible to prevent the current situation in time, or simply prevent it.

Where to start learning mindfulness

The first thing to do is to start driving at the right speed, which is completely adequate for both your reaction and the current situation. I am not the traffic police to tell you that you need to drive according to the rules, observing the speed limit. I sometimes exceed. But at the same time, the excess of the excess is different. Speed ​​limit signs give me information that there are some factors on the next section of the road that oblige me to slow down. It can be either a school, or a rather winding road, on which only 100-200 meters of the canvas are visible ahead. This may be too close the location of private houses to the road. In the end, there may be a broken road or gravel road ahead and it is simply dangerous to go faster than it should be. Yes, a lot. And my duty, as a driver, is to understand what to fear in this area. Of course, it makes no sense to fly at a speed of 100 km / h where there is a limit of 40 km / h. If it is not clear why there is a sign, we simply reduce the speed to the required one and enjoy a smooth ride. If the danger ahead is read 100% correctly, we drive at such a speed that we can react in time and avoid any consequences. By the way, sometimes it happens that the allowed speed is quite absurd, and it is dangerous to move with it. For example, a highway with its own 90 km / h, a stop on which there are many summer residents who drive from the summer cottage along the road.

The next point is the ability to quickly read information, whatever it may be. We look in the rear-view mirror, which means that the viewing time should be minimal, because while we are assessing the situation from behind, it is changing in front, and it will take some more time to adapt to new conditions. The faster we can receive information, the less time we spend looking away. This includes looking at the rear mirror, studying the situation on the intersecting main road, assessing road signs, getting speed information on the dashboard and many other things that we are forced to look away.

Next, it is worth mentioning the ability to anticipate situations, and the faster we do this, the cheaper it will cost us to ride. For example, a car overtakes us in a stream, while moving at a speed much higher than ours. There are two lanes, we are on the right, a car is driving on the left, which will force the overtaking person immediately in front of us to change lanes. Moreover, the distance between us and the car in the left lane is not great, which means there is a possibility that the overtaking one will cut us off. Therefore, it makes sense to slow down in advance, while increasing the distance with the car in the left lane and significantly reduce the likelihood of undercutting. In order to be able to read such situations, it is quite useful to watch, on the same YouTube, videos about accidents and “drivers”.

The next thing to consider is the obstacles that hide pedestrians and other roads from our view. If we see a large garbage can on the side of the road, and the road is located not far from the school, or in the private sector, there is a high probability that someone may jump out from behind the tank.

The presence of people and animals near the road automatically increases the risk of an accident involving the latter. Especially if the pedestrian is drunk. Animals also often do not understand that the machines are large and deadly and calmly change their trajectory. Well, it’s not even worth talking about kids on bicycles and mopedists.

In general, our mindfulness consists of:

• adequate speed
• minimum distraction time from the road ahead
• ability to anticipate situations

Of course, I didn’t write everything, and it’s hard to even call it a part, but it will do as a basis for reflection. If you have your own opinion or addition, write in the comments. Let's discuss.

Not infrequently, even the most harmless, it would seem, distractions of a car driver can lead to serious consequences, accidents, the causes of which are both internal and external factors. So, let's figure out the nature of such reasons, why they appear and how to protect yourself from them.

Of the most common moments is the banal bad mood of a motorist, his internal irritation with family or work troubles. Therefore, before driving, doctors advise discarding all negativity, concentrating as much as possible on traffic events that change at lightning speed and dozens of such events can occur simultaneously in a second.

It is strictly forbidden to distract, talk with drivers while driving, this is especially true for route vehicles. So you can easily lose vigilance and lose control of the situation on the road. Any pranks can be quite expensive later. Family showdowns, emotional speeches on business, swearing at road users will not do any good, as this affects the heart rate, pressure increase. In these situations, stop, calm down, and then keep moving.

It is no coincidence that today there is a clause in the traffic rules prohibiting conversations on a mobile phone while driving, although they have officially allowed the use of “hands free” devices. In fact, this is not a panacea and the risk of losing concentration is present even in these conditions. At best, this can lead to a car wheel falling into a hole, pothole or open well, so leave all conversations until the moment the car stops.

An interesting fact is the research of US scientists who found that the style of driving a car by a driver with a “hands-free” device is very similar to driving a drunk driver. According to statistics, it has been established that talking on a mobile phone leads to an accident 4 times more often than without them, while often there are cases with lethal outcome. A number of US states also ban the use of a phone without a hands-free device, and Colombian states generally exclude the possibility of any use of the phone while driving.

Many drivers prefer to listen to audio recordings in the car at maximum volume, so there is a chance that they will not hear the signals of other vehicles, traffic lights at crossings, etc. In Canada, they proposed to ban listening to audio recordings while driving.

A distraction can also be eating or drinking water while moving. Naturally, it is necessary to exclude alcohol, which is fraught with very serious consequences.

In the UK, for smoking or talking on the phone, very large fines are imposed, up to 60 pounds, which disciplines drivers.

The experience of the driver plays a big role, and the latter knows that at 60 km / h in a second the car travels 51 meters, so distraction for just a moment to close the glove box or adjust the radio can be expensive. A harmless distance to the vehicle in front of 30 meters, with its sudden braking in an unfavorable situation, will inevitably lead to a collision. According to statistics from American experts, driver distraction is the cause of up to 80% of accidents.

There is a deep belief that female drivers are very often distracted while driving by the state of their appearance, and this leads to a loss of attention and vigilance when moving.

It is forbidden to get behind the wheel in a tired state, which can provoke sleep while driving. Usually inexperienced, young drivers often disregard this rule and rely on their driving skills. Try not to use any medications during the upcoming trip, especially those that are contraindicated in the instructions for use for drivers. These drugs can slow down the reaction rate, cause drowsiness, and generally lead to fainting and side effects.

Any signs and stickers on the windshield and side windows also distract attention and impair visibility, and multiple souvenirs and trinkets are generally unacceptable, especially at the moment of their maximum amplitude when swinging.

Remember that both your own safety and the safety of road users may depend on your attention.

Here are the statistics: 75% of drivers use their phones while driving. Experiments on car simulators show that such drivers are more likely to get into accidents. Being attentive behind the wheel is almost vital. What tricks can you use to stay focused on the road?

Turn off multitasking

Remember what happens when you run multiple programs on a computer? That's right - it starts to work more slowly. That is why scientists say that multitasking is a myth. To do several things at the same time and at the same time not a single child prodigy has succeeded well. So, we will have to admit that the rest of the cases for the time of "taxiing" will have to be postponed. Otherwise it may end badly.

If you really can't wait to look at the display of your phone, then don't do it at least while the car is moving. Wait for the car to stop at the traffic lights and then use your gadgets. Well, don't be surprised if at some point impatient car drivers behind you start honking.

Breathing in a square

Let's say that in the evening you are stuck in a long traffic jam and you want to sleep wildly. Cars hardly move, you yawn and don't know what to do with yourself. Attention is scattered. A technique called “square breathing” will help to quickly “reanimate” it.

Look at the windshield and imagine a small rectangle or square on it. Now look at its upper left corner and inhale. Count to four. Move your gaze to the upper right corner and inhale again. Count to four. Now take your breath to the lower right corner and hold your breath for a count of four. And the last. Move your gaze to the lower left corner and calmly say to yourself: “I am again here and now.”

When our lungs are saturated with oxygen, we are again included in the process.

Listen to special music

Some young drivers don't listen to music at all while driving to avoid distractions. And it is right. But if you are already an experienced driver and like to drive to the music, then we advise you to download the next selection for yourself.

The first version of the selection for those cases when the concentration is lowered, you think slowly and slowly react to what is happening. At this point, you urgently need some extra stimulation to get back into your focus zone.

For these purposes, the following compositions are well suited:

Classical - especially baroque music, such as Bach's "Brandenburg Concertos".

Ethnic music - cheerful with percussion.

Jazz is lively and harmonious.

Ragtime - Listen to Scott Joplin's soundtrack to The Scam (1973).

You will need the second selection option if you are wound up. If you have an increased level of adrenaline, you want to get off the traffic light as quickly as possible, then this is also an indicator that you are not in the zone of optimal concentration.

Here is some music that will allow you to calm down and return to yourself again:

Classic - try listening to great composers like Chopin or Beethoven.

Jazz - moderately calm.

Brilliant solo parts - violinist Itzhak Perlman, flutist James Galway.

Silence - much better than distracting sounds.

Learning to drive a car has always been a difficult task for every person. Today, the situation on the road is quite difficult, in any settlement there is a huge number of cars. This complicates the training of driving skills, because the classes are held in a tense environment. Even the most self-confident future drivers find it difficult to overcome the fear of driving a car and set themselves up for safe and consistent learning.

The first advice that all experts give to novice drivers is quite simple: do not drive a car before driving school. It is better to start learning for the first time with a professional instructor who knows how to teach any person to properly manage all the important functions of a car. There are a huge number of myths in society that interfere with learning to drive.

The most common driving myths

We call these folk beliefs myths because they are actually true for some people. There are novice drivers who are not helped by any persuasion and methods of motivation, they simply cannot calm down and focus on the driving process. But a large proportion of these myths are unfounded.

Because of prejudice and the stories of well-meaning "friends," we often do rash things. There is an opinion that it is better to learn driving with a relative or friend even before you go to a driving school. Remember that driving without documents can get you a hefty fine, and the safety of you and your teacher will be at a minimum level. The most common myths are:

• You need to learn to drive on your own - in a driving school you can only hone your skills. Remember: you can only learn to drive in a specially equipped car and with a medical certificate.
• It is generally impossible to learn to drive for the hours allocated in a driving school. If you believe this statement, then you doubt that all drivers on the road have learned to drive this way.
• It is impossible to pass the exam on your own, especially the practical part. According to unofficial statistics, only 5% of applicants for the rights offer a bribe, and only 30% of them succeed in this endeavor.
• No driver can drive a lifetime without an accident. It depends on what you call an accident. If we are talking about serious damage to the car, then this is not true. Only 10% of drivers get into serious accidents of various types.

The system of signs and markings is a special conspiracy of the police, because they cannot be read at the same time as driving. This is also not true, because most experienced drivers read all the signs in a split second.

It is these false statements that often become the main reasons why a person cannot completely relax, get rid of the fear of driving a car. The tense state does not allow to absorb knowledge and practical skills in the classroom at a driving school. When you keep doing something wrong in the fifth hour of driving, it really starts to seem like all the myths have a reasonable basis.

Don't be afraid if something doesn't work the first time. No professional driver started his experience with masterful driving. He gained all his skills through his own trial and error.

Why can fear of the road be dangerous?

If you talk to an ordinary driver who operates his vehicle on city and country roads, you will find out that in fact every day you have to deal with stressful situations. These are impudent actions of surrounding drivers, animals suddenly appearing on the road or careless and inattentive pedestrians. A driver without fear of driving simply reacts to such situations in time, without bringing them to disastrous consequences.

If the owner of the car has a terrible fear of the road, he expects such situations to arise, but is completely unprepared to solve them. The first reaction is to close your eyes and hope that this is all happening in a nightmare. The dangers of fear are very great:

• surprisingly, but a person with an incredible fear of the road gets into unpleasant and difficult situations much more often than a confident driver;
• you will never enjoy driving or buying a new car if you are afraid of the road;
• fear often becomes the main cause of chaotic thoughtless actions when driving a car.

Therefore, it is necessary to get rid of such emotions already from the first trip behind the wheel in a driving school. You can be calm for the safety of your life, because there is a brake pedal under the instructor's feet. So hone your driving skills calmly, without worrying about your own safety.

How to deal with the fear of driving in real life?

If it is relatively easy to deal with fears when driving a training car, then getting rid of the feeling of danger when driving on your own is much more difficult. It requires self-discipline and the ability to set yourself up for positive waves. It is especially difficult to do such work for residents of the metropolis.

There are some practical tips to help you cope with the overwhelming fear of driving:

• reduce the speed of movement - do not think about how other participants in the stream will treat you;
• choose the most comfortable modes and travel routes for you;
• forget about the rush - it is a fast car ride that makes the imagination imagine the possible outcomes of an accident;
• try to find those moments that you like in driving a car and concentrate only on them.

Often such a set of tools even helps to fall in love with driving. Communicate more with experienced drivers, ask about how they got rid of their fears. Many will tell you that they were born with stunt skills, but this is not true, as every driver is forced to overcome their fears associated with the road and danger.

Fear of the road and rash actions often lead to such situations:

Video:

Summing up

Getting rid of fears and prejudices is necessary not only in driving a car, but also in other areas of life. Fear and insecurity can be the main causes of problems that are created from scratch. How many ridiculous accidents and unpleasant situations do we see every day? To avoid becoming a participant in such events, develop confidence behind the wheel.

We appeal to experienced drivers who read our blog to give advice based on your real experience and help novice motorists get rid of driving fears.