The Dangers of Pattern Driving

For most drivers, scenarios like this example aren’t a foreign concept. Although the scenery and details may change, we’ve all experienced situations where we were daydreaming or distracted in our thoughts while driving, only to come back to reality to realize that we can’t remember anything that’s happened over the last few minutes. Sometimes, like in the example we just covered, coming back to reality can be an abrupt or even fatal awakening. But when there are no immediate consequences, we often find it easy to shrug off the lapse in memory. We just got lost in our thoughts. It can’t be that big of a deal, can it?

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 80% of motor vehicle collisions have some form of driver inattention as a contributing factor. In fact, the Canadian Automobile Association (CAA) states that driver distraction is a factor in approximately 4 million motor vehicle crashes across North America each year. In 2010 in British Columbia alone, distracted driving contributed to 104 collision fatalities. Often when we think about distracted driving, we picture drivers on their phones with their eyes and attention off the road. But what about daydreaming, boredom, or our own thoughts? Our eyes might be one the road, but are our minds? Do we consider our own internal distractions to be just as dangerous as sending a text while driving?

Regardless of if a driver has been driving for only two years or as many as twenty, every driver has his/her own experiences on the road. These experiences influence each driver’s behaviour in unique ways. When experiences combine with routine, drivers develop habits. While habits can be good and can help keep us safe, on time, and incident free, they can also become dangerous if we are not careful. Often, driving habits and routines are what put our minds on autopilot and take our attention away from the road. Suddenly, we find ourselves victims of a phenomenon called “highway hypnosis,” leaving us unprepared for potential changes in road conditions and open for incidents like that in our previous example.

If we ignore the obvious dangers of pattern driving, we are asking for problems, such as getting pulled over, losing time and arriving late, or injuring ourselves and/or others in a collision. But if we take the hazards of pattern driving seriously and work to prevent it, we can help make the roads safer. This is the difference between a Master Driver and a complacent one. A Master Driver won’t accept anything less than the best. In order to become Master Drivers, we must have a complete understanding of pattern driving, how to break patterns on the road, and how to stop them before they start.