Health and Driving

[ravradha]

On an average we would be spending, say 2 hours driving. (This itself is a nice topic. Request you to start your replies with the average time you drive per day).

I spend about 90 minutes per day, driving.

Given that we spend so much time driving, it will be worth to take a check on how driving affects health - positively or negatively.

Saw this interesting note on the web:

In one study, 81% of drivers suffered from foot cramps, 74% suffered from lumbar pain, 74% had a stiff neck, 74% had side aches, and 73% a headache/eye strain. 6.5% (2 million drivers) hurt after only 15 minutes of driving while 9% only need to drive 22 miles before symptoms start.
eBayMotors.co.uk went on to characterize the 4 most common driving postures and corrective actions for each. Here they are, and yes, this is what they called them.

The Rollercoaster

37% of drivers hold this position characterized by leaning forward and sitting upright, seat forward and arms and legs bent.
Corrected by relaxing and reclining the seat slightly to support the back.

The Multi-tasker

26% hold this position characterized by a straight back with arms bent and one hand on the gear shift.

Corrected by not multi-tasking. When driving just drive. Do not edit a report, eat or put on make-up. Reclining the seat slightly and placing both hand on the wheel help as well.

The Racer

19% hold this position characterized by straight arms and legs with a reclined seat and a low driving position.

Corrected by moving the seat so that arms and legs are slightly bent and raising the seat so that the hips are higher than the knees and the back is supported.

The Pimp

8% hold this position characterized by an inclined seat with one hand on the wheel and the other on the window ledge or hanging out the window entirely.

Corrected by growing up. Most “Pimps” were 25-35 year old men. It is also corrected by straightening the seat back so there is only a slight recline and raising the seat so the hips are above the knees. Rolling up the window to remind you to keep both hands on the wheel helps as well.
Automakers do a pretty good job now a day of providing a supportive seat. Of course the more adjustments the better. The point this study made was that you have to use them. Keep your hips above your knees, your upper and lower back supported and make sure your hands and feet can reach the wheel, gear shift and pedals without stretching.

Repetitive Driving Injury

Request BHPians, especially docs and health freaks to add to this.

Wish you best of health!

[sreenivass]

An indian traffic survey would have an additional item

Increase in Blood Pressure level - 100%.

Not kidding, I seem to grow more and more nervous as I drive in Hyderabad city traffic. I believe same is true for most of the other major cities.

[rks]

The more driving you do, the more important it is to sit in the correct posture and drive a car with enough leg room and seating comfort. A/C is also very important as it allows you to avoid the exhaust gas pollution in congested city roads.

[sixthsense]

While driving on a hot day under the sun, don't forget to keep a bottle filled with cold drinking water to keep the body temperature and your thirst level down, which would further help in reducing the blood pressure level as mentioned above by sreenivass. I love having fresh cocunut water under a shade on a hot day here in B'lore. vbmenu_register("postmenu_344728", true);

[drivemyway]

Driving on a sunny day (even with AC on) strains bare eyes. I stay in texas where most of the days in a year is sunny. i never used to drive wearing sun glasses before i moved to texas. But i realised wearing one of those can drastically reduce the strain on eyes on a sunny day drive.

[vid6639]

For all bangaloreans working in E-city.

On an average the commute to Electronics city from silk board takes 1hr. So thats 2 hrs to and fro on a single day. Assume you work for 20 days in a month. that comes to 40 hours in a month.

Which will come to around 480 hrs in a single year. which is nothing but 20 days(a working month)

Effectively Every year we spend one month commuting on Hosur Road.

By the way all these calculations were done by me while driving on Hosur road one day.