[Nitrous Power]

Yes, I do remember my daily routes with most minute details. It helps a lot during the pick office hours a lot. It helps tremendously in changing lanes between particular stretch or between particular exits. I do lot of traveling between NOVA and Virginia beach which is approximately 230 miles and I even remember spots where usually highway troopers are hiding. It helps in going faster with very little chance of getting caught by cops.

I even try different times of the day and different routes (by lanes) to find best possible time for commute. It helps in changing the usual route as well if stuck in traffic.

[raycers_honda]

Yes, I think it's natural to do so specially on roads which one takes everyday. Minute details such as the potholes or the better faster lane to move into or even making possible assumptions of how traffic flows on the particular road. For instance I know all the bus stops on my route so I know when to change the lane before hand rather than get stuck behind the big fat red bus. Also details as to where to park if one has to collect something on the particular route. Most importantly is knowing the exact locations of potholes. Because with the lazy attitude of these road maintenance guys,if we have any, the potholes seem to be a permanent fixture. So when I know the exact location of them I can change my lane before hand rather than suddenly changing lanes which could be dangerous to the person driving behind.

[honeybee]

I do remember. Back when the road repairs took ages, I remembered each and every pothole, the speed at which I should be approaching it, the angle, which wheel to let go into the pothole or the angle of approach to avoid the pothole altogether, fallback options if there are any oncoming/overtaking vehicles and so on and so forth. I travelled that patch for more than four years, where even on a rainy night I could tell where the potholes were.

Sadly they started fixing the roads, and the potholes are now appearing at newer locations.

But on the whole yes, if you are driving daily on a specific route, you do tend to remember (though subconsciously) the roads. I doubt if you would remember a tyre repair shop though, unless you have ever needed one.

[kmadhok]

It appears the general consensus is that folks do remember pot holes, signals, speed breakers, over taking patches.

Are there specific things you possibly look out for other than the above?

Originally Posted by gypsyFreak

Acutally, I make it a point to mentally note down all the finer details of the road (potholes/signals/bus stops/bus routes/bus numbers/shops...) so that i can compute a best possible route for daily commute.

I occasionally try to note the bus route numbers as well. If I notice the same route number at multiple places I try to imagine the route the bus might take. But most importantly if I ever wanted (feeling lazy to drive, feeling environment friendly)/ needed I know which bus route number to take to get to a particular destination. Not that I cannot ask others at the bus stop or the conductor himself, but I feel informed if I already knew which route to take.

Originally Posted by addyhemmige

Exactly. I have a general sense of direction, but if someone asks me which side I driving to, I'm totally confused. In Hollywood movies, when there is a police chase or something like that happening, the policeman shouts 'Suspects heading north'. I wonder how on earth he can tell the direction excatly.

Couple of things make this simpler.
(a) A long visit to the US. Most cities there are well planned so have roads going N-S and E-W.
(b) living in a city like Mumbai, which is long stretches N-S.
Though the guys in the police cars probably have a compass on their dashboard

[addyhemmige]

I remember anything on the road; potholes, humps, undulations etc but off it, it gets a little hazy. I don't remember the road I'm on if it does not have a name or the shops I pass or any small landmark. Bigger landmarks, I can remember. For example, the other day someone asked for 12th cross road in my locality. I scratched my head for a few moments and finally said I don't know. It turned out that I used this 12th Cross road every day while commuting to office.

Originally Posted by pganapathy

One thing I have never been able to do is tell which direction I am travelling in (north, south, east, west) and when people say they are north/south bound I have to ask where they are coming from.

Exactly. I have a general sense of direction, but if someone asks me which side I driving to, I'm totally confused. In Hollywood movies, when there is a police chase or something like that happening, the policeman shouts 'Suspects heading north'. I wonder how on earth he can tell the direction excatly.

Originally Posted by mempheS.D

4. The very common faces I see at the bus stops that I pass by - some of them for almost close to 4 years. Geez! Is it that I have not moved on in life, or they haven't? Wait a minute! Both of us haven't. Hooray.

Wow, you remember faces too?

Originally Posted by mempheS.D

5. How can anyone miss the finer details of the locations of interceptors and speed guns when one involuntarily decelerates to 60kmph without even looking at the speedo?! hahah..

[pganapathy]

Originally Posted by kmadhok

Couple of things make this simpler.
(a) A long visit to the US. Most cities there are well planned so have roads going N-S and E-W.
(b) living in a city like Mumbai, which is long stretches N-S.
Though the guys in the police cars probably have a compass on their dashboard

I agree that a well gridded city will make this a lot easier. I lived in Maputo where the main part of the city is in a grid, which makes going anywhere very easy. You can take any parallel road and if you miss your turn off take the next one and come back easily. However I never knew which direction I was traveling in. I guess part of that is because you never need to think about it. I understand that in a gridded city the cops make an effort to study direction so that it is easy to give instructions for setting up roadblocks. However it was not natural for me to do that so didn't.

[aargee]

So...after remembering the finer details on the road, where do I slip or atleast where have I...atleast slipped?

1. There was large pothole at Chennai bypass & went over it at unspeakable speeds; I still wonder how the pothole appeared in the middle of the 6 lane all of a sudden when it was missing until 1-2 days ago!!!

2. You suddenly find the road being blocked for some construction (Chennai is undergoing major surgery for metro rail) & my timings fail

3. Since you're very familiar with the existing road that is extremely comfortable, we never look for alternatives. The alternatives are excellent & handy when our main circuit is jam packed with traffic

And...does anyone notices (not remember or keep in memory as such) the vehicles model & registrations that are close by? Any vehicle that is coming in opposite direction or moving along with us for that matter?

I notice most of the time for a fraction of second & keep myself busy thinking ONLY about the road & the present moment rather than office, house, neighbors or even online forums!!!

[gypsyFreak]

Originally Posted by kmadhok

I occasionally try to note the bus route numbers as well. If I notice the same route number at multiple places I try to imagine the route the bus might take. But most importantly if I ever wanted (feeling lazy to drive, feeling environment friendly)/ needed I know which bus route number to take to get to a particular destination. Not that I cannot ask others at the bus stop or the conductor himself, but I feel informed if I already knew which route to take.

In addition to this, there is another perspective for noting bus number and routes. Basically knowing the bus number and route helps me know where the bus will stop so that i can plan my overtaking manuvere

Originally Posted by aargee

So...after remembering the finer details on the road, where do I slip or atleast where have I...atleast slipped?

1. There was large pothole at Chennai bypass & went over it at unspeakable speeds; I still wonder how the pothole appeared in the middle of the 6 lane all of a sudden when it was missing until 1-2 days ago!!!

2. You suddenly find the road being blocked for some construction (Chennai is undergoing major surgery for metro rail) & my timings fail

3. Since you're very familiar with the existing road that is extremely comfortable, we never look for alternatives. The alternatives are excellent & handy when our main circuit is jam packed with traffic

And...does anyone notices (not remember or keep in memory as such) the vehicles model & registrations that are close by? Any vehicle that is coming in opposite direction or moving along with us for that matter?

I notice most of the time for a fraction of second & keep myself busy thinking ONLY about the road & the present moment rather than office, house, neighbors or even online forums!!!

I am of the opinion that no matter how familiar you are with the road, it is always safe to think that you are driving in a new route. This could lead to disastrous consequences if are over confident. That too in a metropolitan city you never know when road will be made a one way or when i divider will pop up in the middle of the road.

Every once in a month i do check out the alternatives, just to see if the road surface has improved and can this be used as the primary route. Sometimes i deliberately take the alternative/longer route just for the fun of it.

That's what i keep noticing while driving....drooling over spanky cars, looking out for fellow bhpians, thinking how cosmopolitan the city has become with better road connectivity.
Sometimes i get a paranoid feeling of being followed and it has become a habit of looking in the rear view mirror very frequently to see if someone is following me.
In some cases i have even joted down registration numbers of few autos and cars

[maheepgupta]

Well, for the office route, every thing is like way too familiar. I know the exact places where I will need to brake (bad roads), exact points and time where I will get traffic at a certain time. There is a railway crossing on the way and I know when it will be closed and I have to take fly over and when it is safe to take that route

Same thing with Bikaner - Jaipur Highway. I won't say I remember every minute detail but most of it. Like the bad road patches (though it keeps on changing), traffic, good road side dhabas of course..

[Octane_Power]

I use my bike in the city as it is much faster and also for saving some important Vitamin-M.
As in my case I do remember the exact places of potholes and BMC manholes of at least 70% of the roads which i use regularly and i have to be sure to avoid them on my bike to save the long bills during service.
Also I perfectly remember the timings and sequence of around 5 major signals which I have to pass through. So when I come across them i switch off the engine and start it just when the signal turns green.(also i feel i have an edge over others when they keep their engines running in anticipation and I have saved some fuel :P)
I have also got used to few other things like avoiding some stretches at some particular time of the day and taking an alternate route and also being careful at junctions or turns which are infamous for mishaps.

-Bhargav

[AAD]

Indeed and in addition to this, I think it is very important to understand the "Character" of the Traffic on it. What I mean is that even is we are using the same road for a while, the traffic pattern is different on various days of the week & at different times of the day.

The general traffic discipline can also get affected by a few hooligans on the road & it is important therefore to continuously check the surroundings ahead and behind for impending trouble.

Familiarity breeds complacency and particularly on Highways, this can be most dangerous. No matter how many times I travel on a road, I take it as a new road and am always alert for possible dangers from incompetent or unruly drivers.

[Driving_Nomad]

Absolutely!!
Forget about my office commute route, but I can remember each and every single pothole, curve, road undulation, speed-breaker, parts of the speed breaker which the asphault has come off on the Bangalore-Mysore (which I travel almost every weekend for the past 5 and half years) and Mysore-Madikeri (monthly once for around six years) highways like the back of my hand!!

There are some people who can remember when they are about a few hundred metres from the place, but I (not Kidding at all!) can recite each and every detail like how a child can recite a poem by-heart sitting at one place!!

For the first couple of years I used to travel B'lore-Mysore by bus. Sitting inside the bus with my eyes closed, I could identify and tell my friend sitting by the window-side, which town the bus is passing through just by the bump that is felt when the bus passes over a speed-breaker!!

Nevertheless, I have never been complacent on the highway as there is always a surprise in store (especially on the Bangalore-Mysore one)!!

[Omtoatom]

This is quite a thread.

Absolutely! I too remember every small detail on the road often traveled. Actually even on the ones less traveled. If you ask me to list them down from memory in chronological order or in the order that you'd encounter them, I might struggle. However put me behind the wheel and the subconscious kicks in - in a flash. Then I can anticipate and precisely slow down for a speed hump, or slip into the faster-moving lane (in Mumbai there ARE only faster moving lanes btw, not fast moving ones!), swerve or downshift to the right gear to negotiate a bend or a crossing. I tend to get in the zone. The better half often describes this phenomenon as "auto-pilot". And on the days I'm the co-passenger, I turn into a GPS with a road/obstacle/bump/undulation warning etc. and traffic alerts all rolled into one.

I've also observed that I tend to pick up on traffic patterns specific to that day - errant/erratic/disciplined, truant drivers, unusual patterns etc.. I can sense a heightened level of cognition and therefore extra alertness, kicking in. I've found that to be extremely helpful as well.

Originally Posted by noopster

I seem to be in a minority on this thread. I remember landmarks on any route but NOT the order I spot them in. This is very annoying if I need to guide someone to a specific place (e.g. is Mayor's Bungalow BEFORE or after Tamnak Thai when going Northbound on Cadell Road? I have no idea, just that they are fairly close to each other).

Didn't know you were from aamchi Mumbai Noop - and the western 'burbs at that

And interesting you should mention Cadell - it is my daily commute to work. Know it like the back of my hand.

Originally Posted by noopster

I took a self development course a couple of years ago and one of the things the instructor kept harping on was to be IN THE MOMENT and always aware of my surroundings. It was an epiphany.

à la Ross' "unagi" in Friends, he confuses the word with "a state of total awareness"

[thumpingheart]

It is very natural to observe many things and remember many details about your daily route. The most common things we observe are -

1) Road patterns (bottle necking or widening etc)
2) Pothole patterns (exact place, severity)
3) Typical driving pattern of other drivers at particular spots.
4) Typical spots where bikers/cyclists try to push in
5) Signal sequence and timing
6) Spots where buses/rikshaws stop without signal (usually on the road itself)
7) Blind spots for pedestrians where they enter the road and end up right in front of you
8) Shops/petrol pumps/puncture shops/cigarette shops(for smokers) etc etc

But I’d like to ask you how many things there are that you think you have not observed at all! How well do you actually know your daily road that you have been using for years? How many things do you think you have missed? There are two types of these –

1) Things that you cannot recall at all even if you think you vividly remember each detail on the particular stretch of road. (complete lack of observation)

2) Things you do not remember by memory but can immediately spot if that thing is changed or removed. (subconscious observation)

Next time you drive down your road try to observe as many things as you can while you are on that road and see how many thing fall into category 2. And I promise you you’ll be especially surprised by the things you find in category 1!

Give it a try! Cheers!

[Tempelhof]

Originally Posted by thumpingheart

But I’d like to ask you how many things there are that you think you have not observed at all! How well do you actually know your daily road that you have been using for years? How many things do you think you have missed? There are two types of these –

1) Things that you cannot recall at all even if you think you vividly remember each detail on the particular stretch of road. (complete lack of observation)

After every drive, particularly long ones, I try my best to recollect every aspect of my drive pertaining to that drive, and and try and see if I can JUSTIFY every move I made - and see if that conforms to safe driving.

If I am unable to recall any move, that's a red flag for me.