Thread by @AlexandraErin

Nope, for so many reasons. The uncontrollable muscle spasms are a big one, but even if I had total control of what my arms and legs do at all times... I don't know how to tell how long it's going to take another moving object to reach a certain point. It's magic. It's witchcraft.

https://twitter.com/thedesispidey/status/1440034673388756996

Sometimes when I'm in the front passenger seat, the person driving will be like, "Tell me if anything's coming from that way." and it's like I can tell you if literally any vehicles are visible in that direction or if none are, that's it.

Because sometimes I'll be like, "There's a truck" and they'll look and be like, "What? That was way far away, we had plenty of time." but you didn't ask if we had time (which I don't know how to judge!), you asked if anything was coming.

Generally, no, but video games I can practice and learn how to judge timing in a private room, at my own speed, and with very little consequences no matter how many times I get it wrong.

https://twitter.com/q_aurelius/status/1440393174858416136

I feel like if I *didn't* have my muscle control issues, I probably could learn how to handle a car... but the way I would need to do it is not available, as it would involve being able to try things out in a closed and safe environment on my own, until I'm comfortable.

I did have a semester of mandatory driver's ed in high school which did include practical driving sessions with the instructor, which mostly went,

me: *figuring out the rate of acceleration*

teacher: You're going too slow. Step on it!

me: *steps on it*

teacher: TOO FAST!

I could tool around a parking lot at parking lot speeds, but the only place available to get a feel for what it takes to get up to actual roadway traffic speeds is in actual roadway traffic, and that's ridiculous.

I did take a driving test a few times. The last time, we were pulling back into the lot at the DMV when I had one of my spasms and jerked the wheel around, which made the car spin around. I failed, obviously...

...and the instructor told me that if not for that, which was enough to fail on its own, I would have passed by exactly one point. They meant it to be encouraging, I thin, but I took it as a lesson: driving was not for me.

Like, what might have happened if instead of spinning out while turning in the back way to a grocery store strip mall parking lot to get to the DMV office, I'd spun out trying to make a turn at a busy intersection? Or if my arms had jerked like that while on a highway?

So yeah, I don't drive, mostly for physiological reasons, and possibly because I don't drive and possibly for neurodivergent reasons, my brain is just not wired in so many of the ways that drivers expect it to be.

If I've been somewhere on foot enough times I can figure out how to get myself there on foot. But it doesn't matter how many times I've been in a car going some place, I cannot give you car-directions to get there.

"Where do I turn?"

I don't know.

"You've been here before."

Yep.

"So where do I turn?"

I don't know, man, that's magic car stuff. They don't ask the person in the Star Trek teleporter how their atoms fit together.