Favorite driving mojo/vibe/ambience/atmosphere etc.

[TravelingBethelite]

OR: highway scenes you picture when you hear a certain song
What's yours? It doesn't have to be with a song like mine.

I mean that undescribable feeling you get while driving, especially at a certain place or time.

I remember listening to this song traveling through Indianapolis on I-70, all the while feeling the place was deserted. So now whenever I hear this song, I get a feeling/mood of urban loneliness. 

[TravelingBethelite]

Let's try this again:

(This one's a favorite of mine.

Driving on a fairly rural (thinking I-84 between I-684 and Newburgh) interstate, cresting over a hill, milky-white cloudy skies, at around 9 in the morning.

[mariethefoxy]

When I'm driving through a city or a place I know is gunna get backed up a lot (Cross Bronx, Bruckner, New England Thruway, etc) I tend to play a lot of Progressive Rock, typically Yes or Rush.

On the spots that are suburban and rural in nature where traffic moves, I bring out the symphonic metal and the death metal.

[Pete from Boston]

My mind and body often disagree on this, but I prefer the feel of driving almost anywhere very, very early in the morning.  Things are still pure and unadulterated,and  the light is of a kind seen the least, since most of us aren't usually out and about at dawn.  Plus in a lot of ways you just have the world to yourself.

[mariethefoxy]

its nice cuz theres no traffic but sucks trying to stay awake and not veer off the road.

[Pete from Boston]

its nice cuz theres no traffic but sucks trying to stay awake and not veer off the road.

Coffee's a wonderful thing.  Plus I enjoy seeing who's out getting coffee at dawn.

[TravelingBethelite]

its nice cuz theres no traffic but sucks trying to stay awake and not veer off the road.

Coffee's a wonderful thing.  Plus I enjoy seeing who's out getting coffee at dawn.

I second 'your driving in the early morning' statement. There's just something about it I can't say.
You meet some of the nicest people at night. But of course, you can see the worst, too. 

[vdeane]

I love driving early in the morning.  I hate waking up early enough to do it.  Fortunately, driving wakes me up (at least in the morning; evening/night is a different story).

[jakeroot]

I love driving early in the morning.  I hate waking up early enough to do it.  Fortunately, driving wakes me up (at least in the morning; evening/night is a different story).

I'm the same way, but traffic is such shit around here, it's pointless. You're better off waiting until noon when traffic might be a little thinner.



Lately, I've been enjoying this ambiance:

https://youtu.be/cO6pGcdD_mE

[TheHighwayMan3561]

I love rural freeway driving late on summer nights, when often the only traffic on the road is trucks.

[briantroutman]

Coffee's a wonderful thing.  Plus I enjoy seeing who's out getting coffee at dawn.

I second 'your driving in the early morning' statement. There's just something about it I can't say.
You meet some of the nicest people at night. But of course, you can see the worst, too. 

I third the love of early morning drives. The coffee is of course essential. Unfortunately, the ideal 4-5 a.m. drive time lands right in the middle of my typical sleep period (about 1-9 a.m.), so it takes a major force of will for me to get up at that time.

its nice cuz theres no traffic but sucks trying to stay awake and not veer off the road.

Actually, as far as night driving goes, I'm typically much more alert if I've risen at 4 a.m. for an early morning drive than if I've stayed up until 2 a.m. for a late night drive. Plus, I've found that the nadir of traffic on most Interstates is around 4 a.m.–much lower than the 1-2 timeframe.

[empirestate]

I love driving early in the morning.  I hate waking up early enough to do it.

I'm with you. To adulterate a quote from, I believe, Dorothy Parker: "I hate getting up in the morning; I love having gotten up."

At the other end, I've found dusk to be an especially problematic time for me. If I've begun a drive in the daylight and night then falls, I find that the part of it that's in darkness is especially fatiguing. I feel I can never quite adapt my eyes to the lighting conditions, and my mental acuity is generally lessened. I don't find I have this problem on drives the begin in darkness, but I don't know how much of that is due to the actual transition from day to night, as opposed to the simple likelihood that finishing a drive after dusk just means I'm finishing a relatively long drive, and I'd be tired regardless.

[mariethefoxy]

I know what you mean, that idea that you started the trip in daylight and ended it in night kinda psychologically makes it seem like it took much longer.

And YES I have plenty of coffee when Im driving in the early morning, my favorite is the plain McDonalds coffee.

[wphiii]

My favorite time of day, whether it's while driving or otherwise, is always late afternoon through twilight to dusk. But when I'm driving, what sucks is when it actually gets dark is when I enjoy driving the least. On lengthier road trips, I try to time things right so I arrive at my destination for the night right around astronomical twilight. Of course, these plans often go awry and I end up having to do a couple of hours of night driving anyway.

Tycho has been my go-to driving music lately.

[J N Winkler]

I like low light with the sun at my back; it can be around either sunrise or sunset.

[CtrlAltDel]

Besides my preferred time of day to be driving (the middle of the night unless I'm passing through somewhere particularly scenic), what I like is having a long route with a relatively uncomplicated itinerary: Drive 600 miles on I-70 and then 400 on I-25 (for example), and I am happy as a happy as a clam, knowing that there is a lot of road ahead of me and I don't have to worry too much about getting where I'm going. Don't get me wrong, I can follow convoluted routings as well as any other road geek out there, but I get a nice Zen-like feeling when I don't have to.

As for music, my car radio doesn't work. I first thought of this as a problem, but I've done about 10,000 miles of road trips without it, and it turns out I don't really miss it.