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User Content => Road Trips => Topic started by: webny99 on March 03, 2018, 12:24:24 AM

Title: Which do you prefer - Driver or Passenger?
Post by: webny99 on March 03, 2018, 12:24:24 AM
On a road trip, which do you prefer, to drive, or to be a passenger?

I've discussed my own position more extensively in other threads (in fact, that's my inspiration for this thread). I certainly enjoy driving, but I tend to plan, predict, and strategize excessively when I'm behind the wheel. Because of this, I find I pay much more attention to physical details such as signage, signals, and traffic control/flow as a passenger. I'm more intuitive as a driver and more observant as a passenger.
Title: Re: Which do you prefer - Driver or Passenger?
Post by: jwolfer on March 03, 2018, 12:27:59 AM
On a road trip, which do you prefer, to drive, or to be a passenger?

I've discussed my own position more extensively in other threads (in fact, that's my inspiration for this thread). I certainly enjoy driving, but I tend to plan, predict, and strategize excessively when I'm behind the wheel. Because of this, I find I pay much more attention to physical details such as signage, signals, and traffic control/flow as a passenger. I'm more intuitive as a driver and more observant as a passenger.
You get to see more as a passenger for sure.. as a driver you have to drive..pay attention to traffic etc. But as a passenger you have less control over routing, changes in plans, stops etc

Ideal is being able to switch position and have another traveling companion who likes the "getting there" as much as you

Z981

Title: Re: Which do you prefer - Driver or Passenger?
Post by: MNHighwayMan on March 03, 2018, 12:32:48 AM
Driver, for sure, for the reason I mentioned in the "Irrational Fears" thread. I don't really seem to have a problem paying attention to "the roadgeek details" even while driving, so, for me, being a passenger is a bit of a downgrade, actually.
Title: Re: Which do you prefer - Driver or Passenger?
Post by: vdeane on March 03, 2018, 05:08:21 PM
I generally but not always prefer driving.  The main exceptions are roadmeets (other than my own, though I've ended up as a passenger for many of the meets I've hosted as well) and meetings/conferences in Syracuse (I see the Rochester-Albany section of Thruway too much as it is and am more than happy to not have to worry about it).

Driver, for sure, for the reason I mentioned in the "Irrational Fears" thread. I don't really seem to have a problem paying attention to "the roadgeek details" even while driving, so, for me, being a passenger is a bit of a downgrade, actually.
Same here.  What does happen, however, is that my mind actually quiets down so it can focus on the road.  Most of the time I'm daydreaming or in intense thought over something else.  Driving is about the only time I'm not.
Title: Re: Which do you prefer - Driver or Passenger?
Post by: cu2010 on March 03, 2018, 05:51:39 PM
I hate driving.

I hate being a passenger even more.

I'd much rather be in control as opposed to trusting someone behind the wheel of a car I'm in to not kill me.
Title: Re: Which do you prefer - Driver or Passenger?
Post by: 1995hoo on March 03, 2018, 06:49:50 PM
Driver, unless I drink too much or I feel lousy (fatigue, illness, etc.).

I don't like riding as a passenger when my wife drives because I find it nerve-wracking when she doesn't signal, changes lanes erratically, etc.
Title: Re: Which do you prefer - Driver or Passenger?
Post by: corco on March 03, 2018, 07:47:44 PM
I greatly enjoy driving - especially when I'm the only one in the car and I can open it up and drive a little bit more crazily. When I'm with somebody on a long trip, I like to drive but am happy to let the other person drive too if they want. If we're just driving around town, I don't really care who drives.

Title: Re: Which do you prefer - Driver or Passenger?
Post by: webny99 on March 03, 2018, 08:19:19 PM
I greatly enjoy driving - especially when I'm the only one in the car and I can open it up and drive a little bit more crazily.

Couldn't agree more.
It's amazing how different of a driver I am when I'm alone vs when I'm with family/friends.
Title: Re: Which do you prefer - Driver or Passenger?
Post by: Revive 755 on March 03, 2018, 09:17:08 PM
On a road trip, which do you prefer, to drive, or to be a passenger?

For me it depends on a number of issues:

1) How much I trust the driver
2) Scenery along the trip - for certain areas such as I-40 between I-81 and I-26, I prefer being the passenger.  Being the passenger works better for areas where items of interest require long glances to the sides of the road to see.
3) How many pictures I want to take - being the passenger works better for this
Title: Re: Which do you prefer - Driver or Passenger?
Post by: hbelkins on March 03, 2018, 09:24:20 PM
I've found it easier to take photos as a driver than as a passenger, so driver if I'm on a trip.

Unless it's somewhere I've been a zillion times before and want to nap. Then, definitely passenger.
Title: Re: Which do you prefer - Driver or Passenger?
Post by: US71 on March 03, 2018, 09:33:36 PM
Driver. If I want to detour off the main road, I can.
Title: Re: Which do you prefer - Driver or Passenger?
Post by: webny99 on March 03, 2018, 09:48:35 PM
I've found it easier to take photos as a driver than as a passenger, so driver if I'm on a trip.

Care to expound on that?
It seems to me that photography is much easier from the passenger seat, as there's no multi-tasking required.

Back seats are terrible for getting good photos, but even then, the actual execution of taking a photo would be easier than it would be for the driver.
Title: Re: Which do you prefer - Driver or Passenger?
Post by: corco on March 03, 2018, 10:18:35 PM
I've found it easier to take photos as a driver than as a passenger, so driver if I'm on a trip.

Care to expound on that?
It seems to me that photography is much easier from the passenger seat, as there's no multi-tasking required.

Back seats are terrible for getting good photos, but even then, the actual execution of taking a photo would be easier than it would be for the driver.

I'm not HB but agree with him - if you're driving, you can ensure that you're in the proper lane/going the right speed/etc to get a good picture. Driving and taking a picture is barely multitasking - with a little bit of practice, it's no more mentally or physically intense than adjusting the radio volume. The other difference between driving and taking a picture vs. driving and texting is that you're actually concentrating on driving in order to take the picture, whereas when you drive and text they're two completely separate tasks.
Title: Re: Which do you prefer - Driver or Passenger?
Post by: Max Rockatansky on March 03, 2018, 10:19:37 PM
Driver, being a passenger generally is boring as all hell to me.  Other drivers generally stick to main highways which makes an already boring experience even more boring.  I can't take road pictures all that well from the passenger seat nor do I have control of pulling over to see something.  Most importantly I really enjoy driving, especially when there is a cool road that is challenging or scenic.
Title: Re: Which do you prefer - Driver or Passenger?
Post by: slorydn1 on March 04, 2018, 08:32:05 AM
Driver. I can't be a passenger for very long before I begin to experience motion sickness. I do find this odd, because I didn't have that problem as a child during all the long road trips my dad took us on. I have found myself letting my wife drive the short to the store and back type errands but that's about as far as I can go.

+1 to 1995hoo, though my wife's problem isn't lane changes. Her problem is that she likes to get so close to the car in front that I can read that car's gauges. I keep stomping on an imaginary brake pedal the entire time.
Title: Re: Which do you prefer - Driver or Passenger?
Post by: Rothman on March 04, 2018, 12:00:01 PM
Drive.  Wife doesn't use cruise control and can daydream, causing her to slow way down.
Title: Re: Which do you prefer - Driver or Passenger?
Post by: Jmiles32 on March 04, 2018, 12:16:32 PM
Definitely driver because I get to control the music :D
Title: Re: Which do you prefer - Driver or Passenger?
Post by: hbelkins on March 04, 2018, 02:22:39 PM
I've found it easier to take photos as a driver than as a passenger, so driver if I'm on a trip.

Care to expound on that?
It seems to me that photography is much easier from the passenger seat, as there's no multi-tasking required.

I've found that the angles for photography are better from the driver's side. Plus, the driver's side wiper covers more area, meaning that the windshield will be cleaner.
Title: Re: Which do you prefer - Driver or Passenger?
Post by: Mapmikey on March 04, 2018, 02:51:52 PM
My wife doesn't drive so I have no choices to make...

OTOH I will always choose to drive if given the option...
Title: Re: Which do you prefer - Driver or Passenger?
Post by: AsphaltPlanet on March 04, 2018, 03:41:36 PM
I much prefer driving to riding as a passenger as well.

I also don't find using a camera from the drivers seat to be very distracting either.  And as others have said above, I like being able to position myself in traffic to take my photos.  Something that I think helps me, is that the zoom on my camera doesn't retract every time I power off the camera.  The barrel of my zoom lens is pretty stiff, so when I turn the camera off and place it in my lap when not in use the zoom stays put, and the camera is instantaneously ready when I power it back on to take the next shot.
Title: Re: Which do you prefer - Driver or Passenger?
Post by: ZLoth on March 04, 2018, 04:52:21 PM
Driver. It's a control thing.
Title: Re: Which do you prefer - Driver or Passenger?
Post by: Michael on March 04, 2018, 05:17:20 PM
I don't really have a preference, and I would say I'm the same as webny99 in the OP:
I certainly enjoy driving, but I tend to plan, predict, and strategize excessively when I'm behind the wheel. Because of this, I find I pay much more attention to physical details such as signage, signals, and traffic control/flow as a passenger. I'm more intuitive as a driver and more observant as a passenger.

As a driver, you can't look at the details too much because you're paying attention to your driving.  Being a roadgeek passenger in a car driven by a friend who understands you means that you can still be adventurous as a passenger.

Regarding taking photos while driving, I don't do it.  I tried to take a photo of the northern end of NY 90 once and I felt uncomfortable doing it even at 10-15 MPH with no one else around.

I think that being a roadgeek can make someone a better driver.  For me, I can predict when a light will change and adjust my speed accordingly.  Why stomp on the gas just to get a red light?  Or, if you know two lights aren't synced (here's (https://www.google.com/maps/@42.9347421,-76.5615647,3a,37.6y,66.84h,92.36t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1sHlqrLKIFm_vHBhsLbTc69w!2e0) an example here in Auburn, you're almost guaranteed to have to stop at the second one), you can step a bit harder on the gas to get both green lights.  If there's a traffic backup, you can go around it if you know multiple routes.  On freeways, if you know the lane layout, you can get in the correct lane early to avoid last minute lane changes.
Title: Re: Which do you prefer - Driver or Passenger?
Post by: webny99 on March 04, 2018, 06:27:20 PM
I'm not HB but agree with him - if you're driving, you can ensure that you're in the proper lane/going the right speed/etc to get a good picture. Driving and taking a picture is barely multitasking - with a little bit of practice, it's no more mentally or physically intense than adjusting the radio volume. The other difference between driving and taking a picture vs. driving and texting is that you're actually concentrating on driving in order to take the picture, whereas when you drive and text they're two completely separate tasks.

Looks like I have some work to do to reach that level :wow:

I've found that the angles for photography are better from the driver's side. Plus, the driver's side wiper covers more area, meaning that the windshield will be cleaner.

All of the above points are understandable, but I still don't think any of that makes taking pictures while driving easier than from other positions. Easier to manipulate the situation for better results, sure, but not easier to execute the actual taking of the photo.



I'm surprised at all the dislike for being a passenger. I thought I was the biggest control freak out there  :-D

With that said, the other thing I do like about driving, while I pay less attention to details, it does force me to stay awake. I've fallen asleep as a passenger at times when I was seeing a major road for the first time (such as I-95 through CT and I-79 through WV), and I will never forgive myself :banghead:
Title: Re: Which do you prefer - Driver or Passenger?
Post by: vdeane on March 04, 2018, 07:25:53 PM
Regarding pictures, they do take practice.  The secret to taking pictures while driving is to figure out what works (camera mode, zoom level, position of the camera, and when to take it relative to the sign) and those things take practice.  You'll have a lot of bad photos when you're learning.  It will take time.  But eventually you get there.  Note that those of us who do take pictures while driving use the viewfinder only a little if at all.  We don't spend lots of time staring at it to frame a shot.

And yes, a REAL camera is a must.  Not a phone camera.  Phone cameras don't deal with motion very well and require more concentration.  Depending on how it's configured it may not even be possible to use with one hand (default is to take a picture by tapping on the screen).  They don't have real zoom controls either, just poor quality digital zoom.  Phone cameras also don't really have physical controls - to engage then, you HAVE to look at the screen.  A real camera can be manipulated without looking at it at all, from memory.  Many digital cameras also have an anti-blur mode that can smooth out the bumps.

Speaking of bumps, those are easier to anticipate while driving, for the same reason a driver is less likely to get motion sickness than a passenger.  A driver is in control of the car, which means the brain can better anticipate what the motion of the car is going to be.
Title: Re: Which do you prefer - Driver or Passenger?
Post by: Thing 342 on March 04, 2018, 07:43:14 PM
I prefer to be a passenger, mostly because I can't manipulate my DSLR with one hand. However, I have gotten better with taking photos using my phone (a Pixel 2 XL) behind the wheel:
(http://i0.wp.com/wesj.org/roads/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/MVIMG_20180203_154648.jpg)

Title: Re: Which do you prefer - Driver or Passenger?
Post by: hbelkins on March 04, 2018, 07:53:10 PM
I started taking pictures while driving while using a 35 mm SLR film camera with a 150 mm zoom lens. I learned that by setting the focus to infinity, I could usually get a good picture, but I still had to compose the picture through the viewfinder. It wasn't always convenient to pull off to get a photo, so by trial and error, I became proficient at it. Of course, back in those days you had to buy film and pay for processing and printing, so I wasn't as prolific at it as I am now.

The bigger viewscreens of digital cameras were a great help, as was the fact that I no longer had to pay for film or prints. Plus, the cameras became a lot smaller and lighter. I don't think twice about taking pics while driving now. It's almost second nature.

Here are a couple of shots I took while behind the wheel with that old 35 mm film camera. I have tons of photos elsewhere and I need to find them and get the prints/negatives scanned.

(http://[url=https://flic.kr/p/aqi9XZ][img]https://farm7.staticflickr.com/6164/6182153879_3cca63cf7c_z.jpg)[/url]1990s Negative Scans - 12 (https://flic.kr/p/aqi9XZ) by H.B. Elkins (https://www.flickr.com/photos/hbelkins/), on Flickr[/img]

(http://[url=https://flic.kr/p/aqjcfD][img]https://farm7.staticflickr.com/6169/6182356685_23be9f9aaa_z.jpg)[/url]1990s Negative Scans - 33 (https://flic.kr/p/aqjcfD) by H.B. Elkins (https://www.flickr.com/photos/hbelkins/), on Flickr[/img]



During road meet tours, I actually prefer to be a passenger.
Title: Re: Which do you prefer - Driver or Passenger?
Post by: thenetwork on March 04, 2018, 07:57:36 PM
Driver:  Because depending who's driving, I can get to passenger "carsick level" pretty darn quick.
Title: Re: Which do you prefer - Driver or Passenger?
Post by: AsphaltPlanet on March 04, 2018, 08:53:13 PM
I prefer to be a passenger, mostly because I can't manipulate my DSLR with one hand. However, I have gotten better with taking photos using my phone (a Pixel 2 XL) behind the wheel:

Yeah, phone cameras are actually pretty good now.  The telephone lens on my iPhone Plus is actually pretty much a perfect focal length for road photos.  In fact, the telephoto lens on the Iphone X is even optically stabilized.  I'm not much a fan of the phone ergonomics though.  Something else... the iphone can record 4K at 60fps.  Most expensive DLSR cameras can't even do that yet.

According to a few reviews that I have read, the Pixel 2 is supposedly the best phone camera on the market.
Title: Re: Which do you prefer - Driver or Passenger?
Post by: webny99 on March 04, 2018, 10:10:23 PM
I prefer to be a passenger, mostly because I can't manipulate my DSLR with one hand.

Thank you for making this not a completely one-sided discussion :D

This is one of my main beefs with taking pictures while driving. I need both hands to have a hope of getting a good shot from my phone camera. I do have an actual camera, which comments in this thread have prompted me to dig up, with the intention of using it (or at least attempting to use it) one-handed on my commute tommorrow.
The other issue is the length of the process required to upload pictures from a camera (vs a phone) to the forum.



But of course, road photography is only a subset of the larger discussion, so let it continue  :)
Anyone else have the problem of planning, predicting, and analyzing traffic flow excessively while driving?
Title: Re: Which do you prefer - Driver or Passenger?
Post by: Max Rockatansky on March 04, 2018, 10:15:51 PM
I prefer to be a passenger, mostly because I can't manipulate my DSLR with one hand.

Thank you for making this not a completely one-sided discussion :D

This is one of my main beefs with taking pictures while driving. I need both hands to have a hope of getting a good shot from my phone camera. I do have an actual camera, which comments in this thread have prompted me to dig up, with the intention of using it (or at least attempting to use it) one-handed on my commute tommorrow.
The other issue is the length of the process required to upload pictures from a camera (vs a phone) to the forum.



But of course, road photography is only a subset of the larger discussion, so let it continue  :)
Anyone else have the problem of planning, predicting, and analyzing traffic flow excessively while driving?

There are methods to get around photos with a camera phone while driving.  I'm hesitant to give advice but one that is fairly big is getting a flat dark cloth of some kind to minimize windshield glare.  Also, never travel in the direction of the sun if you intend to take a highway album while moving unless you want to reach your hands out the window or pull over at every sign you want. 
Title: Re: Which do you prefer - Driver or Passenger?
Post by: MNHighwayMan on March 04, 2018, 10:41:56 PM
When I take pictures while driving (not often), I rest my phone on top of the steering wheel, holding both the phone and the wheel together. Never really had any issues with blur or noise doing that. Getting the timing down, so the picture is not too close or too far, is definitely something that requires a little practice, though. For the pictures I post here, I also straighten them and correct the perspective before uploading them to eliminate stilted or leaning perspectives that make the subject (usually a sign) look funky/off-kilter/just straight-up bad.
Title: Re: Which do you prefer - Driver or Passenger?
Post by: Beltway on March 04, 2018, 11:18:31 PM
On a road trip, which do you prefer, to drive, or to be a passenger?

Given how rarely I get to be a passenger, I take it whenever I can and enjoy it!
Title: Re: Which do you prefer - Driver or Passenger?
Post by: hbelkins on March 05, 2018, 10:56:17 AM
Until phone cameras get optical zoom lenses and more control over the exposure other than digital manipulation, they'll never be as good as standalone cameras.
Title: Re: Which do you prefer - Driver or Passenger?
Post by: Beltway on March 05, 2018, 11:01:54 AM
Until phone cameras get optical zoom lenses and more control over the exposure other than digital manipulation, they'll never be as good as standalone cameras.

Modern digital point-and-shoot cameras are inexpensive and take very good photos and include a zoom lens, and they are a lot less expensive than an SLR.
Title: Re: Which do you prefer - Driver or Passenger?
Post by: AsphaltPlanet on March 05, 2018, 11:04:35 AM
Until phone cameras get optical zoom lenses and more control over the exposure other than digital manipulation, they'll never be as good as standalone cameras.

There are a variety of quality apps that allow full exposure control of a phone camera to the level of a DSLR shooting experience.  You can even get raw output from most phone cameras, something that not many point and shoots allow.
Title: Re: Which do you prefer - Driver or Passenger?
Post by: Buck87 on March 05, 2018, 11:21:20 AM
Driver. Gotta be in control
Title: Re: Which do you prefer - Driver or Passenger?
Post by: formulanone on March 05, 2018, 03:05:55 PM
I prefer to be a passenger, mostly because I can't manipulate my DSLR with one hand.

I've gotten better as a driver; it took me a year or two. Getting out of the habit of Aperture Priority to Shutter Priority, and only trusting Manual Mode with a 50mm prime lens was a habit. Definitely at least 1/500s and f/5.6 (f/4.5-5.0 is pushing it) for ISO 100-200 in ideal lighting, any wider when moving is likely to be blurry when moving. If the subject is far enough away, you can always go down to 1/250 or even 1/100 for things like city skylines when travelling in a straight line.

If your lens and/or camera body is heavy, it's not so easy...one perk to the lower-end models is that they're lighter. Drawback to one-handed shooting is that I have to tilt/rotate about 90% of my images. And while driving on a curvy road with a stick shift, the camera pretty much has to go back in its bag.

I've found it clumsy to use a phone's camera, even when a passenger. I used to have an HTC Evo 3D, which had a camera button about where you'd want to place it on a point-and-shoot, where you didn't need to be three-handed to operate it without fear of dropping it. But the photo quality, image compression, white balance, and color gamut was weak, compared to phones just 2 years later. I like my DSLR, but I have to admit the iPhone 6 no longer a terrible substitute in good lighting for still subjects.
Title: Re: Which do you prefer - Driver or Passenger?
Post by: kkt on March 05, 2018, 03:55:54 PM
I enjoy driving, especially if conditions are good.  But I also enjoy looking at scenery.  Put me down as easy to please, I guess.  Just get off the interstate when we can.  :)
Title: Re: Which do you prefer - Driver or Passenger?
Post by: adventurernumber1 on March 05, 2018, 04:06:42 PM
I am now unable to drive due to a very large range of factors (including being on a very sedating medication), but I was driving with a permit a few years ago (in 2014 and 2015).

I can say that I prefer being the passenger in the car. I don't have to worry about the stress of avoiding an accident or a ticket, which would drive me crazy, especially since I have severe anxiety problems. I am also very easily able to take road photos and road videos - and I am able to freely look at my road atlas (on paper) or Google Maps (on my phone) at any point in time. Heck, when in the car on roads around town (that I've been on many times) at night, I've even browsed and posted on this forum before. I can put CDs into the CD player, and I can easily adjust the air conditioning, and more. And if the fatigue proves to be too much, I have the ability to sleep. As a passenger, I can focus more on the roads themselves, and I am less chained to the stress of coordinating my vehicular actions perfectly with all other traffic. Driving, back when I could do it, was very stressful and nerve-wracking for me, but as a passenger, I can really enjoy and truly take in the roads, with no distractions.
Title: Re: Which do you prefer - Driver or Passenger?
Post by: adventurernumber1 on March 05, 2018, 08:07:40 PM
I prefer to be a passenger, mostly because I can't manipulate my DSLR with one hand. However, I have gotten better with taking photos using my phone (a Pixel 2 XL) behind the wheel:
(http://i0.wp.com/wesj.org/roads/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/MVIMG_20180203_154648.jpg)

Also, please do tell where that road picture was taken - that looks like a nice stretch of road.  :nod:  :camera:
Title: Re: Which do you prefer - Driver or Passenger?
Post by: AsphaltPlanet on March 05, 2018, 08:23:05 PM
Just to throw further support behind the iPhone camera.  I shot this tonight on my way home from work.  Some of the fine detail has been smudged out through in-camera sharpening and noise reduction, but it's a pretty sharp image, particularly since it was overcast about a half an hour before sundown.  A point and shoot camera isn't going to be able to do too much better than this.

(http://www.asphaltplanet.ca/ON/Ontroads/IPhone/IMG_1722_small.jpg)
http://www.asphaltplanet.ca/ON/Ontroads/IPhone/IMG_1722_edited.jpg
I did edit this image in Photoshop.  The straight out of camera image can be found here:

http://www.asphaltplanet.ca/ON/Ontroads/IPhone/IMG_1722.JPG
Title: Re: Which do you prefer - Driver or Passenger?
Post by: US 89 on March 05, 2018, 08:50:24 PM
I prefer to be a passenger, mostly because I can't manipulate my DSLR with one hand. However, I have gotten better with taking photos using my phone (a Pixel 2 XL) behind the wheel:
(http://i0.wp.com/wesj.org/roads/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/MVIMG_20180203_154648.jpg)

Also, please do tell where that road picture was taken - that looks like a nice stretch of road.  :nod:  :camera:

Based on what's on the green sign in the background, it's on US 52 in Winston-Salem, NC. Interestingly, the exits/mileposts are numbered north-south, despite US 52's east-west number.
Title: Re: Which do you prefer - Driver or Passenger?
Post by: adventurernumber1 on March 05, 2018, 08:57:34 PM
I prefer to be a passenger, mostly because I can't manipulate my DSLR with one hand. However, I have gotten better with taking photos using my phone (a Pixel 2 XL) behind the wheel:
(http://i0.wp.com/wesj.org/roads/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/MVIMG_20180203_154648.jpg)

Also, please do tell where that road picture was taken - that looks like a nice stretch of road.  :nod:  :camera:

Based on what's on the green sign in the background, it's on US 52 in Winston-Salem, NC.

Thanks! Even when I zoomed in on the picture, the green sign was still too blurry for me personally to sufficiently read, but maybe my eyesight is not as great.  :-D

Even still, I am surprised I didn't just recognize the stretch of road, because I've actually been on US 52 (as well as other roads) in Winston-Salem, North Carolina (back in June 2013), but I guess I just forgot what it visually looked like (even though I find it to be a cool stretch of road).  :-D
Title: Re: Which do you prefer - Driver or Passenger?
Post by: MNHighwayMan on March 05, 2018, 08:58:57 PM
Based on what's on the green sign in the background, it's on US 52 in Winston-Salem, NC. Interestingly, the exits/mileposts are numbered north-south, despite US 52's east-west number.

The same is true of US-52 in Minnesota, as well (although not all of the exits have gotten exit numbers yet). It even uses North/South directional banners.
Title: Re: Which do you prefer - Driver or Passenger?
Post by: hbelkins on March 06, 2018, 02:12:49 PM
US 52 is signed north-south in North Carolina (and Virginia and West Virginia and Iowa and Minnesota, that I know of.) It's signed east-west in Illinois, Indiana and Ohio. From what I've been able to tell, South Carolina is inconsistent and signs it both ways, depending on where you are.
Title: Re: Which do you prefer - Driver or Passenger?
Post by: roadman on March 09, 2018, 05:53:10 PM
For the most part, I prefer driving over being a passenger.  Especially as I've been known to loudly blurt out sudden reactions to things I see (in Massachusetts, such reactions are often for work-related reasons as opposed to just being a roadgeek)- I'd rather be a driver and have my passenger get into a sudden panic over my reactions than the other way around.
Title: Re: Which do you prefer - Driver or Passenger?
Post by: 1995hoo on March 10, 2018, 01:09:35 PM
....

+1 to 1995hoo, though my wife's problem isn't lane changes. Her problem is that she likes to get so close to the car in front that I can read that car's gauges. I keep stomping on an imaginary brake pedal the entire time.

Another one I realized last night: My wife–like me–is required to wear corrective lenses while driving (we both have the restriction on our licenses). She doesn't like to wear her glasses. Bothers the crap out of me if she drives without them. Yesterday, due to a variety of circumstances, my car was at the subway station and she wound up having to go get her car during the day, so we drove home and forgot about my car until I went into the garage for something. So she drove me to retrieve it and didn't wear her glasses and wouldn't put them on when I asked. Really bothers me because if you have that restriction, it means you failed the DMV vision test. I get that she knows where she's going and such. I do too. But if I don't wear my glasses, my distance vision suffers and I'd worry about not noticing something in the road and the like. I guess she doesn't share that worry.
Title: Re: Which do you prefer - Driver or Passenger?
Post by: epzik8 on March 22, 2018, 10:57:14 PM
Driver. See my Maryland-Ohio trip in December 2016.
Title: Re: Which do you prefer - Driver or Passenger?
Post by: busman_49 on March 23, 2018, 09:45:22 AM
Driver.  More control.  If I know something cool is coming up, I can slow down a bit to better my chances of a photo; otherwise I'm at the mercy of someone else's speed.

The only thing is that when I'm driving with my wife in the car, she HATES it when I take photos while driving.  She says it's too much of a distraction.  I've told her that I don't focus too much on the viewfinder and to some extent, it's "Point, shoot, and hope for the best."
Title: Re: Which do you prefer - Driver or Passenger?
Post by: J N Winkler on March 28, 2018, 11:42:25 AM
To answer the question in the OP:  I prefer to drive.  I can use the cruise control to maintain a steady speed, I can brace myself against the steering column when taking turns at speed, and I generally find my preferred following distance at most speeds is greater than most other people's.  And perhaps most important of all, I just like to drive.

I don't use cameras when I am driving.  It ruins my enjoyment of the experience, it is a distraction, and it increases accident risk to a level I find unacceptable.  I accept others' point that practice and appropriate choice of gear mitigate these disadvantages, but even so I have no personal interest in going down that road.  I generally document interesting and unusual sign messages by committing them to memory and then looking them up using StreetView.  From time to time I toy with the idea of getting a camera rig to create a permanent record of leisure drives, but I don't think there is anything currently on the market or capable of being assembled from off-the-shelf components that meets my preferences as to capability, image quality, data storage footprint, and electrical load on the car's starting and charging system.
Title: Re: Which do you prefer - Driver or Passenger?
Post by: US 41 on March 28, 2018, 08:40:04 PM
Drive and I prefer to do it alone too.
Title: Re: Which do you prefer - Driver or Passenger?
Post by: Nanis on April 22, 2018, 11:56:36 PM
Passenger. I don't need to concentrate on as much, plus I get to plan out the routes anyway. Whats the point?
Title: Re: Which do you prefer - Driver or Passenger?
Post by: Flint1979 on April 23, 2018, 12:33:44 AM
A lot of my road trips I do solo but even when someone else is with me I usually drive. I don't mind being a passenger though.