Quote:
Originally Posted by Worldwalker
I disagree with the people who say that anything except staring directly at the road is a bad idea, for the simple reason that a driver who does nothing but stare directly at the road will turn into a zombie who can't drive either.
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I agree completely. I used to have a daily commute that averaged about 4 hours - often longer in the winter when it was dark (both morning and evening) and the weather was bad. I found that without some other mental stimulation it was very easy to "zone out" and lose track of where I was and what was going on around me. Audiobooks were a lifesaver (quite possibly literally). Music wasn't enough of a distraction, and talk radio got old quick and often ran the risk of raising my blood pressure.
Audiobooks were (and still are) perfect. I can plug my mp3 player into the audio input jack in my car, hit play, and seldom if ever have to touch it again until I reach my destination. It's actually less distracting than carrying on a conversation with a passenger, since you don't have to respond, only listen - and you're not tempted to turn and look at the mp3 player when it talks to you. I don't have the long daily commute anymore, but it's still a minimum of a 30 minute drive any time I leave home, on winding country roads, so my audiobooks still come in very handy.