What Do Motorists Do in Their Lifetime of Driving?

The average time a person holds a driving licence is around 60 years – that’s a hell of a lot of years racked up, with countless squabbles with your family or partner, a few parking fines here and there, and spillages involving the remainder of your early morning coffee down the front of your newly-ironed shirt. 

According to new research, we spend an incredible amount of time sat in the front seat of our cars - almost 1,080 days or three years of our lives. In a bid to uncover just how long motorists sit in their car and what they get up to, the British Lung Foundation (BLF) has released a breakdown of 25 ‘things’ we do when in our car which is compromising our health. 

A spokesperson for the BLF has asserted that:

"As a nation we spend so much time in our cars, so it is important to think carefully about the damage we are doing to our lungs. We are breathing in toxic fumes when we’re driving or running the engine, and many drivers are not aware of this. Winding your windows up does not block air pollution from getting into your car. A driver can actually breathe in higher amounts of dirty air than a cyclist on the same road."

Recent figures suggest that during the accumulated total of three years spent in our cars, over 60 years of owning a license, we travel an approximate 257,356 miles – meaning you could effectively circulate the globe 10 times! Now that’s a lot of mileage.  

Some of the most obscure and absurd results including, shedding a tear 33 times, the 6 animals we cannot avoid missing when they run across the road, lash out at other drivers in 81 instances and scoffing down 60 meals whilst sitting in our cars. Not to mention 150 potholes driven through can certainly be contested by many towns and cities, where a pothole averages every one metre! And the research looks at the some of the trivial elements of being in our car that compromises our safety are the 70 air fresheners purchased to keep our cars smelling fresh.