How to Reduce Distracted Driving

Learning to drive is an important milestone in everyone’s life. Driver’s education is important for all new drivers since it teaches safe driving habits and builds confidence. The classroom portion teaches all the laws for being on the road. In our state, new teen drivers are required to log at least fifty hours on the road with at least ten hours at night. The driving school I attended also had an optional driving lesson package for at least six hours and three separate two-hour opportunities to drive with a state-certified instructor. Being instructed on the laws and learning how to prepare for driving creates better and safer driving habits. Having classroom knowledge and actual on-the-road experience from driver’s education classes reduces the number of deaths caused by inexperienced, new drivers on the road.

As a teenager, I have seen many of my friends and peers get into cars and then engage in

distracted driving. It may seem like a minimal thing, a few seconds to send a text or update a

friend on your location status. It seems minuscule and some people try to justify it as so, but

we greatly overestimate our focus and our ability to multitask. As a result, distracted driving

kills over 3,000 people per year and causes almost a million accidents. Distracted driving is becoming more common than drunk driving.

I believe that restrictions on the technology we tend to use while distracted driving, mostly our cell phones. I think that some of the restrictions and existing technology have helped, such as Apple’s driving focus which limits the applications that can be used, and the notifications received while

driving. It automatically activates when it senses you are in motion in a car, so it doesn’t require

much effort from the person. Apple’s driving focus makes it so you cannot receive notifications.

and must focus on the road ahead of you. Because you are not tempted by these

notifications and interactions, you do not feel the need to look at your phone and can drive

with your attention wholly on driving. Another example of this technology is Spotify’s driving

setting, which simplifies the music platform to only show necessary controls and limits how

much a user can do while the setting is activated. To turn this setting off, the user must click a

button to verify they are a passenger and can use Spotify fully because this setting is also

auto-activated by being in a car in motion.

A larger example of how technology can be used to limit distracted driving is through Apple CarPlay, a relatively new invention that only works in cars that have the proper specifications for it. CarPlay displays a limited version of one’s phone on a screen so one can change the music that is playing, answer phone calls hands-free, and view directions. The CarPlay is incredibly useful because it allows drivers to have access to some of the things on their phones they may need to access while driving — like directions — without allowing them unfettered and dangerous access to their phones.

I believe that technological advancements are the way to make distracted driving a thing of the past or at least greatly reduce it. We know that people are not going to be able to resist any temptation to

have access to their phones and still require some functions of their phone to drive. By allowing drivers to access the only essential features on their phones that they need to drive, which helps drivers resist the temptation to pick up, look at, and then be subsequently distracted by their phones. I think that investing money into these endeavors will incredibly help reduce distracted driving accidents.

Directions that are spoken aloud as opposed to being presented on a screen to look at also

help a driver focus their gaze on the road instead of constantly checking on a map. I also think

that having the technology that detects automobile movement based on speed and GPS to

automatically activate and de-activate these focus features is essential. Having to activate the

Apple focus or Spotify focus makes it easy for people to pass it off or forget to do it. If we have

the technology to eradicate distracted driving and make it easier for each person to do so with

less individual action, we should absolutely take it to reduce the number of lives lost and

accidents caused.

Besides reducing distracted driving, other lessons to be learned in driver’s education classes include proper usage of seatbelts, and how to drive at night with reduced visibility or during inclement weather. Young drivers need to spend time in the classroom learning the rules of the road and then practicing their skills in a variety of situations. The more knowledge and practice a new driver has, the less likely they are to cause a serious accident.