Taking Textbook beyond the Pages

Civilization has always been obsessed with the need to improve. To do this, people must spread, and to be able to spread people need transportation. In the earlier years, people were satisfied with animal-driven carriages, but when their hunger grew they created massive ships that could transport people, goods, and disease to spread to a new land. As nameless chunks of land became named, things like planes, trains, and automobiles were created not only to become the title of a cheesy eighties movie but to bring us to the present day where Americans have made transportation a very vital part of society.

Recent surveys show that “76 percent of American commuters use their own car to move between home and work” (Richter) daily. With so many people on the road, driver education needs to be implemented to protect not only those behind the wheel but also wildlife and those that commute differently. Driver’s education gives people the textbook knowledge to operate a vehicle, but it also raises awareness of dangerous situations that may occur on the road. Most driver’s education courses include a campaign that goes into detail about why one should avoid driving while intoxicated or while distracted, and what may happen if they chose poorly. These sample scenarios are important because it gives young impressionable drivers exposure that allows them to make the right decision given they are put in one of those scenarios.

While it is important for younger generations to take a driver’s education course, it is also important for drivers to continue learning as time goes on. Laws and ordinances are being created, revised, and abolished all the time to make the roads a safer place. Not only are the rules everchanging, but the constant development of new ideas for cars themselves are being created such as all-around cameras, large touch screens, and even self-driving features. As humans continue the need to spread, their knowledge should as well, so things like understanding all the bells and whistles on a vehicle before driving, and knowing the proper laws in uncharted territory, can be just the start of taking the proper steps of continuing education.

Sometimes even the most precautious people who check all the safety boxes make mistakes that they don’t even think about, one example is my dad. One would think that the man that never travels long distances without a tire pressure gauge and a fully stocked tool/first aid box hybrid would be quite the stickler about safety on the road, but he tends to uphold the opposite. On several occasions, I have witnessed my dad text and drive, causing him to swerve out of his lane and create a potentially dangerous situation. While he has never crashed or even put a scratch on another vehicle because of that, it took a life-changing discovery to put his poor habit to rest. After working all day, he started feeling faint and before he knew it ended up on the side of the road with a broken side mirror in the reflection of his. Upon further investigation, he had what we later discovered to be a “mini heart attack” causing him to pass out for about thirty seconds, which was just enough time to take off another driver’s side mirror and cross about three lanes of traffic. While no traffic laws were violated, it was still this scary incident that caused him to put his bad habit to rest, which is surprisingly a common occurrence. If people would change the mindset that causes them to need something scary to happen to them before changing their bad habits, there may be a better chance of making the roads a safer place. The path to changing the minds of drivers is a long one though, and will first require people to have enough insight on themselves to make the change.

While I and most people would love to say they are great drivers, there is always something everyone does that they could tweak. For me, I know that sometimes when I am driving after a long day my mind is on things other than the road such as a scholarship essay due in a few days or what I will get my mom for her birthday. Even if you’re not distracted by a material object, it is still important to be fully invested in what is going on around you, which is something that I am constantly working on. The concepts and examples discussed in this essay can all be found within a driver’s education course, but are often simply brushed over or dismissed by both the student and instructor. Because of this, it is important to talk about daily driving habits with others so that you can understand how you can improve, and so you can help others see a mistake before they make it themselves.dri

Works Cited

Richter, Felix. “Cars Still Dominate the American Commute.” World Economic Forum, 2022, www.weforum.org/agenda/2022/05/commute-america-sustainability-cars/.