The Roads We Share

As a young driver, I have come to appreciate the extensive education that is required before being able to attain a driver’s license. I can’t lie, during the 30 hours of classroom education, I was annoyed because I felt it was a waste of time, but boy was I wrong. I have recalled those lessons on a daily basis; not a drive goes by where I don’t use something I learned during my drivers education course. I think most teenagers would agree with me when I say that the 30-hour classroom portion of learning to drive isn’t what we’d want to spend our time doing. As a North Carolina resident, we are able to start the classroom portion at fourteen and a half years old, getting our learners permit at fifteen. Once we hold our learners permit for 9 months and we have achieved 60 hours of driving with a parent, we can graduate to the limited provisional license. The progression to maintaining your full license in NC takes about two years of different driving restrictions and educational courses. Each state has different restrictions and rules regarding this progression for young drivers, but I believe it is a crucial part in keeping the roads safe.The more educated drivers are, the safer the roads will be. Although the laws differ by state, I think it is crucial to make new teen drivers take classroom driving education before they get behind a wheel. Learning the rules of the road, traffic patterns, and enforceable laws for drivers is paramount to ensuring the safety of everyone around you. During driver education courses, you are often briefed on the deadly consequences that come with disobeying traffic laws, and this comes with a new sense of fear that could be lifesaving. Being able to understand the consequences of certain actions will likely deter people from partaking in them. Learning about defensive driving might just be one of the most significant aspects of driver education, as it could save your life on the road. Defensive driving tactics such as keeping a safe distance, managing your blind spots, and always staying aware of your surroundings could be the difference between making it home in one piece and ending up at the hospital. Driver education equips new and young drivers with the skills they need in order to stay safe on the road; providing everyone with this education is a necessary part in reducing the deaths caused by driving.Reducing the number of driving-related deaths should be a main goal for all states, politicians, police forces, and even civilians. Although all states have different driving restrictions, I believe that there needs to be stricter consequences for breaking laws. Cracking down on these laws will encourage people to be more mindful while driving; for example, if you are caught speeding with a provisional license, you should automatically have that revoked and need to start the entire process over going all the way back to the driver education course. Caught texting and driving? As it stands now, you pay a little fine and you are free to go, but that needs to change. I could go on for days about how the consequences of many of these laws do not represent the deadly damage they are doing to our country. The consequences for breaking driving laws should be reevaluated and made more stringent to encourage safer driver practices across the country. Technology has come a long way when it comes to the manufacturing and designs of cars. I think another way to reduce the number of deaths is to increase the safety features and technologies in cars. Many car manufacturers have different trim levels for each vehicle, the base model being the most basic and the top model having all the bells and whistles. I am sick of safety features being considered the “bells and whistles”; they should be a mandatory aspect of every trim level for every vehicle manufactured. Just because you’ve bought the cheapest version of the car model, with cloth seats and no Sirius XM radio, you should still get the protection from the advanced safety features that have been proven to save lives. Vehicles in Europe and Canada are equipped with adaptive driving beam headlights (ADB), which allow the high beams to be on at all times while being able to shade the lights when other cars are detected on the road. These lights help to better illuminate the road for the person driving without hindering the vision of oncoming traffic. This technology has not yet been adopted by the US due to federal restrictions, but I think this would make a big impact on limiting dangerous nighttime crashes. Improving the infrastructure of the roads throughout the country would also help reduce the numbers of driving-related deaths. Many people don’t realize the impact the roads have on our driving ability, but imagine: there is a big pothole in your lane; if you hit it, your car will be wrecked, so you decide to swerve around it, and next thing you know, you are being hit at full speed by the car in the next lane. You didn’t have time to check your blind spots, and now you are a part of a deadly car accident, all because of a stupid pothole. Better infrastructure will allow drivers to focus on the important things, such as their speed and staying aware of their surroundings. Stricter consequences for laws, vehicle safety improvement, and better infrastructure will keep drivers safer all across the country.During the summer of 2022, I was on my way to the airport for a 5 a.m. flight. My dad was driving, mom in the passenger seat, and me sitting in the back jamming out to music in my airpods. It was dark, and if you are from North Carolina, you know those early summer months are prime deer mating time, which means they are everywhere. Unfortunately, a large deer, roughly around 300 lbs, bolted full speed onto the highway, and by the time it came into our field of vision, swerving or slamming the brakes was going to be troublesome, so the only thing we could do was brace for impact. Luckily the deer hit the right front bumper and headlight of the car, so physically everyone was okay, but it left a dent mentally. This was only a month before I was set to get my learners permit, and after that accident I was terrified. I knew that if my dad, who had many years of driving experience, couldn’t escape that accident, then as a new driver I would have been really screwed. I couldn’t unhear the screams of my parents or shake the feeling of helplessness. I was truly shaken by this experience, and I ended up waiting a couple extra months before getting my permit. My dad talked me through the situation multiple times in order to teach me what to do in a situation like that, explaining the consequences of swerving while driving at that high of a speed on the highway and honking the horn to alert other drivers. Now that I am off driving on my own, I often think about that experience and what he taught me and how I can apply that to my everyday driving. Although no one was hurt during this experience, I still found it quite traumatizing because I realized how much worse it could’ve been. I learned quickly that you can’t take anything or anyone for granted, and I am forever thankful that we are all safe. I understand that being able to drive at a young age is a privilege, not a right, and I take it very seriously for my sake, my passengers, and all the other drivers on the road. I never underestimate the responsibility that I take on when I am behind the wheel in a car. To become a better and safer driver, I need to continue to focus on the controllables and do all the things in my power to make sure I am being as safe as possible. I always make sure that my vehicle is up to date on maintenance so it is in the best shape to perform when I need it to. It is imperative for me to do all the small things, such as using turn signals and coming to a full stop at stop signs, as it can quickly become a deadly or life-altering moment. While I am in the passenger seat, I make an effort to not distract the driver so they can complete the task of getting us to our destination. There are so many things we can do as a society to help lower and reduce driving-related deaths, and for me, it all comes down to caring about the people you are sharing the road with and understanding the power you hold while driving and not taking advantage of it.