Have Fun, Be Safe, and Come Home

I will always
remember the first time I ever drove a car. I was five years old,
sitting on my dad’s lap and driving our blue 1997 Honda CR-V. He
worked the pedals, making sure we stopped well before hitting
anything, and I grabbed the steering wheel with both of my tiny hands
and slowly piloted the vehicle around the empty parking lot. The
exhilaration I felt on that day was unmatched, and it made me want to
keep doing it forever. Over the next few years, whenever I got the
chance, I begged my dad to let me drive the car around the lot,
graduating from only steering to being able to operate the pedals as
well. Even when I wasn’t driving, all I would look at was my dad’s
smooth motions, swinging the car around a turn or parallel parking on
a busy street. I was blissfully unaware of all that went to driving a
vehicle on the road with other people until it came time for me to do
it.

I found driver’s
ed classes to be quite dull, with repetitive tapes about specific
accidents that occurred and what actions could have prevented them.
Also, since I live in Colorado, my drivers ed class spent an
unusually long amount of time – almost a whole day – talking about
railroad crossings and what not to do around them. I figured this
kind of knowledge would be common sense. Throughout my entire year of
driving with a parent in the passenger seat, I only came across 2 or
3 railroad crossings that had trains approaching them. I feel like
the curriculum could have allotted this time to various other
aspects.

Almost all of the
accident scenarios that the instructors presented to me had specific
actions that the driver could have taken to avoid them. Rather than
teaching for exact scenarios that have a low likelihood of occurring,
these classes should be showing more general techniques that new
drivers can apply to a variety of situations. One big thing that I
have learned about since getting my license is the concept of
defensive driving. Fortunately, I have never needed to use these
tactics because I have never been in an accident. However, this most
definitely won’t be the case for everyone, and most driving schools
in my area don’t seem to be teaching this. I find it evident
whenever my friends and I are talking about driving. I always end up
teaching them something new that they didn’t know about because
they didn’t learn it at their driving school. I also try to set an
example for them by not using my phone while driving and obeying all
road signs (i.e., speed limits, stop signs, etc.). By taking these
steps to educate my friends, I can feel good knowing that they are
becoming smarter drivers by the day and that they, in turn, will
hopefully inform those around them as well.