Life is a Highway

Aidan Hoffman

Life is a Highway

As an ode to the legendary Tom Cochrane song, life truly is a highway: a highway that imparts the sentiment of autonomy and control, cultivates collectivism through the binding together of communities, and allows for a sense of escape from one’s hectic home life. Although the notion of hitting open road is appealing for adults and teenagers alike, the lack of safety found within the act of driving, or being a passenger, poses a risk worldwide. To curb the exponentially increasing number of lives lost and injuries induced at the hands of distracted drivers, drivers ed courses are a necessity. These courses provide a standardized way of educating masses of individuals on the rules of the road, the functionalities of essential pieces of machinery found within the car, and the learned quality of reacting properly to potentially fatal predicaments. Courses like Mark’s Driving School, found in my hometown of Maryland, provide a realistic, yet intriguing take on informing the public on how to handle oneself on the road like incorporating warped goggles to simulate the inept state that is being drunk to deter students from continuing down this path in the future since driving under the influence is far too common today.

Driving related deaths have been on an upwards climb for some time now coalescing anything from pedestrians becoming struck to head-on-collisions. Allocating more media coverage to the lives lost resulting from making hazardous decisions that the public makes every day could aid diminishing death rates; choosing to drive while impaired, not wearing a seatbelt, putting one’s feet on the dashboard, or texting while driving are common malfeasances that can be corrected with a greater “scared straight” tactic that the media could foster causing an individual to think twice before persisting in these perilous actions. Although I have never been in a car accident, I often see peers of mine flaunt their driving all over social media but not in the way you may think. Instead of brandishing their responsible driving in forms of Snapchats and Instagram posts, often I see classmates, and even friends, post their speed limits, send texts with one hand on the steering wheel, and drive under the influence. It disheartens me greatly upon viewing these acts of ignorance because nothing would hurt me more than hearing of their untimely deaths as a result of thoughtless, preventable behaviors.

To become a better driver, I can continue to practice and adapt to different situations I may encounter on the road. Far too often am I thinking about where the next gas station is instead of knowing what to do if someone were to rear-end me at that moment; becoming more prepared is pivotal to improving one’s welfare. Meanwhile, to assist others with their well-being on the road, I can continue to advise them to disengage from risky behaviors that are likely to elicit cataclysmic ripples spanning across multiple family units. Highways are meant to be strips of asphalt, not graveyards.