Driving is a Full-time Job

Driving is a Full-Time Job

I remember my sixteenth birthday like it was yesterday. I passed my drivers test and got my license that day and I could not have been more excited. After a long discussion with my parents about driving safely, I set off on my 5 minute journey to my best friend’s house. I got behind the wheel, queued up a few of my favorite songs, and drove slowly down the streets of my parents’ neighborhood. But then something odd happened. I got ready to turn onto the first main road and I froze. There were cars coming at me in every direction and pedestrians waiting to cross the street. My heart started racing because I realized one mistake from me could cost someone their life. I turned around, went home, and asked my mom to drive me. I admired her ability to stay calm in the face of so much chaos and I asked her how she learned to be such a good driver. She told me that practice makes perfect, and that driving is a full time job. Looking down at a phone for one second can change everything. She told me as long as I pay attention to the road at all times, I will learn to be a safe and successful driver.

Through my drivers education class, I learned about the negative consequences of distracted driving through people’s personal experiences. This made me consider how we can prevent distracted driving in the first place, which led to me to rethink the way smart-phones and smart-cars function to allow us to use our phones while driving. When one of my closest teachers and mentors died in a hit and run accident, I remembered the feelings I had when watching those videos in drivers ed and thought about how one moment can change everything. Now, I make sure all of my moments are spent paying attention to the road and doing everything I can to avoid distractions while driving.

Drivers education classes often discuss people’s personal experiences with the negative consequences associated with distracted driving in order to appeal to students’ emotions and urge them to be responsible on the road. Aside from the important driving skills that I use every day, what stuck with me the most from my driver education class is the conversations we had about distracted driving. I remember watching videos about real people who had lost their lives because of distracted driving. As much as these videos broke my heart, they were effective in deterring me from being irresponsible on the road. Especially at such a young age, I was vulnerable to peer pressure and wanted to look “cool” to people like my older brother, who would text and drive as if it were his job. But no matter how much I cared for other people’s opinions of me, I cared more about saving the lives of myself and others on the road. If it weren’t for those videos and stories we heard in drivers education, I might not have realized the very real consequences of distracted driving until it was too late.

In order to reduce the number of deaths while driving, smart-phones and smart-cars have a role to play in making their platforms easier for drivers to use without looking down at a screen or pressing buttons. As someone who puts their phone on “do not disturb” every time I get behind the wheel, I find this feature helpful in minimizing distractions and think that all smart phones should have a feature that automatically puts the phone on “do not disturb” while the car is being driven. Additionally, many newer cars have features that allow users to have their messages read aloud to them while driving. I think this is helpful in the sense that the driver is spending less time looking at a screen. However, in most cases drivers still have to look at the screen on their dashboard and press some sort of button to have the message read. This is how the feature functions in the Subaru Impreza and Toyota Highlander. For people who aren’t extremely tech savvy, this kind of feature can actually lead to more time spent looking at a screen. My mother is a great example. She isn’t great with technology in the first place, so when she tried hooking up her phone to her car, she ended up not being able to figure it out after a few minutes of playing around on the car’s little screen. She ended up just going on her phone and checking the message at a red light. Car manufacturers need to work on either creating a better way for drivers to stay connected with their devices without actually looking at a screen, or simply discourage the use of phones in any capacity while driving.

While I have not personally been in a car accident, one of my closest teachers and mentors recently died in a hit and run accident. Some of my friends also have a tendency to be distracted by driving, which I have begun to be less lenient about since my teacher’s accident. When I found out about my teacher passing, the first feeling I experienced was anger. My teacher was a very responsible person and was likely taking all of the precautions she could have. She died because someone else chose to be irresponsible on the road. I started being more assertive to friends after this happened because I realized it isn’t just about them or me, but it’s about everyone on the road. I’ve had friends tell me that if I don’t like their driving, I don’t have to drive with them. This upsets me because it reflects their disregard for all other people, similar to the disregard of the person who hit my teacher and didn’t even care to stop and see if she was okay. I take driving extremely seriously because I am aware of all of the lives at stake and would not be able to live with myself if someone died as a result of my negligence and irresponsibility.

When I get behind the wheel, I avoid any distractions by putting my phone on “do not disturb” and preparing my queue of music for the car ride ahead. I also stand up to my friends when I see them distracted while driving. Whenever I get in the car, I go on Spotify and queue multiple songs that I want to listen to before I start driving. This way, I won’t have to worry about going on my phone to change the music. I also put my phone on “do not disturb” while I’m driving, which makes it so that I don’t get any notifications. This helps to avoid the temptation of checking my phone if I get a text or other notification. Finally, I stand up to my friends when I see them distracted while driving. I remind them that they are putting other people’s lives at risk when they take their eyes away from the road to check their phones. I have told friends that I’m not comfortable driving with them anymore when they didn’t change their behaviors.

I’ve learned a lot about driving since I was sixteen, most of which came from experience and practice. However the most important lesson I ever learned was on that first day. Driving is a full time job. Look away for one second and the next second can’t be promised. Through driver education, innovations in smart technology, and taking small steps to be better drivers, we can minimize the deaths caused by distracted driving. When I’m on the road, I feel a sense of compassion for everyone else around me, and this is what every driver needs to have.