Drive As If No One Knows Driving- From Caution to Competence

Ever since I was 5 years old, my father has always told me one thing about driving: drive as if no one else on the road knows how to drive.

Learning to drive is a pivotal moment and part of almost every American teenager’s journey and adolescents. From watching upperclassmen frantically compete for parking spots in the coveted school parking lot, to spending hours preparing for the learner’s permit exam, a significant amount of work goes into even getting to the driver’s seat. But often this is where the negligence of students and parents can lead to significant repercussions.

As I completed the eADAP course in my driver’s education homework, I remember feeling utterly shocked as I realized how common deaths and accidents related to driving were within my own home state of Georgia, as well as around the nation. I realized how behaviors that I had thought to be normal or conventionally acceptable, such as driving above the speed limit on the highway or driving with multiple friends in the car after late hours, were actually against the law for very good reason. If not for this course and many other critical insights that I gained through driver’s education, I would still have passed the technical road test and gained my license but would have entered the road with a fatally incomplete understanding of how to actually drive safely and legally as a person under 21 in my state and in my nation.

As such, I realized the importance of driver’s education as it prepared me to not only become a more informed, responsible, and proactive driver but also an emboldened advocate to hold my peers accountable to also follow the rules set by the law. When carpooling with friends to attend a graduation party on the other side of town, we worked together to remind each other to leave the party by 9:00 in order to get home before the curfew at 11:00.

Although such rules may have seemed unnecessary or annoying to some other students, it is truly necessary that these rules are followed in order to minimize the avoidable tragedies that occur on a daily basis due to irresponsible and uninformed driving. As such there are a few clear steps that can be taken to reduce the number of deaths related to driving.

Firstly, students should be made aware of the rules and regulations surrounding responsible driving by individuals under the age of 21 before even entering high school. Even as a middle schooler, I noticed how many of my peers were being driven by their older siblings who, at the time, were in high school or early college. It is quite likely that my peers, the younger siblings, had witnessed possible transgressions of teen driver laws. However, they would not have been able to address this effectively at a household or family level, simply because they were unaware of the existence of such rules, let alone the ability to effectively detect and resolve this when witnessed practically. Personally, even I was not aware of such rules until I was preparing for the driver’s license test.

Secondly, in addition to educating middle school students about teen driver rules as it pertains to them being passengers in a vehicle, it is also important to educate parents of students who are seeking their permit or license in high school. This education should also occur when the student is in late middle school, so the parent can comprehensively navigate preparing the student for their permit exam and the process of driver’s education and receiving their license.

Finally, just as education on human growth and development and healthy behaviors have become an integral and legally mandated part of education as early as the fourth grade, education on healthy and safe driving habits and passenger behaviors should also be part of a legally mandated curriculum provided to late elementary-early middle school students and should be gradually built on throughout middle school and high school as students progress towards actually receiving the driver’s license.

Ultimately, equipping the next generation of drivers with the competence and confidence they need to safely navigate driving is a holistic effort that requires multifaceted collaboration and involvement from family members, parents, counselors, and peers.

Now, let’s bring it back to my father’s aforementioned advice, driving as if no one else knows how to drive. This advice is very valuable, and I think that our society would definitely benefit if more people were aware of it. However, the harsh reality is that there are still many, many people who simply do not know how to drive properly, and their rash impatient driving has had and continues to have a blatant and major negative impact on my personal life and the lives of millions of others.

I can still remember the sense of dread that would course through me when I realized that we had gotten into an accident despite my parents driving safely and alertly. The majority of these incidents have now been blocked off in my mind as a coping mechanism, so the details are hard to recollect, but the twisting, fearful feeling in the very pit of my stomach is one that I will never be able to forget.

Every year, 37,000 people die in the US due to car accidents, and 2.35 million people are injured or disabled. Many of the people who are currently driving received their licenses in a time when rules regarding testing were possibly more lenient. Nevertheless, the effects of their incompetence are painfully evident, from the all too common accidents that cause massive traffic backups and blockages on the Atlanta highways near my home to the devastating local tragedies that can result from inebriated drivers or rash driving.

All of these experiences have been traumatizing for me, but I’ve tried to learn from them and push myself to become an even safer and more alert driver, holding myself accountable to ensure I am sharing the road and respecting myself and others properly as a driver and a person. I’ve also taken three steps that I have taken to become a safer and more skillful driver.

First, it is very important that we are well prepared from a time perspective so as to avoid speeding or any other such breaches of the rules in order to be on time. For this, somewhat counterintuitively, I have realized that having a backup transportation option that doesn’t involve me driving is ideal, in the unpredictable event of vehicle maintenance issues or other unexpected complications. Thus, I work to ensure that I am still able to get to my destination on time and that my backup option is operated by a safe and prepared driver, such as a public transport service. Leveraging these alternative forms of transformation is not only a safer option for individuals who would otherwise risk breaking numerous rules and endangering the lives of all the road through speeding and driving rashly, but it also provides the additional, compounding benefit of lowering the carbon footprint of our daily commute.

Secondly, it is extremely important to drive with the utmost focus. For me, this means I don’t even listen to music while driving. I simply focus on the road, and at most, I ask the person who is navigating for me for direct instructions on navigation. Likewise, I encourage behavior as a passenger by discouraging playing music, especially loud distracting music, while driving and minimizing how much I speak unnecessarily during long drives. Thus, this enables my friend, or any other person, to focus their attention on the road and drive as carefully as possible.

Finally, when learning to drive, I prioritized learning to become very confident and safe in efficiently navigating city roads. In my experience, many students are taught to drive on the highways because there are fewer stoplights and are generally much more convenient once one learns to manage speed. However, the vast majority of accidents that will affect our community have been due to irresponsible driving on city inner roads, where traffic can be much more convoluted. On city roads, there is significantly more pedestrian traffic, school buses, and other buildings that complicate the process of driving. Practically, the vast majority of driving that students will do is on city roads. Therefore, it’s imperative that, as students learning to drive and as friends of people learning to drive, we encourage and prioritize learning to drive on city roads.

In conclusion, yes, we need to drive as if no one else knows how to drive. However, it is also our responsibility to help those around us, whether friends, family members, or even our younger and older siblings, to understand how they can be better drivers. Through this, we can work together to make our world safer, one cautious and confident driver at a time.