Knowing More is Doing Better

I recall being scared to touch a wheel before, and especially after, I received my driver’s permit when I was 15. Everyday people made it look so easy, my siblings, parents, and the adults around me had seemingly mastered this daunting task. Now I take note of the rising death rates in traffic and accidents per year, and I also recall what it took for that feeling of fear to leave the back of my mind when I thought about driving. See, in my own experience, I fear things I don’t fully understand. If I don’t have all the facts, experiences, and components necessary to attempt a task, you’ll find that I would be cautious in wanting to even try. I like to believe I was raised on the basis that education, or knowledge itself, is the key to success in life. Not success in a very physically rewarding manner, but success in knowing you have equipped yourself with a powerful tool. The power to know!

Many of the mistakes that I identify on the road in traffic, are usually a result of someone likely just not knowing better. I am sure that a lot of people walk into that permit test with the idea that it may be like any other test in school: maybe study some notes a few days ahead, and hope you pass on the first attempt. If not, there is no statute on how many times you can test over time. This thought process in itself denies the importance of the traffic rules that have been put into place to save lives everyday. It is very possible to pass your permit or driver’s test without proper studying, but is it always possible to save a life if you are not equipped with the power of doing so? The numbers will show that humans, oftentimes, are not logically capable enough to drive in natural homeostasis. We think differently, we act and react differently, and because of this there are one million and one possible outcomes to any given situation while driving across this world.

It is up to us to take the same steps that we take in educating ourselves in other areas, and apply the same effort and understanding to the non-conditional rules of driving with our family, strangers, and friends.

Before my permit test I studied the same way I would study for any major test in school at the time. When my aunt informed me that she was ready for me to start driving and thus gaining more responsibility, I took note of the weight that expectation held. The lives of those around me on the road, those who would ride in my car with me, and my own life would be in my hands from this point on. When I took to the wheel, the gas, and the brakes the simplicity of this thing, driving, became sudden. Driving is honestly, I will say, very easy with a little practice. It is the mental multi-tasking, critical thinking, attention, and patience that usually gets to us behind the wheel. Not to mention the plethora of distractions available to us all in our cars, so then driving becomes about ten times harder to do. If you find yourself distracted, unaware of the context of traffic, and possibly ignoring speed laws… it will only take a split second for another equally distracted, and possibly unaware, human to take you both over the edge of a highway or spiraling into another car.

Most of my experience with drivers before I finally earned my permit (passing on the first attempt), was with close family members and friends. While I am more comfortable in a car with them, I always took note of the little and even big risks they took while driving. I even catch myself driving somewhat irresponsibly, and thinking that if someone else was being irresponsible right now… well, we might be in some trouble. Thankfully, I have never been the victim of one of those fateful accidents. But I have caused a minor crash, driving too fast for the situation at hand. The truth of it is, we only have a split second to make life changing decisions. A split second, that could make all the difference if you just don’t know any better. The key has, and will always be, knowing. And, what we think we know may not always apply to what the roads know. What the traffic lights, guidelines, and laws know. So knowing more, is doing better for us all!