Institutional Problems Affecting Driver Safety

Amongst the world’s inventions, few innovations can rival the automobile when it comes to impact on human society. Besides allowing users to go anywhere to their heart’s delight, cars have also had a huge socioeconomic influence on humanity.

But not everything that is produced by cars is wholesome with the 1.3 million people killed globally by car crashes being a notable example.

The causes of these crashes are multifarious and complex. Personal faults of the driver (drugs, alcohol, etc) tend to be the variables most publicly blamed for road crashes, although other issues beyond the control of the driver are just as commonly to blame for these tragedies.

The first of these issues is that of driver’s ed. Now, let’s get the record straight: driver’s ed is an absolutely clinical element of driver safety. Besides teaching a person how to drive, these courses are also super important when it comes to being a confident, reassured driver!

Nonetheless, despite its importance, a study shows that people today are largely dissatisfied with their driving education with 52% of respondents saying that driver’s education was outdated.

How could this be?!

Well, it has something to do with two current issues in the driver’s ed industry. The first issue, according to, is the lack of regulation in the system which means that not all students are learning to drive properly.

Case in point: 3 out of 5 pollees said that they thought the driver’s test was designed to be passed.

The second issue is that in many US states, there are few to little restrictions, curfews being an example, in place to keep first-year drivers safe. The absence of these limitations fonly exacerbates the danger of the first year of driving ((which is easily the most dangerous year to drive).

So what should be done to fix the situation?

Well we can start with proper regulation of driving schools.

The creation of a supraorganization(s) tasked with the of driving schools (à la university accrediting agencies) would do much to improve the quality of driving schools.

In addition, driver’s ed also has to be modernized so that it can be more effective and flexible.

Online driving schools are one solution to this, and new technologies such as VR driving, steering wheel trainors, and AI driving assistants promise a future in which driving schools are engaging and maybe even fun…

The second major issue behind car crashes is bad road design. Now many of us don’t seem to notice that bad road design is all around us (“why the roads in my neighborhood are pot-hole free and still shiny! There’s no bad road design at all”). Remarks such as these, besides confusing ‘construction’ and ‘design’, also reveal that many of us don’t understand that roads can be perfectly built but still dangerous to drive on.

This can be seen with with American roads, especially our illustrious highways and stroads, which are designed for one thing and one thing only: speed. With the average 40-50 mph that one usually encounters in stroads, and the ‘devil may care’ speed of highways, it is no surprise that crashes in these areas tend to be very fatal. In order to rectify this, engineers have proposed a bunch of speed reduction solutions such as narrower lanes and more speed bumps. Likewise, other solutions mentioned in the Vox article include roundabouts, breakdown lanes, road diets, medians, and raised pedestrian crossings to protect pedestrians.

Moving on, other policy suggestions include designing better crosswalks to better protect pedestrians, and fixing the messy signage that makes downtown roads so confusing to drive on.

Having read this essay, the issues mentioned might seem too ‘out-there’ to make sense. After all, what can you do to fix an entire industry and road system?

And you’re right…In truth, we don’t really have to do anything big to make driving safer. Simply following the proper guidelines (e.g., being focused and sober when handling the steering wheel) should be more than enough to significantly decrease the dangers of driving.

Nonetheless, my point in writing this article is that by brining awareness to these issues, I can save at least one human life.

Ultimately, I don’t want car accident victims to suffer the trauma and fear that lingers long after the incident has occurred, and worse, I don’t want the cemetery to be the only place a family can meet up with a loved one after a preventable crash.