What it takes to be a safe driver in the hub of the Southeast

When I was learning to drive I took my training very seriously. I learned to drive during COVID quarantine, and my 30 hours of driving school were online. My friends all told me ways to cheat the system, but I couldn’t get myself to do it. I just kept thinking that driving gives me a certain power, and it isn’t the freedom to go wherever I want, or the freedom to do whatever I want, but it’s the power to hurt, to injure and to me that power warranted giving 30 hours of my attention to driving school.

Growing up in Atlanta, Georgia I experienced the dangers of driving from a young age. I have seen the stress merging onto I-75 South gives my parents, so I was well aware what it takes to be a safe driver by the time I got my license. It’s hard to describe what driving in Atlanta is like, but most people’s first thought is the traffic, which is always bad, and then they think of the drivers. To put it in perspective, Curbed ranked Atlanta as the number four city with most aggressive drivers, saying that Atlanta drivers are “20.26 percent more aggressive than the average US driver.” To put it in more perspective Atlanta has seven laned highways, on each side. The city is a machine, and driving in it is always dangerous, and my Georgia drivers education was vital to driving in Atlanta. To drive in Atlanta I had to know what to do and I had to know when to do it, if I didn’t then I risked being honked at, or yelled at by those aggressive Atlanta drivers. Not to say that this pressured me into knowing everything I could about driving, but it did. My mom always told me “there is no better place to learn to drive than in Atlanta, because if you can drive here you can drive anywhere.” So far I have found that to be true, but driving in Atlanta is also one of the scariest things I do.

This is not to say that Atlanta is the scariest place to drive, because driving anywhere is scary and dangerous. But if I had to know everything I could to drive in Atlanta, then so does everyone else, because one day they may be driving in Atlanta too.

When my sister first got her license she got into three crashes, all minor and in all she was okay, but at this time she was still a young driver. One of her crashes was while she had her permit, and it was not her fault, but the other two were fresh after she got her license. I get that driving alone at first is an adjustment and an adrenaline rush, but it is also so easy for a new driver to forget the basics and to get distracted easily. I believe that to amend this issue more driving hours should be required in all states, and not just driving hours with your parents but driving hours with an instructor as well. I believe that with more driving hours required new drivers will get more experience and become more comfortable behind the wheel, and therefore reduce the distractions, lack in judgements and injuries/damages that comes with new driving.

Unfortunately it’s not just new drivers who are irresponsible on the road. My dad, when I was younger, always used to drive without a seatbelt, even with the car making that awful dinging sound he always ignored it. I later started to refuse to get in the car until he buckled, but it’s not just him who doesn’t follow these simple rules. Many people forget to wear their seatbelt or find it to be an inconvenience, and many people forget what to do at a four way stop, or what lights to use and when, and so many other things. All of these things are taught during driving school, but as you get older they slowly fade from people’s minds. I think to remedy this issue it should be required that before getting your license renewed drivers should take a “refresher course” on driving school, only a few hours and preferably online for convenience, but I think this could dramatically reduce the accidents and injuries from drivers making simple mistakes.

I think that the most important thing people need to understand is that driving is a privilege. Driving is something someone must earn to keep not just themselves safe, but the people around them. I plan on being the safest driver I can and to encourage others to practice safe driving by reminding them of those simple basics that people too often forget. Hopefully in the future new methods can be implemented to help keep people safe on and off the roads.