The Narrow Road: Driver’s Education

Driver’s education cements the foundation of one of the most important privileges people possess: their driver’s license. Every time someone turns the key to start the engine, they accept the inherent risk of hurting themselves or someone else. Driver’s education teaches them that driving is a privilege, not a right. As a privilege, each driver should earn a driver’s license through practice and patience. Habits will form once a person hits the road. Driver’s education drives whether these habits become good or bad. One track leads to freedom and safety while the other leads to destruction and death.

Driver’s education prevents death by teaching people good habits. It allows experienced driver to take their new pupils under their wings. They learn braking, accelerating, parking, and other fundamentals. They can make mistakes in a safe and controlled environment. These mistakes can be fixed before they cause irreparable damage to life. Besides the hands-on learning, people learn the rules of the road and meanings of traffic signs. People know the general signs like the stop sign but forget the lesser-known ones.

Reducing deaths starts with applying the knowledge gained during driver’s education. People learn to pump the brake if it stops working, the correct following distance, how to pass people with care, what to do if the wheel start slipping on ice, and so much more. This knowledge can save your life and others, yet people tune out, shut down, or just ignore it altogether. Knowledge without action becomes useless. Even more so, it can become lethal in a driving scenario. In driver’s education, people create good habits that stick with them for the rest of their lives. These good habits create the cornerstone of safe and defensive driving.

The unexpected will happen inevitably. A tire blows out in the middle of the highway. Debris falls from the back of a pickup truck. The weather takes a turn for the worst. People brush off these concerns by saying, “I just won’t drive than” or “You are just being paranoid.” However, this mentality leads to unprepared and reckless drivers. All those important hours of practice will overcome the fear. Implementation of good habits in one’s daily driving style overrules the confusion. It sets people up for success no matter what situation gets thrown at them.

On February 3, 2023, the unexpected happened to me. It was a Friday night. I had just picked up my dad from his work and was driving in the left lane on a city street. A big, white van was in the right lane next to me. As I passed a parking lot exit, I noticed a blue Rav4. The van turned right into the same exit when, suddenly, the Rav4 punched the gas and pulled out in front of me. Instead of overreacting, I moved the car into the center turning lane while applying the brakes. The Rav4 could not slow down fast enough and hit the passenger side of the vehicle, but my quick movement minimized damage to the car and my dad, who sat in the passenger seat. As I learned in my physics class, this allowed more time to lessen the force of the impact. I owe this calm reaction to the hundreds of hours of practice with my dad. He drives a semi-truck for a living and knows first-hand the importance of driver’s education which he instilled in me. I will be forever grateful for my dad for giving me the time and patience to learn how to drive.

I have been in vehicles with my family and friends while driving irresponsibly. I vividly remember riding with my grandma. My body jerked forward then slammed backward as she stopped at a red light to turn right. During other times with other people, only a couple feet separate us from the back of a car’s bumper while driving 70 mph. The view is obscured by the back end of the vehicle in front of us. Anything could happen in front of us, and we would not know. Overall, I felt unsafe when they were behind the wheel and asked to drive instead.

Steps I take to become a better driver include eliminating distractions and planning ahead. I encounter many internal and external distractions while driving like worrying about taking my math test or hearing my phone ringing with a notification. When I am having a bad day, taking a minute to breathe helps me slow down and relax before getting behind the wheel. Bad days should not define my driving. I can put my phone on vibrate or silent while driving. I can use my dad to keep me accountable from using my phone while driving. When people get behind schedule, me included, we tend to drive more carelessly. Allowing plenty of time to arrive at the destination relieves the stress and pressure compelling me to drive recklessly. I ran a bald-faced red stoplight because I was running 15 minutes late for my ACT test. If I had properly allocated time for driving, I would not have run that red light and gotten a better score on my test. Tardiness spawns recklessness. I have learned my lesson and hope to do better in the future.