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Name: Angel Fernando Diaz Simo
From: San Juan, Puerto Rico
Votes: 0
Is Your Coffin Automatic or Standard?
Today’s America revolves around the automobile. One is so accustomed to it that it seems too obvious to state. Asphalt lines every corner as cities crawl across the nation, sprawling for endless miles of suburban environment. Now more than ever, when vehicular deaths are on the rise, it’s important that we become aware of what driving a car truly entails as an activity, not just for ourselves, but for our fellow motorists.
Driving is, in itself, one of the most dangerous forms of transport. Unfortunately, America’s infrastructure revolves solely around it. Following World War 2, urban infrastructure began to experience a substantial shift. Long-gone were the days of walkable cities, as slowly but surely, American cities began to be built with cars in mind, instead of people. This has slowly led to a cycle of dependency, where cars became a necessity for travel across America’s vast distances, often along the enormous Interstate highways that connect the States’ cities. As our dependency in cars rose, so did the number of deaths due to motor accidents. In our pursuit of a more efficient method of transport, we found ourselves endangering those around us, and ourselves. The most common causes of vehicular crashes today are distracted driving, followed by speeding. To put into perspective how dangerous it is to drive while distracted, it’s important to look at the numbers. The speed limit on a four-lane highway is usually around 65 miles per hour, and this hypothetical will assume that the vehicle moves at a speed of around 60 miles per hour, to be slightly below the limit. A common distraction could be assumed to be, as an example, a phone notification. If a driver were to check their phone for 3 seconds, while driving at 60 miles per hour, they would drive 264 feet without paying attention to the road during those 3 seconds. A large school bus measures around 17.5 feet, and a football field at 360 feet (120 yards). 264 feet is equivalent to just over the length of 15 large school buses touching bumper to bumper. 264 is nearly three quarters of a football field. That’s the distance a vehicle would move in those three seconds they spend on their phone. At average walking speed (3 miles per hour), a person would take a full minute to travel the same distance a car moving at 60 miles per hour could cover in 3 seconds. With such a vast distance, even 3 seconds can be deadly. Speeding only makes the chances of injury or death even higher, and distracted driving can often combine with speeding for a deadly combo. If we take the prior calculation, and say we move only 10 mph over the 65 mph limit we mentioned earlier. At 75 mph, in 3 seconds, a vehicle can cover 330 feet in 3 seconds. That’s nearly an entire football field. To further drive in the point, at 75 mph, a vehicle would be moving at 110 feet per second. It only takes a second to change your entire life. However, to blame unsafe driving entirely on phones is irresponsible, although it is statistically demonstrated to be a particular influence, with a rise in deaths due to motor vehicle crashes aligning with the rise of social media in the mid-2010s. That said, to look at these statistics on their own is ignoring a critical issue.
Lack of experience, in my eyes, is one of the greatest dangers teenagers face in driving. The road is a very dangerous place in of itself, not knowing how to operate a vehicle well only places your life at an even higher risk. I’ve been recently taking driving classes and have found that the road is a very unforgiving place. Oftentimes, I’d find that many motorists ignore the laws of conduct that constitute safe driving, putting rule-abiding citizens at risk. Furthermore, this pressures inexperienced drivers to “pick up the pace” by driving dangerously, oftentimes to catastrophic results. New motorists do not have a safe space to practice in our ever-streamlined asphalt and concrete society and are forced onto the main roads that other motorists frequent. As urban sprawl continues to spread further into the wilderness, so too does road infrastructure, which, when combined with the death of third spaces (or spaces that serve a purpose other than residence or commercial purposes, often providing a safer area for practice than main roads) leads to a lack of a safe space for new drivers. In being thrown right into the danger of primary roads, experience is built at the cost of safety, leading to a flawed understanding of the proper management of a vehicle. By providing new drivers a safe space to practice in and familiarize themselves with their vehicles, as well as finding alternative solutions to car-centric travel, we can make travel safer for all motorists.
In conclusion, the key takeaways to encouraging road safety in teens is to develop a better awareness of fellow motorists in teens. Of course, it’s important to emphasize that YOU SHOULD NEVER LOOK AT YOUR PHONE WHILE DRIVING, but the root of unsafe driving should be tackled, as opposed to the symptoms. Empathy is an emotion that is hard to come by in the perilous roads that connect our cities together, and is something that should be encouraged to new drivers. Slowly but surely, we may be able to dissuade the pervasive road rage culture that’s swept our nation. Furthermore, in regulating urban sprawl, providing safe spaces for inexperienced drivers to familiarise themselves with the intricacies of driving, promoting the development of third spaces, and in designing more walkable community spaces, we not only make safer drivers, but encourage safer driving as a whole. We, as drivers, need to understand the responsibility we have shouldn’t be taken lightly. Cars are a tool, and any tool can hurt us if we mishandle them.
