Just Because You Don’t Text and Drive Doesn’t Mean You are a Safe Driver

When I first received my license I was constantly aware of my surroundings since I was so new to driving alone. After some time, I began to get more familiar with the areas I drove frequently and became less conscious of all my driving responsibilities. I was now going on my phone to change the music or getting my starbucks app open when I should have been focusing on the road. Just because I wasn’t texting, I considered myself safe driving–which wasn’t the case. I wasn’t thinking about getting into an accident, because like many others I had that mindset of, “that couldn’t happen to me.” If I am being honest, just this past year I started noticing how unsafe these behaviors are and that I needed to stop before I put myself or someone else in danger.

Personally, I think switching my music is the biggest distraction for me and most young adults. Constantly I feel the need to have music on because It helps me focus and enjoy my commutes to work or school. I tend to just shuffle all my music so I have a wide variety of artists and genres to keep me entertained, but I find myself grabbing my phone multiple times to skip the song or quickly find a new one in my library. Those split seconds a child or animal can easily run into the road and I could be too distracted to notice. A good solution for this that I have begun doing is making a playlist of all my most listened to songs, this is so I don’t have to skip the ones I am not in the mood for. Also, with apps like apple music and spotify before driving I can queue up a list of songs to play one after the other.

Safe driving is really important and I feel like in today’s society it is often pushed aside because we have such a “go, go, go” mentality. Speeding is a prominent problem on the roads now and it has been for as long as I can remember. Driving is meant to get you from point A to point B in a timely manner, but there are obviously speed limits for a reason. One, slower areas of traffic are usually when near a school of some sort or a highly populated area that has lots of walkers. Another reason for slower speed limits is neighborhood roads, since they usually have many small children and pets. There are also many other reasons, but these are the main ones. I have been guilty of speeding down my road which is populated with young children and farm animals and have never really thought about the major consequences, but being introduced to this scholarship I have begun to be more cautious with my driving. I also understand that it is difficult to follow speed limits when you are running late to something really important, but no matter the circumstance as a whole citizens need to follow traffic laws because car accidents are not hard to get into.

Driver education is a very crucial factor in safe handling of motorized vehicles. This course informs new drivers on how driving works within the car, as well as prepares you for the basic skills needed on the road such as: merging, passing, road signs, traffic laws,etc. Personally, if I hadn’t taken drivers ed I would feel very unprepared to drive by myself or even with an in car instructor. I have had my license for close to two years now and I still sometimes get confused with certain road signs, so people who don’t have previous driving knowledge definitely need to take a driving course. I think a lot of car accidents could be prevented if everyone on the road had proper road education.

Overall, there are many methods of unsafe driving but the universal issue is not being aware of your surroundings when behind the wheel. If everyone were to drive like it was their first time driving alone, I think traffic would be a lot safer. Also when it comes to in-car entertainment, such as music, getting everything ready before getting on route to your destination will help keep us away from distraction from cell phones. Also, turning on do not disturb on mobile phones is needed, especially if you are easily distracted by your phone. Safe driving is something everyone needs to practice more, hopefully one day our roads can be safer.