Beyond the Wheel: Safe Mobility Through Cooperation, Innovation, and Regulation

The first day I got behind the wheel at 15, my father made sure I knew this statement: “You’re not just driving for yourself, you’re driving for other people,” and that statement has stuck with me since. We only live once, and it’s extremely important to ensure that when we get behind the wheel of a machine that can cause serious injury to ourselves and others if used incorrectly, we must hold ourselves to a high standard. Drivers education is designed to ensure drivers are able to wield this power with discipline. By teaching the various laws, customs, and tactics involved in driving, every student comes out of the program a better and safer driver than they were before. In 1886, Carl Benz patented the Benz Patent-Motorwagen, which began the age of modern cars. 13 years later in 1899, the first year the US Dept. of Transportation began recording data on motor vehicle deaths, there were around 8000 vehicles registered in the united states, and 26 fatalities that year from accidents. To reduce the amount of car crashes and fatalities, we need to understand why they happen in the first place.

Firstly, we can point out distractions, as they play a major part in crashes. Cell phones (including GPS), passengers, food, applying cosmetics, and looking at an object/event that is not essential to see when driving (ie; looking at a crash while driving past it), all play a part in distracted driving. Food and cosmetics can be avoided entirely by doing these tasks beforehand, or stopping the vehicle to do them. Cell phones are very tempting to use, but it’s essential to keep yourself in check. A good way is to use the ‘out of sight, out of mind’ technique. Putting your phone in a pocket, glovebox, center console, or any other place where it is not directly visible, helps to reduce any temptations to use it while driving. A hands-free system in your vehicle can help by integrating a phone’s functionality into the vehicle’s steering wheel or center screen, allowing you to focus on the road but still be able to make/accept calls, set GPS routes, and depending on the system, send text messages. It is important to ensure that passengers do not distract you, and this can be accomplished by informing them that if they wish to ride with you, they must not cause a distraction. While it is tempting to want to look at that fancy car, or gawk at a car crash, it is important you don’t do this while driving, because you travel a much larger distance than you think you do when you’re not paying attention, and anything can happen during those few seconds of distraction, which can lead to a fatal accident.

Another important way to reduce fatalities is to help protect people that aren’t on the road at all: Pedestrians and pedal cyclists In 2021, 20% of the fatalities in traffic crashes were pedestrians and pedal cyclists An issue with American biking infrastructure is that most of it is on the roadway itself, with it usually being a painted gutter/edge of the road, or even worse, in between lanes of traffic. A simple way to protect pedal cyclists is to widen the sidewalks (and add them where there aren’t any), and then separate the sidewalk into two sections, one for bicycles, and one for pedestrians, which ensures that pedestrians are safe from being hit by vehicles and pedal cyclists, and removing pedal cyclists from the road, which reduces pedestrian and pedalcyclist deaths. Another way to protect pedestrians and pedal cyclists is to institute raised sidewalks (the sidewalk does not dip down to the road, and instead stays the same height, sending a message to drivers that the space is for people), this ensures that a driver must slow down when crossing a sidewalk, which helps to reduce the number of collisions with pedestrians.

Also, another major factor in driving fatalities is speed. In 2021 28% of all traffic fatalities were attributed to speed. A reduction in speed is an easy way to reduce fatalities. The best way to do this is to use penalties and traffic calming strategies, like speed bumps, chicanes, narrow roads, and low/close trees. Let me explain: A major part of speeding is that people don’t notice it, because eventually they drive at a speed they feel comfortable with, based on the road’s design. Using chicanes and narrow roads decreases the speed that people feel comfortable driving a given road, and low/close trees ensure a person is aware of their speed when they drive. The design of a road changes the behavior of the driver, which leads to safer roads for all. Changing the attitude on how people drive can make roads safer and also more efficient. In America, instead of sharing the road so that everyone benefits from more efficient driving, a lot of people act territorially when they drive, which does nothing but slow everyone down and cause unnecessary stress for other drivers. If we all work more proactively, we could easily reduce the amount of crashes resulting from road rage, crossing multiple lanes to reach an exit, cutting others off, tailgating, squeezing into lanes, and more.

Furthermore, the year is 2023, and we have revolutionary technology at our fingertips. With AI and sensors, we have already created and are actively training vehicles that can drive themselves. With this same technology, we can make systems to warn drivers of impending dangers, and if necessary, act on it. Most modern vehicles have front-facing cameras, which when paired with AI, can allow a vehicle to detect obstacles and respond accordingly, reducing collisions with It can also display posted speed limits in case the driver does not notice, which helps reduce speeding related crashes. Speaking of design, a major issue I have noticed with ‘light trucks’ (this includes SUVs), is that they have very relaxed regulations on their design. A passenger vehicle, like a Honda Accord, is required by law to have a front bumper height from 16-20 inches. However, a light truck, like a Chevrolet Tahoe, does not even need a bumper according to regulations. This results in light trucks causing an issue called ‘crash compatibility’. Basically, two passenger vehicles’ safety features work together when they’re in a crash, helping to reduce injury for people in either vehicle. The issue comes with the raised bumpers on light trucks, which can cause the light truck’s bumper to not reach the passenger vehicle’s bumper, causing a deadly crash as the light truck goes over the safety features of the passenger vehicle, and sometimes even goes over the vehicle entirely. This lack of compatibility causes many deaths, and steps should be taken to lower the height of light truck bumpers. Another issue is with pedestrian safety and light trucks’ hood design. Most light trucks (ex: Ford F-150, Chevrolet Tahoe, Ford Expedition, Toyota Land Cruiser, and the Nissan Armada) have long and tall hoods that are parallel to the ground. Coupled with the vehicle being high up, it is not easy to see what’s immediately in front of the vehicle, which can cause ‘frontovers’, where a driver cannot see someone directly in front of the vehicle (usually a child), and the person is run over by the vehicle. These high hoods are also dangerous if someone of average height is hit by one, as it’s more likely the person will be thrown to the ground by the high hood. In a passenger car, the hood is low enough where the person is usually thrown onto the hood of the vehicle, which reduces the rate of fatalities by having the legs be hit, not the upper body. Regulations on the hood design of light trucks (at least ones that are mainly used in cities, where they serve the purpose of passenger cars) can reduce crashes, and save lives.

Additionally, increasing the amount of training time required (ie: more hours driving with your parents and with your driving school), and making the minimum score to pass a test higher than it currently is will ensure that a driver is better equipped and more knowledgeable when they get their license. Increasing penalties for violating traffic laws like speeding, seatbelt usage, dangerous driving, and others can help deter people from breaking the law. Rather than monetary penalties, it should be points on your license, as monetary incentives breeds corruption, while points on a license instead encourage a driver to behave. As long as you don’t violate these simple laws, you aren’t affected. A good way to ensure people are knowledgeable about new laws and are still up to driving standards is to require a road test every 5-10 years. Additionally, no vehicle is the same, and by this logic, it should make sense to require vehicles that are inherently more dangerous or are more complicated to operate should require further classes and specialized training/driving sessions to ensure a driver is prepared to drive the vehicle they have. A good example of this would be requiring light trucks to have more training on how to ensure the vehicle does not roll over and how to stay aware of surroundings with the larger blind spots. This also plays into drivers practicing on their own to prepare for adverse weather or extreme circumstances. The best way to do this is to practice hard braking with your vehicle in a parking lot, so that way you know how the car feels when you need to brake hard on the road. If you live in a snowy environment, practice driving on snow/ice in a large and open area to see how your vehicle reacts. This allows you to have a better understanding of your car in case you lose control during adverse weather, which can prevent a crash.

Another way to help reduce fatalities is to ensure your friends drive safe. In my high school, there were many people who drove as if they did not take a driver’s ed course. There was a crash in the parking lot at least once a month. I used to have a friend who was a very dangerous driver. He would speed, crash bicycles, and much worse. He demonstrated some of the riskiest driving that I’ve seen in person, and it’s quite obvious why I distanced myself from him.

These suggestions apply to everyone, including me. There are things that I can improve about myself, like my over-attentiveness for my mirrors, as I tend to look behind me for a lot longer than I should. I also feel like I can improve my driving style, and that can easily be solved by driving more often. I believe that it is a priority to increase awareness of the issues I’ve mentioned above, as most of them are overlooked in America, and if we can solve even one issue above, we can easily reduce a significant amount of traffic fatalities.

In conclusion, drivers education is a core factor in reducing traffic fatalities, and although education is one factor there are many more that can contribute to the reduction of deaths, like changing the regulation on light trucks, increasing the amount of traffic calming techniques used, worsening penalties, or encouraging people to change the way they drive. However, these problems cannot be solved alone. Working together to institute new regulations and influence culture is our best option. By voting on new changes to regulations, we can design safer vehicles and roads, and make new classes of vehicles to reduce deaths, and if we work together as a community to educate ourselves and others, we can effectively reduce the amount of accidents altogether.

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