I’m Working on It: Learning to Drive on Philly Streets

I am 22 years old and I do not have my license. YET. For the past three years, my summers back home from college have been dedicated to getting my driver’s license, a stressful and frustrating ordeal that involved early morning drives around an empty parking lot with my dad. This is the last summer I can try to achieve my goal without needing to renew my permit, creating a deadline for myself that I am motivated to meet. This is also the summer that I have decided to try a different method of learning, one where I am taught by a certified driving instructor instead of only relying on driving around with my dad.

Driving is seen as a foundational skill in America, with 91% of adults having a driver’s license in 2024. Even before getting behind the wheel, one of the earliest skills that we learn about the world is how to “look both ways when you cross the street”, practicing pedestrian safety as we co-exist with such convenient but dangerous machinery. New drivers behind the wheel face the highest likelihood of experiencing a traffic ticket at the least, and a fatal car crash at the most. It surprises me, therefore, to see how little priority driving has as a skill that is taught in my city of Philadelphia, who, like many states and cities in this country, defer the job of teaching these foundational skills to the individual.

Data has shown that teenage drivers who do not complete a formal driver’s education are 75% more likely to receive a traffic ticket, and 25% more likely to experience a fatal or injurious crash. 31 states require driver’s education as a teen driver, and this number falls down to 11 states after the driver turns 18-years-old. Pennsylvania is one of these states, and the Philadelphia School District offers no training or resources related to learning how to drive in high school curricula. For students like myself who live in the inner-city, access to public transportation lessens the urgency of learning how to drive, especially when considering the hassle of driving in high-traffic areas such as center city. However, learning how to drive is a useful skill to know as we grow older and gain independence. I don’t want my lack of a driver’s license to be a reason why I turn down a job offer, decide not to move somewhere, or get stuck in an emergency.

For this reason, I do believe that Philadelphia should move driver’s education up on the priority list to help improve road safety and save lives. It is understandable that schools within the Philadelphia School District cannot afford the resources to teach a mandated driver’s course, but I think that one way around this challenge is to encourage partnerships between the school district and established driver’s education courses. One major barrier to the official driver’s education courses is their expensive costs. The School District should partner with a trusted driver’s education program to offer either free or reduced-cost classes as an elective opportunity. This would relieve the burden on both the student and their guardians, who have to either pay hundreds of dollars and research credible driving education programs, or find the time and energy to teach and learn on their own time.

One of the main deciding factors for my decision to enroll in a driver’s education course is the conversation I had with my dad about our time together in the car. He grew up in Harrisburg and took a mandated driver’s education course when he was in high school, in addition to practicing with both of his parents. He is the only person that I know who can help me with driving, as my mom refuses to get her license after getting in a car crash when she was behind the wheel as a teenager herself. My dad realized that, even after the time we have spent together in the parking lot, he did not feel comfortable with teaching me. I was initially surprised to hear this, seeing how my dad educates for a living and is one of the safest drivers I know. Even so, he and I both realized that the safest way for me to drive is to learn from a professional who is trained in teaching in a way that prioritizes road safety. Even though my dad has spent decades driving myself and my siblings to school, after school programs, and birthday parties, he doesn’t remember what it was like to get behind the wheel for the first time. What seems intuitive to him is foreign to me, which makes us both anxious and uncertain about how we can move forward, both metaphorically and literally. Driver’s education courses, therefore, offer more than the intricacies of parallel parking; they aim to establish trust between the instructor and the student, which is the best way to instill trust in the new driver learning to navigate the road and communicate with others behind the wheel.

I recently handed over the money I had saved up for months to schedule my first lesson for early August of this summer. I hope to not only receive my license after completing my driver’s education program, but to also feel confident about driving safely. On the road, especially for the next few years, I will emphasize being a defensive and cautious driver, just like my dad. Off the road, I will continue to advocate for accessible driver’s education courses, pushing for schools that already prioritize the development of students to add one more skill to their list of topics to prioritize when educating the next generation of adults.