Driving is Dangerous?

I remember growing up and driving around on the sidewalk recklessly in my electric toy jeep. Hadent had a single care in the world, all due to my parents making sure I didn’t go too far. And I, as a child, deemed driving as easy. So I knew that when the time came to take my driving test, I would already be a professional. Then I learned that there’s rules, there’s police that can pull you over, and I drive with other people on the road. This began to terrify me. So in order to not put other people and myself In danger, I studied as much as I could for my driving written and road test. In fact, why is driving even dangerous? Shouldn’t we be educated enough for the road?

During my lectured driving class I noticed driving was pretty nonchalant to my peers. It had seemed that in their own time they got to try out real driving when they were young. In my life I hadn’t really driven at all, except for that toy electric jeep. But irregardless to that I knew education was important, and I didnt like that they were so nonchalant. You could think you know everything then miss out on so much. Which is why the road isn’t safe because there are drivers who think all they need to know is how to “drive”. Being a responsible driver requires not only the knowledge of how to drive, but also the mental shift of knowing when not to drive.

Which is why most drivers end up almost hitting a person merging, or running a red light with a pedestrian about to cross. Most driving written tests don’t ask people to focus on that. It’s either knowing what this sign means, or how fast you can go on a highway. Can you drive, is what the test is asking. Nothing about the thought process of what you should do when you feel like you’re not able to safely drive, even when you know how.

Some steps that I think could help out the educational part of driving, is to educate new drivers on the psychological thinking that goes with driving. To focus drivers on finding out what’s important before they begin driving. Different drivers will give you different answers. Some say what’s important is getting to the next destination. Others will say what’s important is being safe, then eventually getting to the next destination. I think it’s important to mentally embed in the second one. This approach of knowing how to do something vs what to do knowing you know how to do something, will help people put the statistic of 34,000 dying each year from driving in retrospect.

In my experience, I’ve known several people who have gotten into problems with driving. Some were friends who late at night were zooming through side streets at almost full speed, and I’ve even heard stories where they almost got hit. Then there’s another instance of when me and my mother were in a car, and my mom forgot to hit her brakes, accidentally nudging the car in front of her. This occurred because my mother was under the mental influence of stress and instability that day. Which is why most people can drive just fine, but if their thoughts are not focused on driving safely or on being responsible while driving, accidents can happen.

Some positive things I’ve seen from great drivers come from my dad. My dad used to be a professional truck driver, and he made a lot of technically risky driving moves in his day. Some include driving on an iced over road, driving through tornado valleys and more. But even though he was good at driving, he never put other people at risk. He would drive smart while keeping the speed limit in his personal vehicle. One time he saw a truck not seeing other cars in its blind spot about to move over, and he would communicate with them through flashing his front lights in a certain way. This would either cause the truck to move over or flash back a “thank you” in lights. Apparently, there were some old school ways to speak with drivers in trucks. He used communication and thinking, over just driving casually. So I admired him because he would always push away his great technical ability, and instead always thought mentally too about how he could drive safely.

Some steps I take before driving on the road is mentally remembering what I’ll need to think about as I drive. I know that although I’m a good driver, I have to always be thinking for every scenario. Some people who drive just stop thinking and they go on autopilot, resulting in a more risky venture if something comes out of their blind spot suddenly. I do the opposite, when I’m driving I focus on what i’m doing currently and I remember the rules mentally to stay safe. Which brings me back to the beginning. Shouldn’t we be educated enough for the road? You may know how to drive, but no one’s thinking while they drive because they do that everyday. Always think about how important driving is and how you can be safe before you get into the vehicle!