The Benefits of Driver’s Ed

When I first started to learn to drive it was in the parking lot of an abandon mall. I learned to parallel park, accelerate and decelerate smoothly. When we would get on the road to practice my mom would freak out and over react with everything. This made me more nervous trying to learn to drive. We enrolled in a driver’s education class where I had a neutral person teaching me. This person did not over react and grab the ceiling constantly. I felt more confident and was gradually able to take more chances like merging on and off the highway.

In terms of a community, I took this class with a friend and so it made it more rewarding to go to class and practice with her. We both had the same high standards in learning to drive that we learned in class.

Taking the driver’s education class was very beneficial in making me confident, learning to react more quickly and learning to be a safer driver.

One step that can be taken to reduce the number of deaths related to driving would be to include a defensive driving class in all the driver’s education class, where one can practice driving on ice, snow, slippery hills, stopping suddenly, etc. Another step would be to force all kids to take a driver’s education class. I also think the age of one getting a permit should be raised. Fourteen years old is young for kids to be defensive in driving and react in a quick manner. Last, making sure people are not distracted by cell phones, putting on makeup, talking to passengers, fiddling with the radio, etc would be a great way to reduce deaths from car accidents.

The only car accident I have been in was at school leaving an icy parking lot in my friends car and someone rear ended us. We were responsible but the conditions for driving were very bad. In hindsight, we should have waited until the parking lot cleared out. My mom and brother had someone run a stop sign and ended up T-boning them. My brother was very shook up and the car was in the shop for a few weeks.

For me personally to be a safer and better driver I can turn my phone onto drivers mode when I am driving so I don’t receive texts. I should also practice more on the ice. Making sure I leave early for my destinations will ensure that I don’t rush, possibly endangering my life or someone else’s.