My experience driving

I took drivers ed when I was fifteen. This was mostly because I needed to be able to drive myself to school the following year, but in the end covid hit so it didn’t really matter in that regard as everything was remote. But, for the several weeks it took to complete the course I would go to a classroom on the bottom floor after school and sit there with about twenty other kids as we were taught driving laws as well as how to drive safely.

Now, this wasn’t exactly the most interesting thing to do after school. I was tired from my other classes and the room we were in was fairly cold, a recipe for dozing. Thankfully I had a few friends in the class who saw to it that I stayed awake that first day.

The instructor, a lovely woman, decided to use bribes to keep us awake. Frankly, very effective on a bunch of high schoolers. Said bribed were to spend the last ten minutes of the class watching car crash videos, she’d ask us where particular drivers went wrong.

She was a genius for two reasons: the promise of these videos kept us interested in the course, and they were as entertaining as they were educational. These videos she showed, along with similar ones that were actually part of the course, gave us all a first hand look at accidents without ever leaving our seats.

This class was quite nice overall. There was the generic learning experience in class, and then occasionally we’d go to the actual instruction building across town to practice driving (after we had our permits of course). It was quite nerve wracking at first, but the instructor was patient and firm when she needed to be. This created a safe environment for us all to learn from our mistakes without risking anyone’s safety. I would say we all felt fairly confident in our driving abilities by the end of the course.

Driver’s ed gives people the opportunity to learn in a safe space without the added stress of learning on their own or with a family member. They have a chance to get in good habits before they’re on the road by themselves. Overall it helps keep everyone safer by giving them experience.

Honestly, I feel that everyone could benefit from some form of required course before being able to receive a license. It would help make sure people are fairly knowledgeable about driving laws, and give them a chance to get tips before their actual driving test. And I think as laws change it would be a good idea to maybe require a course like this every fifteen years or so, just enough to make sure people have maintained their driving skills, and are up to date on any recent law changes.

Where I took the lessons I learned in drivers ed to heart, my older sister however did not. One of my most memorable moments of being in the car with her was when we were in bumper to bumper in Seattle. My sister had friends in the back seat and at one point was full turned around talking to them with her foot off of the break.

I had frantically called her name and thankfully she stopped right before hitting the person in front of us. The real kicker was the fact that she was driving my car. While I’ve never been in an accident, my older sister has been in quite a few. At one point she was even hit by a bus on the way to Seattle a year later.

I will say that I feel I’m a fairly safe driver. I’ve been lucky enough to never have been in an accident, especially considering my home is about four hours from where I attend school. I’ve also never received a ticket. However I do look for ways to improve my driving skills in order to keep myself safe.

I memorize the exits and such that I need to take on the way to and from school, giving my ample time to get over when I know it’s not an easy exit. My phone automatically mutes itself when connected to my car, helping me avoid distractions.

Right now I think the main thing I can do to become a safer driver would be to learn from other’s mistakes while I’m on the road. Someone almost hits me by not signaling a merge? In response I do my best to make sure I give an ample amount of signal. Someone doesn’t take the exit at the correct time and almost hits me? I’ll make sure not to do that in the future, rather taking the next exit instead. Learning didn’t stop when I finished driver’s ed, I’ll pay attention to others and my own mistakes to continue improving.