Driver Education

In 1886, Karl Benz had a groundbreaking invention that changed the course of history and eventually the way we live in this country. The first ever motorized vehicle called the Motorwagen by Karl benz was patented. It was a three wheeled two seater vehicle that performed less than a horsepower. Throughout time, technology advanced and the automobile became more efficient, affordable and available to everybody in the middle class. However the automobile not only shaped the way we travel, it shaped the way we live as a whole. Every city in the US is now built around the car. In order to understand why so many deaths happen on the road, we have to understand how we got to this point of car dependency so that we may find a solution to this issue. Driving under the influence is one of the leading causes of fatal accidents in the US. I will talk about how we can improve safety on the roads by reducing the amount of DUI’s. We can also improve road design, car design and increase driver education so that driving can be safer. As a Florida resident who regularly drives on the two most deadly roads in America, I will also give my personal accounts on what can be done to improve driver safety.

To understand how we got to car dependency we have to dive into history back to the 1950’s which is considered the golden age of the Automobile. America wasn’t always so car dependent. Matter of fact, the railroad was invented in the US as well. However the boom of the Automotive industry was so large and profitable the country started pandering to the automobile at the expense of walkable and safer communities. The formation of the suburbs and HOA communities were only made possible by the automobile. An hour commute by car to work became a normal life in the US. Because of the high number of people commuting to and from work everyday, it causes a serious safety concern on the roads. Congestion and high volume of traffic moving at high speeds is dangerous and should be avoided. The solution to this particular issue is to increase public transportation options and start building more walkable communities. We should still have the option to drive but with adequate public transportation, paying for a car is no longer required and most people would likely take public transportation to work. This will take the stress off of roads, making it safer to drive.

Increasing public transportation options will also decrease the amount of people driving under the influence. DUI’s are one of the leading causes of fatal accidents in the US. Because in most cases, the only way for someone to get home from a party or a club is to drive, they are more inclined to take the risk of driving under the influence. With more public transportation options they wouldn’t have to drive to a party at all, which means they also don’t have to drive back home potentially under the influence. This will make it safer for everyone on the road including pedestrians. However, Driving under the influence is only one of multiple factors that may lead to a driver not being safe on the road.

Un-educated drivers can also be dangerous. There are many situations that can happen on the road that will be dangerous if you’re not educated. An educated driver knows to slow down in hazardous situations. They also know to always use their signals when turning and to never stop on train tracks. An educated driver knows to yield to emergency vehicles and merge over when there’s a car stopped on the shoulder. There are many situations that require drivers to be educated and unfortunately there are many drivers that are either negligent or they lack the education to be safe in situations that are hazardous. A solution to this issue would be to increase awareness of drivers education and decrease the amount of hazards on the road. A good way to make drivers educated would be to make drivers education a required class or subject in school. A good way to make roads less hazardous is to change the way we think about upgrading roads. Instead of making lanes wider, make them more challenging to speed on especially in areas with pedestrians. This includes adding roundabouts, curbing, and curves or turns in the road to make it less invitable to speed on. This is in contrast to the dangerous “stroads” we see today.

I live in Florida and I can give personal experiences on how bad road design and negligent drivers make it dangerous to drive here in this state. The term “stroad” was coined by author Charles Marohn in 2011 and it refers to a road that has characteristics of a highway while serving as a common road with access to homes, businesses, and restaurants. US-192 in Kissimmee Florida fits that definition perfectly. Stroads are dangerous for pedestrians and because US-192 is close to Disneyworld and has a lot of tourist attractions, it makes it the one of deadliest US highways in the country due to accidents involving pedestrians. Florida also has I-4 which is the deadliest interstate in the country with 1.25 deaths per mile. This is likely due to construction, high traffic volume, and impaired drivers. Another dangerous road that I drive on is I-95 in Fort Lauderdale. The stretch between Marina Mile boulevard and the I-595 junction is the most dangerous stretch of interstate in the country. 24 fatalities have been recorded in one mile. This is due to changing traffic patterns, construction, high rate of speed, and high volume of traffic due to its proximity to FLL (Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood International Airport). After regularly driving on these roads for a few years now I can conclude that some common things that these roads have an issue with is poor urban planning, high volume of traffic, high rate of speed, and poor use of caution from many drivers.

34,000 people dying each year on average from car accidents is heartbreaking and should never be that high. I was never involved in a major car accident, however I did have my first fender bender on I-95. I was getting off on an exit ramp and people started breaking very hard. I had to slam on the breaks which caused me to be rear ended then hit the car in front of me. This was caused by a high volume of traffic going at around 40 mph. People didn’t have a lot of time to react which caused a chain reaction of people slamming on the breaks. When there’s a high volume of traffic, all it takes is one distracted driver to break hard and it could cause an accident. The issues we have with car accidents is not an anomaly. We build our lives around cars and don’t do enough to make driving safe. The solution to our issue is not easy. It requires us to think differently about how we incorporate cars in our lives. We have to reconstruct how we build entire cities in order to solve the issue. However, what we can do is take it one step at a time and make a big change over the years. Car safety features are getting more advanced and are saving lifes, however the driver can save even more by paying attention, being patient, going the speed limit, and being educated.