The Imperative Elements of Driver’s Ed.

Driver’s Education is imperative to road safety, as is the sharing of experiences and lessons learned on the road. If a new driver is not adequately prepared to recognize and react to the various signs, conditions, and traffic, then they will find themselves overwhelmed with information and decision paralysis. This is especially dangerous on Highways where often there are three lanes or more and everyone is going 65mph and up, where you need to make decisions within seconds to maneuver, speed up, or slow down to get where you’re going and not harm anyone in the process. If a decision can’t be executed fast enough, people’s lives are very much at stake. This is why the teaching of defensive driving and the rule of “Following the Flow of Traffic” are pivotal to driving in high density areas like cities and Interstates. Because more than teaching someone to defend their place on the road, it also teaches the confidence needed to make these high-risk decisions. A driver who isn’t sure of themselves is more likely to attempt maneuvers and immediately back out, which misdirects everyone around them, making for a stressful, accident-prone environment. Driver’s Education is not only about fully informing drivers about the laws and rules of the road, but also about teaching drivers what they can expect and making them comfortable enough with driving to be able to do it safely. Driving should never be Trial-by-Fire.

In addition to teaching the official rules, it is also worth it to share driving experiences. My dad shared one of his experiences with me from when he and his friends were starting out as drivers. It was a dark summer night, and they were split up between two trucks, driving with the lights off; my dad wasn’t driving, but his friends were. They were going down a two-lane road, driving side by side while playing and passing mixtapes through the windows between them. One of them was in the on-coming traffic lane. They were going over a hill, when surprise, another car was coming at them from the other way. All three of them just barely had enough time to react, and the third car threaded the needle, barely clearing the gap they had managed to create. My dad swears they all missed it by a hair’s width. From that, he taught me to always drive with the lights on at night, to slow down when driving up hill because you can never see if a car’s coming in your direction, and to not try reckless things like passing mixtapes with my friends. Another thing I learned from hearing other’s experiences is to be careful with how you drive as it can damage your car. This came from my aunt who used to do donuts in the parking lot of her school every day. Because of this, there was a mechanical part that was frequently being unset by the rough action, causing my grandpa to have to reset it every time. It pays to pay attention to your car and how it’s handling. But not everyone is going to have family that can readily share their experiences, which is why it’s important for seasoned drivers to teach driver’s education, as they’ll have a wider pool of experiences to draw from when teaching others.

In that same vein, Driver’s Education needs to include proper car maintenance. It’s not enough to know how to handle a car, a basic knowledge of how it works under the hood can save drivers time and money. For instance, they may have an issue with the battery but would have to get it diagnosed and taken care of by a mechanic, having to pay for the mechanic’s time and labor while also covering the cost of a new battery that had to be ordered in so the mechanic could replace it. This could have been managed single-handedly if they knew how to trouble shoot the issue and that they could buy a new battery themselves from a local auto shop. Sure, they would be the one installing it, but by the end of it they would have saved a couple hundred at least. In another case, they may not be able to get to a mechanic, but they might have a car-savvy friend to call on, or someone online may have made a tutorial referencing their specific problem; but those aren’t always options, and It’s a failing of the current program that these things aren’t taught. Of course, there are many things you do need a mechanic for, and roadside assistance does exist, but it would be valuable to know how to manage the basic surface-level stuff yourself, like where and how to air your tires up during seasonal temperature changes. This would also be good for a driver’s emotional health as they would not have to spend time stressing over something as menial and fixable as a rock stuck deep in the wheel. Knowing how to identify issues in your car and where you can readily get the resources to fix it should be an integral part of Driver’s Education.

Furthermore, it is not just about knowing what you can and can’t fix by yourself, but also knowing what regular touch-ups your car needs. Like how often to get the oil changed, when to get your wheels balanced and rotated, and how to flush-clean your gas tank. It is important that drivers are taught how they can do these things themselves as well as where they can go for these services. Knowing where they can get this routine maintenance done is especially important for old, disabled, and injured people who may not be physically able to do this by their selves. Driving is about knowing the rules of the road and terrain as much as it is about knowing how to take care of a car to ensure the safest driving conditions possible for yourself.

And lastly, it is important to be mindful of who you get in a car with. Two of my cousins, Jackson, and Gracie, were in an accident where their friend was driving. Jackson came out alive, though his friend was paralyzed from the neck down. Gracie tragically lost her life along with her five friends. They both trusted the people they were with, and in the case of one they were deliberately speeding, but in the latter, they made the absent-minded mistake of pulling too far into an intersection. Anything can happen on the road and it is never a guarantee that you’ll come back safe when you get into a car, but an individual can at least do everything to make sure that they’re safe even when they’re not in the driver’s seat. If my cousin Jackson had persuaded his friend not to speed, that accident never would have happened. And if my cousin Gracie had encouraged her friend to be more aware at the wheel, it might have been enough to keep that truck from clipping them into oblivion. In either case they were hard experiences for the family; Jackson is just now getting used to riding and driving in cars again, and we all keep Gracie in our hearts. I think she watches over us, it felt like she was watching over me when I swerved into two lanes of oncoming traffic trying to dodge a pothole – somehow, I cleared it without hitting anyone. I just slid to a halt in the grass, no damage to myself or my car. I’m not religious, but I really believe Gracie was guiding me that day.

All that to say, that a certain amount of driving is going to be up to chance, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t actions we can take to push those chances in our favor. The importance of Driver’s Ed is to teach us how to push chance, by following the rules of the road, fostering awareness and confidence, encouraging safer driving practices, and taking care of our cars.