Innovative Driving

Juhani Williams

2020 Drivers Education

Unfortunately, many people have died at the hands of car crashes. A lot of which comes from the lack of education on the road. To receive your learner’s permit or license you must complete a series of test and study requirements. Believe it or not the problem lies within the information that is being taught to teens who later grow into adults. The information that is given is great but not enough. People can leave the DMV with their license but still have no clue about certain rules regarding the road. People seem to only study what they will need to study in order to pass. To most people their mindset is why study things that will not be on the test. Those things they choose not study are very important when it comes to driving. Simple things like knowing when you have the right of way, could make a big difference. There are also many cases where people simply forget. They end up doing the cram technique for the test or study the material and never really learn the information; because of this they never remember everything.

I believe if we were to implement more thorough testing, then we could help students or new drivers remember everything they need to know. The test doesn’t need to be necessarily harder because you want people to pass, but rather have more content. Having more questions that are easier than a few that hard, could help tremendously. The more people are exposed to, the more they can learn. If they only need to study a few of the basic rules, that’s all they’re going to learn. If they were told Multiple things would be on the test. Then they will automatically have to study more, thus expanding their knowledge of the road. Another alternative for people to learn could be creating test with different questions. If people don’t know what’s going to be on the test, then they’ll have to study everything. For the best results though, the DMV or test proctor should provide the proper study material. When you do this, you give people the opportunity to better understand the road and to be a more responsible driver.

I’ve had experience with drivers that weren’t very responsible. Unfortunately, those irresponsible drivers are my parents. A lot of the time my father finds himself rushing and in doing so tends to speed to his location. Him speeding may end up leading to him hurting himself or others. It could also lead to him getting pulled over and receiving a ticket. At that point he would now have a ticket on his record and a fine to pay. Leaving him in a situation that wouldn’t be worth it. I’ve also noticed my parents will tend to speed up when there is a yellow light, so they don’t get stopped by the red light. This is another problem that could easily get someone hurt. The first problem with this is that they’re doing the opposite of what the light is telling them to do. The yellow light is there to tell people to slow down, because the light is getting ready to turn red. The second problem with this would be the amount of time the yellow will be up. If you speed up to late, the light could turn red. Not only would you be running a red light, but you could also lead yourself into a crash. These two irresponsible actions are very dangerous for the driver, passengers, and other vehicles around them.

A solution could be, having people drive with the mindset of “driving for yourself and others”. Funny enough it was actually my father that taught me this quote. Simply what it means is to be safe on the road. Whether that’s doing all your proper mirror checks, driving the speed limit, giving your self-space between cars, no texting while driving or driving to keep other people safe. You’d be showing prime examples of driving for yourself and others. By doing everything a proper driver should, many people would automatically become safer drivers. For many people though, they would choose not to follow the proper rules of a driver. At that point, the process would need some encouragement Constantly recycling the idea in peoples head would help them. Examples could be making the quote a motto, including it on test, creating commercials and radio broadcast, and even making bumper stickers. Bringing up the number of deaths by car crash could help as well. The best way for someone to remember something is to see it over and over again. As of result there will be a reduction in deaths and many lives saved!