Building Safer Highways

Driver education is incredibly important but something that seems to be ignored and even pushed under the rug the second we’re issued our drivers licenses for the first time. Maybe for a little while afterwards, we try our best to obey the rules of the road and drive safely and ‘correctly,’ but eventually that carefulness can fall apart due to one important factor: lots of other people who drive don’t actually follow the rules of the road or bother being safe. When surrounded by people who seem to be ignoring the rules, it becomes silly in a way to follow them yourself, especially when no consistent punishment is given to individuals who don’t drive safely. Driver education is incredibly important for keeping people from driving unsafely and, in turn, creating other unsafe drivers along the way.

For a solution, I propose that when adults have to renew their licenses, they are also required to retake the drivers test. That way, blatant offenders can be taken off the road or have their bad habits remedied or pointed out to them. Obviously, of course, this is far from perfect. One completely rational criticism is that someone can pretty easily pass the drivers test, but that doesn’t necessarily reflect how they’ll drive on the road later. It’s just like how having highway patrol create speed traps doesn’t usually stop speeding, it just teaches people to stop speeding when they see a speed trap. But if you really think about it, these sorts of things are better than taking absolutely no action. The speed traps may not be a cure-all, but at least on certain parts of the highway people are obeying the law. The same goes for the driver’s test: at least during their driver’s tests they’ll be driving like they should, and even if it doesn’t stop them from driving unsafely it can at least be a reminder of how they’re supposed to drive, which could still lead to a positive influence overall.

Another good method to help motivate safe driving is something my dad actually taught me when I was learning to drive from him, ‘Defensive Driving.’ In a nutshell, as a defensive driver your job is to assume that people on the road with you won’t always be obeying the same laws that you are, and that you should be prepared to act accordingly when they don’t. A great example is with a freeway merge: when merging on the freeway, people are supposed to match your speed and figure out the merge on their own. But oftentimes that’s not the case, and the person on the freeway is forced to suddenly either brake or accelerate to accommodate the merge. But if you teach defensive driving, then the person already on the freeway expects the merger to make them do the work, so the defensive driver is therefore more prepared for a sudden change in speed, which can decrease the likelihood of an accident occurring.