The Rules of the Road

The Rules
of the Road

The
second you notice the black car, time begins to slow and the next
moments feel like an eternity. You see yourself barreling down the
road at 45mph, which now feels like 100mph, your knuckles turn white
from gripping the steering wheel, your heart tries to pound its way
out of your chest, and thousands of scenarios fly through your mind.
Do you hit your horn? Do you try to brake in time? Do you do nothing?
When I decided to swerve to the other side of the road, I avoided
T-boning the driver’s side of the car that had turned in front of
me without the right of way. Thankfully because there was no oncoming
traffic, I also avoided a head on collision. My decision that day was
the right one, but it very easily could’ve ended with shattered
windshields, crushed hoods, and lives taken too soon.

Everyday,
I am grateful that that accident didn’t happen but I am also
grateful for the experience that it gave me. Here’s the thing,
there is no way to predict how you are going to react in that kind of
situation. But by learning how to drive through classes and road
experience, in the moment when a driver is faced with that kind of
decision, everything they’ve learned will unconsciously help them
to make a decision. If they scanned their mirrors, they’ll know if
there is a car next to them or if they can use that lane as an escape
route, if they paused before entering an intersection, they may
notice that car running the red light, or if they kept the three
second distance between them and the car in front of them, they may
just be able to stop in time. 

One
thing that I have learned from being a passenger with both family and
friends is that people really hate when you critique their driving,
even when they’re being unsafe. The worst is when it comes to
speeding. So, instead of telling them their speeding, I’ve found
that saying things like “the speed limit is 35mph here” or “cops
really like to hang out in this area, so just be careful,” are more
effective. This way, the driver feels as though they are making the
decision to slow down or avoid a speeding ticket and not being
attacked by the passenger.

Another
thing I’ve learned is it’s important to reduce the distractions in
the car. There’s already so much that a driver has to pay attention
to on the road, nobody can control what the people around them are
going to do, so the driver’s primary focus should be on that, not
what is happening in the car. Driving is a huge responsibility and
it’s important to know the rules of the road because there are
thousands of other lives, including your own, that depend on it.