Developing Principles for Safe Driving: The Community’s Duty

Carlos Garcia Lopez

Drivers Education Scholarship Essay

7/12/21

Developing Principles for Safe Driving: The Community’s Duty

After years of anticipation, your ticket to freedom calmly rests in the palm of your hands. Long night drives, spontaneous weekend excursions, and the cool breeze caressing your face are only a few of the new opportunities that await. However, before enjoying all the positive things driving provides, it is critical to evaluate the risks young drivers expose themselves. Yearly, more than 38,000 citizens have met a fatal end due to irresponsible driving in the United States alone. Because of this, it is critical to implement cautionary steps to reduce the mass number of car-related deaths. Most notably, to institute safe driving practices amongst young drivers, it is valuable to develop mature attitudes about driving, train for poor weather conditions, and advocate for the building of smart-designed streets.

One specific method which can help reduce driving-related fatalities is to develop healthy and mature attitudes within drivers. Statistically, many teen automobile accidents are the outcome of a lack of maturity and mental approach to stressful situations rather than skill. While learning to use blinkers before changing lanes and maintaining a safe distance from other cars is pivotal, knowing how to react to your environment and cognitively preparing yourself for your surroundings is just as important. When inexperienced drivers gain access to unsupervised driving, they develop an urge to exercise their new privileges to the best of their ability. In consequence, they disregard traffic and other drivers as they experience their first independent car drive. By implementing a responsible mindset around driving, many automobile accidents will decrease. Teaching novice drivers to respect other vehicles and prepare how to react in a stress-inducing situation will reduce the risk of driving. Conducting a high-speed metal object is lethal. Drivers owe it not just to themselves but their community to drive safely and regard other drivers. All in all, inactively cementing mental capability in an inexperienced motorist is already instigating incompetent driving skills, which, in the long run, can stem life-threatening situations.

Furthermore, another technique that, in being implemented, can improve road safety is to teach student drivers to adjust to weather conditions. Weather is arguably the most paramount factor when it comes to safe driving. Whether it is fog, rain, snow, dust storms, adapting to different conditions is critical to keep yourself and those around you safe. Regarding driving school, teachers and trainers gravitate towards instruction on sunny and clear days for hands-on learning. However, while efficiently introducing young drivers to the carefully organized streets, it does not fully prepare them for inclement weather and its stressful impact on the avenues. Instructors must prepare their students to the best of their ability. In conjunction with ideal driving conditions, poor weather is equally demanding to instruct. Therefore, taking pupils on small excursions in substandard weather can introduce the skills to be successful and productive drivers. Collectively, teaching pupils to drive in different weather goes beyond a verbal “drive slow” and “be precautious.” Hands-on learning is coherent as it supplies experience and realistic expectations.

Lastly, a supplemental practice that can reduce road casualties is to call for the upkeeping and building of safe and well-designed streets. Just as essential as prepared drivers, maintained and updated paved streets according to traffic flow are necessary. Both local and federal governments must provide their civilians with safe and regulated streets. Cleanly paved and marked highways help avoid flat tires, traffic misunderstandings, and congested flow. Hence, as functioning citizens, we are obligated to demand safe and clean streets. It engages us with local policies and helps reduce the probability of automobile-linked casualties. Additionally, urban planning that constructs operative street systems helps organized and structured driving. In doing so, fresh chauffeurs have an easier time adapting to the road and its markings.

Enjoying unprecedented trips and freely roaming about a city is only a fraction of the realities of driving. In the bigger picture, there are more things at risk that require focus and responsibility. And because new drivers tend to ignore these liabilities, car-related deaths are nationally on the rise. Thereupon, to reduce the risk of driving, it is determining to introduce maturity into the malleable minds of young drivers, implement a curriculum that gives first-hand experience about different driving conditions, as well as maintaining and organizing highway systems to avoid collateral damage. Although these seem like incidental steps, in the long run, they can aid daily commutes throughout various communities and save lives from careless driving.