Safety on the Road

Driving is an essential part of modern society. In many ways, society is centered around it. We fight wars and cause environmental crises to get oil to make gas. Automobile manufacturers make many billions of dollars each year. The taxes we pay go to the upkeep of roads and highways. And we rely on the ease of transport and the consumerist convenience that comes with cars and trucks. With all this focus on cars has come a great danger. In the United States alone, some 1.3 million people are killed in car accidents each year. Many millions more are injured. Cars are clearly too important to be eliminated from our lives. But we can’t just let this continue. We need to take steps to make driving safer for everyone.

Driver’s education is an absolutely essential step in making driving safer. Every driver in the United States is required to take it at some point, and it teaches lessons that can save lives if they are listened to. After I took driver’s ed, I found myself noticing things I had never noticed before on the road. I learned invaluable lessons, not only about the laws, but also about smaller things: how to avoid road rage, how to deal with driving anxiety, what to do if you are driving while drowsy, safety steps to take while driving in inclement weather. It definitely made me a better driver. But the problem with driver’s ed is that you usually take it as a teenager, and then that’s the end of your education as a driver. Many people forget the things they learn and go on to crash and kill on the road.

So driver’s ed for adults is the first of my recommended steps for reducing the number of deaths on the road. I think that every five or ten years, we should be required to take a class that refreshes the most important and neglected lessons from driver’s ed. This should include a drive from an instructor, who can notice any problems in the student’s driving. Driving is something that we get better at the more we do it, but this also means that we can cement bad habits by repeating them over and over. Having someone else correct those habits could make the roads much safer. Another step I think we should take is better upkeep of roads. Roads in bad conditions cause some car accidents, and these could be easily prevented with some maintenance. Another step is increasing penalties for driving while drunk or inebriated. This causes so many tragic deaths every year, and providing better incentives for not doing it could decrease that number. In the end, most car accidents are caused by human error, and I think education is the best way to reduce that.

I have been lucky enough to never be in a car accident, although most of my immediate family members have and I doubt I will be able to escape it for my entire life. But I have certainly seen family members driving irresponsibly. I will not name names, because they may read this essay, but I have a relative who almost never wears her seatbelt, even when we remind her. I also have a relative who uses his phone while at red lights and sometimes doesn’t notice when the light turns green. And then I have one who gets serious road rage. She never acts on it, though, just curses emphatically. I think it’s important to see both good and bad driving behavior so you can know what to follow and what to avoid.

I think that my number one problem as a driver is my anxiety. Every time I get on the road, I am instantly nervous. I know the statistics about accidents, and I know that almost everyone will be in a car accident at some point in their lives. So whenever I am behind the wheel, I am terrified that today will be the day for me, and that I or someone else will not survive because of my mistakes or theirs. So the first step I need to take to be a better driver is to better manage my anxiety. I learned some tricks from my driver’s ed class, and I practice defensive driving as best I can to help me here, but my mind cannot be controlled. Another step I need to take is just getting more practice. The more you drive, the better you are at it. Becoming a more experienced driver will help me and everyone on the road with me. I don’t know how I can really help others become safer on the road. Education is the most important step, I think, but I don’t have the power for that. Only the government does. And I could try to make a PSA or start a campaign of some sort, but I don’t think it would be very successful. In the end, a huge part of driving is personal responsibility. And I cannot impart that on others. I can only trust them, as they are trusting me, to do the best they can to keep us all safe.