In The Driver’s Seat

What if you took all the hours you ever drove a car and combined them all together?

For my personal count, a rough estimation is about 10,000 hours for 20 years of driving, which is equivalent to driving without stopping for more than a whole year of my life. This means that driving is a skill that is taking up a big chunk of my lifetime and it’s worth it for me to invest some time, and maybe write a convincing essay about it too. 🙂

A relative once shared an interesting thought about driving that stayed with me for a long time: “when people enter into those “metal boxes” they lose their humanity and sensitivity and allow themselves to behave in ways they wouldn’t in face-to-face interactions.” It seems that driving somehow makes people disconnect from their awareness of others when they sit in a structure that is separating them from others. How else can we explain the behavior we sometimes see people do: cut others very close, drive much above the speed limit and basically risk themselves and others around them simply because they can. This doesn’t seem logical unless the person is in some sort of a trance or an illusion that they are protected, but they are not!

Education for correct and careful driving could increase awareness of the dangers of driving carelessly and the benefits of driving with awareness. If I ever teach a Drivers’ Education Class, I would ask the students how they would prefer other drivers to behave on the road and ask them to be an example for their friends on the road. For example: One of the things we can control is the speed we drive, driving under the speed limit and also at a speed that we feel in control of the vehicle may prevent dangerous circumstances and will cause the cars behind us to drive safely as well. Another good habit for driving is being aware of the road and its conditions constantly.

Being a female, many people are surprised when I say I like motorcycles, which are considered to be potentially dangerous vehicles because the driver is very exposed and it is hard to maintain balance, especially on rainy and snowy days. Google-searching it now, I discovered that “For every mile traveled, motorcyclists have a risk of a fatal accident that is 35 times higher than a car driver.” I pride myself at being a very careful and aware driver and have never had an accident on a motorcycle. In spite of my sharp senses, I did have a minor accident with my car three years ago: I was driving on the Texas Highway which was completely dark at night when I hit a massive debris on the road. Although it didn’t affect the direction or speed of the car, the hit made a pretty serious damage to the front of the car.

Even though feeling confident about our driving skills is very important, we want to stay ‘on guard’ against an internal state of overconfidence. What I mean by overconfidence is a feeling of “nothing will ever happen to me” or “I’m the master of this highway!” , which might be sometimes hard to detect, but it’s a dangerous mindset. When I feel confident on the road, I feel calm, aware, sharp, and careful. When I am overly confident I might act wildly, make rash, unwise or even rude decisions that risk me and/or other drivers. If we could teach adolescents to have a routine of a few deep breaths and mentally put their troubles aside before driving, this may help. Also in general, I think teaching relaxation techniques to all people may help improve our lives on and off the road.

All and all, it is hard to change others, however, we each have 100% control of ourselves, therefore, starting with ourselves by providing an excellent example to our family members and friends and being 100% responsible for what is happening in and out of the car while we are behind the wheel is crucial and possible to control. Furthermore, I try not to drive when I don’t have to. Why be on the road when I don’t absolutely need to be? I try to minimize the use of the car and travel at times of least traffic, even if I have to take a book and read it in my car while it’s parked for an hour, I do that to reduce the chance of an accident and also reduce my travel time.

These are my thoughts about how to improve awareness of driving, and mainly, my own driving, because after all, if I ask myself, how do I want to spend my next 1 year of non-stop driving? The answer is I want to spend it calmly, carefully, and positively influencing the people around me.