Safe Driving: Beyond the Basics

Safe Driving: Beyond the Basics

Nevada Castillo

What happens when society places a person’s worth on being efficient in work and fast at school? What are the consequences of always looking to your next destination? Not many people ask these questions. The expectation society has for us to rush to complete our responsibilities affects many areas in our life including driving. I remember being uncomfortable as a child, seeing adults yell and rage when traffic got too slow or they were cut off. It always confused me, how they could let their emotions go and make rash decisions that might endanger everyone in the car. The one car crash I’ve been in, non-fatal but jarring, made the danger of distracted driving feel real and tangible. I’d known how dangerous driving could be before that, but never thought that people were so reckless. It shouldn’t take first hand experience in accidents to get people to think about driving safety. Part of the problem is getting people to drive conscientiously, but besides teaching basic safety knowledge and hoping that drivers practice safe methods, people should also spread awareness about the legislation, social expectations, and economic factors that can lead to dangerous driving.

Driver’s education does an amazing job reducing driving deaths already. The curriculum requirements are different in each state, but generally students are taught how to handle a variety of situations including getting through severe weather, how to avoid a deadly crash, how to avoid distractions, and how to behave safely in traffic. These are the necessities. Most driver’s education classes don’t teach mindfulness. They don’t acknowledge how to overcome things like road rage or give alternatives if there is a situation where it’s dangerous for a person to drive but they need to. It’s great that drivers learn how to be safe right away, but there are other important aspects of driving that can be required by states to be taught that would help avoid injuries.

Outside of the classroom, there are more ways to assure safer driving. The least talked about is traffic and vehicle legislation. We know the impaired driving laws and speed laws, but not enough people are even aware of legislation regarding traffic lights, sign placement, or how speed limits are determined (or if they’re determined the best way). First is the duration of red and yellow lights at intersections. There is no federal legislation that gives a required light duration, but there is a widely used industry standard that engineers and companies use when building and installing lights. The MUTCD or Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices is the current standard for most traffic regulations, and it has been approved by the Federal Highway Administration. However, there have been incidences where this standard hasn’t been met and the fact that light duration is a standard and not a law affects how cases are dealt with. If someone challenges a fine or sues for an unfair light length, the ruling would be up to a judge or cop. This makes for a biased, subjective ruling, which should not be the case for traffic cases. It would improve driver safety to have an objective law regarding yellow and red light durations.

The next legal traffic issue that is pretty controversial even now is speed limits. Currently, most speed limits in the U.S. are decided based on an area’s zone. However, there are many different approaches to deciding speed limits that people have come up with. One report in particular, the Methods and Practices for Setting Speed Limits by the FHWA Safety Program explains the different methods. Although the report was done for a federal program it doesn’t seem like the possibility of testing new speed limits in states is likely. Changing or trying out new speed limits is just an idea. You never know if the current way is the best, but more and more people are pushing to change them.

Including more public transport infrastructure in rural areas is a good initiative that the government could take to improve safety on the roads, and it’s a change that many people would agree with. Since the rate of poverty in rural areas is higher than in urban areas, according to researcher Iryna Kyzyma in the 2018 publication Rural-urban disparity in poverty persistence, more accessible and cheaper transportation systems would make driving safer. In a case where someone with economic barriers to driving safely- like a car part breaking but being unable to get it fixed-still needs to get somewhere, public transport would offer an alternative to driving unsafely. Introducing public transportation more into rural areas would also provide opportunities for disabled people, people with impaired judgement, or just those living there that don’t always have a means of transport.

Many people in the United States do have their transportation needs met and drive safely, but considering that tens of thousands of people still die every year to accidents, I think more should be done to prevent them. Spreading awareness on traffic legislation, making public transportation available to the people who need it, encouraging conscientiousness and trying to change the focus our society has on speed and efficiency will help safety become less of an issue while driving. The responsibility to make driving safer falls on everyone. So although driver’s education is a good starting point, there is still some time to go before we explore all the options to better driving.

Sources

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Kyzyma, Iryna. “Rural-Urban Disparity in Poverty Persistence.” IRP Focus, vol. 34, no.3, 2018, pp. 1-7, www.irp.wisc.edu/wp/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Focus-34-3c.pdf

Lindley, Jeff A, et al. “ITE Journal A Community of Transportation Professionals.” ITE Journal, vol. 90, Mar. 2020, www.nxtbook.com/ygsreprints/ITE/ITE_March2020/index.php#/p/4.

Lundeberg, Steve. “Traffic Signal Countdown Timers Lead to Improved Driver Responses.” Oregon State University Newsroom, Oregon State University, 7 Feb. 2018, today.oregonstate.edu/news/traffic-signal-countdown-timers-lead-improved-driver-responses.

“Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices for Streets and Highways.” MUTCD, United States Department of Transportation – Federal Highway Administration, 2 Feb. 2021, mutcd.fhwa.dot.gov/.

McGree, Hugh, et al. Vanasse Hangen Brustlin, Inc., 2011, pp. VIII-2, Guidelines for Timing Yellow and Red Intervals at Signalized Intersections.

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