Safe Driving is Hot

I remember when I was in highschool I used to date the world’s worst driver. He rushed into getting his license when he really shouldn’t have gotten it at all. He had anger issues, and was impulsive. Whenever I would get in a car with him I would fear for my life a little. He had no care for his own life, people’s on the road or apparently mine. I thought it was such an unattractive characteristic, carelessness. When people first get their license, sometimes the feeling of freedom and the excitement you have overrules your knowledge of how you are mortal. Especially with younger people. I know when I first got my license at sixteen I thought that I was invincible and could do anything. The reality is far from that.

The importance of driver education when it relates to reducing deaths due to driving is astronomical in my opinion. I personally went through drivers education first before getting my license and I think it was incredibly helpful. Teaching anyone the laws of the road and making sure they can consistently drive safely and correctly is detrimental to driver safety. It is best for it to be taught to younger people getting their license, but adults should take these lessons as well. I think that taking drivers education would help reduce deaths by adding an extra filter to who can and cannot get their license. This way, everyone on the road had the same, if not similar training as you did.

A few steps that should be taken to reduce deaths are to require a driver’s education class. This could be a couple week course that will make sure they understand how to drive safely for themselves and people around them. I think that there should be options for people who struggle to afford driver’s education courses now should have the ability to get them for free or reduced price because you can’t put a price on safety. Driving is usually necessary for work and to deny people who need to work a license because they can’t afford it seems morally incorrect to me. A second step I have is for driving law consequences to be more severe. I feel like people with a lot of money think they can get away with anything because they have it. So a solution would be for any violation (depending on the offense) you are first issued a warning. If you do it again, you are required to take a very long, very in depth class on the weekend. You will not get your license back until this is completed. I think that making people go through extensive (and potentially boring to them) classes would help avert bad driving.

Personally I have not been in a car accident but I have been in cars with friends who are awful drivers. They got their license when they were older and just took their permit test right away instead of being in classes. There is a lot of speeding, no turn signals, going on their phones or talking on the phone, and just in general very distracted driving. Whenever we go anywhere now I ask if I should or could drive because it makes me nervous, and frankly quite nauseous. Also living in a college town has taught me a lot about driving and unsafe drivers. In Bloomington, pedestrians do whatever they want. They will jay walk or sprint across the street to get to classes. This will cause cars to stop and cause accidents. If I have learned something from living here is that people are very unpredictable, whether that is on foot or in a car and we should always be paying attention to either. Not to mention driving at night on weekends when there are drunk people everywhere. Being a student myself I walk around a lot too. Some poor drivers don’t pay attention to right to walk signs or they are rushing and being careless. I have almost been hit multiple times by people like this.

I feel like over the years I have learned a lot about driving. I learned a lot in drivers education classes that were a good foundation. However, a lot of what I know now is from being on the road with terrible drivers. People with road rage, distracted drivers, and just unsafe drivers. Part of learning to drive is learning how to see these signs and how to avoid them. These are things not always taught in classes. Steps I will take to be a better driver are: to be alert at all times, drive the speed limit, look out for pedestrians, keep up with the rules and regulations of the road and driver safety, and to expect that no one on the road can drive so this way I don’t get comfortable with trusting the people around me driving.

Earlier in this essay I talked about how I used to date an awful and careless driver with no regard for other people’s lives. Recently I started to go out with someone very different from him. On our first date he took us to eat and the whole way there was the most relaxing drive I have ever had. He would drive the speed limit, look out for pedestrians, and stay 100% focused while behind the wheel. This moment made me realize that safe driving is hot.