Finding the Leisure in Learning

Teen driving is a public health issue. Education plays a key role in reducing the number of road deaths due to teen drivers. Drivers’ education should be made appealing to keep prospective drivers engaged with learning the material and instructing a broader range of students.

Many people find driving dangerous for various reasons but some of the most common reasons include reckless drivers, distracted drivers and inexperienced drivers. Most of these dangers come from a lack of driving experience and essential knowledge. Generic skills include: knowing what maneuvers to make and how to make them, knowledge of road signs and their meaning, learning some of the basic mechanics in a car, and learning how to complete regular maintenance tasks for a car. Through personal experience, I have learned that regardless of how comfortable one is with driving, one always has more to learn. Whether one has been driving for five months or 15+ years, there are always new tricks to learn to teach one to be a defensive driver, leading to less accidents.

The government has several options for reducing the number of deaths while driving. These options include interactive driving simulators, creating challenges for young drivers to prove their knowledge, board games featuring car mechanic information, or road sign scavenger hunts. Government entities can partner with video gaming businesses to create an accurate driving simulation to help prospective drivers learn how to maneuver the vehicle in adverse or confusing conditions. The video game designers can program courses so that the consumers’ objective is to have the longest playing time while balancing the treacherous roads full of potholes, pedestrians, reckless drivers, new road signs, and road formations. For extra difficulty, the production team can create different weather conditions including rain, snow, and ice thus increasing the possible maneuvers enhancing the skills learned and practiced. This can also be the same for various terrains like uphills, downhills, hairpin curves, and switchbacks. The DMV can also partner with the app, Tik Tok, to create a contest about driver safety. This contest would force the contestants to get out and show off their skills by creating one-minute tutorials on how to change a tire or fill up a gas tank which are valuable skills needed for anyone operating a vehicle. Another way to make driving more interactive is to create a scavenger hunt for specific road signs. The students would be able to send in pictures of the sign and the definition. This would familiarize the driver with the images of different signs and the meaning behind them. At home, the family can learn together with a board game, similar to Operation, featuring the mechanics of a car. The parts would be labeled, helping players identify parts of a car, where they are located, and how they work.

To reduce the number of deaths related to driving, current drivers should actively want to better their knowledge of safe driving techniques. Anyone who plans on going behind the wheel should know the correct maneuvers while continuously maintaining control. Drivers should be encouraged to enhance their knowledge by taking courses on techniques taught to race car drivers. These lessons preach defensive driving while teaching drivers different tips on how to avoid accidents. Prospective drivers should bring their friends to these lessons so the community is better educated while enjoying the company of their peers. If one is not able to attend these essential lessons on drivers safety, then they should share the information online via social media platforms to get the word spread. If they can’t make it, then maybe someone they reach can attend instead, which still raises the average of safe drivers within the world. Drivers should be checking maintenance requirements regularly to keep the cars in the best conditions for taking long road trips with friends or even short trips to the drive-in. To give children a head start on safe driving, parents should start teaching their kids about rules of the road from an early age. Parents can do this by playing games like I Spy with street signs or by familiarizing them on how a car works before the children have the access to go behind the wheel.

Drivers’ education can and should be made fun by including activities such as video simulations, board games, scavenger hunts, and Tik Tok challenges, to increase learning inside students’ minds. These interactions will help everyone to increase their knowledge when it comes to road safety. If the DMV started allowing these options, the number of teenage accidents would rapidly drop.