Safe driving – how do we get there?

When it comes to safe driving, the same topics always dominate the conversation – how do we prevent people from drinking and driving? How do we stop drivers from texting from behind the wheel? Can we reduce the number of road accidents by raising penalties for exceeding the speed limit? However, if precedent and statistics have told us anything it’s that people don’t learn very well from others’ (or even their own) mistakes – a car accident you hear about in the news that resulted in the death of a passenger because she wasn’t wearing a seatbelt may compel you to always wear a seatbelt – for the next two weeks. Rather than focusing on changing human behavior as a way to make driving safer, we should instead concentrate on controlling the external factors, such as the environment and the circumstances.

Let’s think about the circumstances that lead to the most accidents on the road. In the United States, nearly 47% of all car accidents happen during rush hour (source: Emerson). Between the times of 7am-10am in the morning and about 5pm-8pm in the evening, people are either rushing to get to work (and thus prioritizing getting to work on time over safety), or they are returning home from a long day of work and are already mentally checked out. These are the perfect conditions for accidents to take place. Luckily, there is a solution. Employers can be more involved in controlling workers’ commutes by introducing new office work hour regulations. Following the pandemic, many workplaces have adopted flexible office policies that allow employees to work half the week remotely, thereby taking away the necessity of commuting to work. Some workplaces have even gone so far as to allow employees to work remotely by the hour, meaning some employees choose to work mornings remotely, and come into the office after lunch, or vice versa. Employees working under irregular schedules change their commuting times accordingly and avoid rush hour traffic, decreasing their chance of becoming victims in a road incident, and making the roads less congested and safer for everyone. Flexible office hour policies can be implemented by individual employers, but they can also be passed in legislation to ensure that workplaces are taking action to address employee safety.

Implementing policies to alter commuting times would reduce rush hour accidents, but how do we address crashes resulting from drunk driving? According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 926 people are injured every day in accidents involving drunk driving (source: Madd) – that’s one person every 93 seconds! While there are some individuals who are chronically drunk when driving, many more drunk driving instances are the result of poor planning or unforeseen circumstances. You drive to dinner with friends and everyone orders drinks – you don’t want to feel left out and so you order one margarita. By the end of the night, you realize you’ve had one too many margaritas and now you need to drive home, imperiling yourself and others. These cases are not limited to car drivers – one of my friends is used to biking everywhere. After one particularly long night out, she was determined to bike back home, despite having had a substantial amount of alcohol. She got onto her bike and (thankfully) fell off right away. Her friends managed to dissuade her from biking home that night and called her an Uber. The problem with calling an Uber is that it can be expensive, and if you drove yourself to the event you are now leaving – what do you do with your car? There may not be an immediate solution , but we can approach this issue from an entrepreneurial perspective. One business idea that could address the issue is a company offering valet services that would have centers all over the city, close to bars and restaurants, allowing trustworthy valet employees to easily reach party locations and drive the guests home in their own cars. Another option would be for companies such as Lyft and Uber to offer discounted party rates for people returning home after 11pm to encourage people to pay to be driven home rather than drive home themselves. Drunk driving should not be an issue once self-driving cars become more popular and reliable, until then, these provisional solutions can be considered as a way to reduce the number of drunk driving accidents.

Lastly, it’s important to address the source of the issue – complacency and too much confidence. In the United States, individuals are able to obtain drivers’ licenses at age 16, while in most countries across the world that number stands firmly at 18. With people driving from such a young age, it’s important to ensure that they are well aware of the risks associated with driving. This is where driver education comes in. When I took my driving course, I only needed to learn the general rules and demonstrate practical driving ability. Facts such as “driving under the influence of alcohol is unlawful and reckless” and “exceeding the speed limit is illegal and dangerous” are common knowledge, but they don’t resonate with people learning to drive at a deep enough level to prevent them from doing those things. By the time most of us become experienced drivers, we have already formed certain driving habits that we are unlikely to change. Therefore, it’s important that our idea of what is appropriate on the road is formulated before we start driving on a regular basis. Driving schools should include an additional course on road safety – having a small subsection about safety on the road included in the course on general driving theory is not enough to draw future drivers’ attention to the risks of irresponsible driving. A separate course led by a traumatologist (who would be able to explain the consequences of irresponsible driving in detail) would be more effective in teaching future drivers about the importance of safe driving practices. In addition to completing the driving knowledge and road tests, students should also be required to complete and pass a driving safety course before they can receive their permits.

Regulating commuter hours, offering safer alternatives to driving home drunk, and placing more emphasis on safety in driving education are just some of the ways that we as a society can reduce the high rate of road accidents. While it would be ideal if drivers could alter their behavior and act more responsibly on the road, it is an unrealistic expectation to have of every individual and that is why approaching driving safety by controlling the environment and conditions as well as enhancing driving education could be an effective way of improving safety on our roads.