My perspective on driving and drivers

Driver’s education in the United States is underrated. The United States transportation is largely dependent on highways and roads. The US process for getting a license is relatively similar across all states, starting from a vision test, then making a theorical test and finalizing with a practical test. This whole process takes less than a month and serves for the rest of life every day. In comparison, graduating from high school takes about six years, and students there learn a great variety of topics which some of them might be learned to never be used again. You see where I am going with all of this? Driver’s education should be as relevant as the education people receive for their careers because of how essential it is. I would like to explain how I propose education could be further improved to reduce the number of deaths in traffic accidents.

My first suggestion is to change the focus of education of drivers from how to drive a vehicle to growing habits of secure driving. The way I define how to drive a vehicle is related to its movement like accelerating, turning, going on reverse, parking, going in roundabouts, highways, etc. In theory a person who knows how to traverse these places should be capable of driving appropriately. However, I defend that a method like this can’t prepare a driver for unexpected situations that could lead to an accident. For example, how is an amateur driver supposed to react to a motorcycle passing by them on a tight space, or people crossing when the lights are green or if a car suddenly starts reversing towards them but there is little time to react? From my experience, I can tell that the drivers’ school I went to barely prepared me for any of this. Some habits that have helped me drive without an accident so far are looking at all my sides every 30 seconds or so, watch the mirrors to calculate my distance with the pavement or other vehicles, always slow down a little on crossings even if I have the priority for passing, when I pass for streets I haven’t gone before, I always suppose there is a stop sign and should wait for others (In my city stop signs are missing in places where they need to be). With these habits, drivers could be more aware of their surroundings and act better in whatever situation they found themselves.

Next up, I have some stories of accidents that happened to friends which I have learned something from. The first one is that a cousin of mine was driving a car his parent bought him. He didn’t have his driver’s license yet and his parents allowed him to drive. One day, he goes on a crossing with no stop sign and he continues until a motorcycle crashed him. This went particularly bad for him as he didn’t have a license and the driver of the motorcycle lost some fingers. From his story, I learned that I would have to consider not only my safety, but also the one of other drivers, especially motorcycles and bicycles. The other one is more complicated to explain, so I will make a drawing to explain better the setting.

My friend was entering a plaza. Something distinct is that, because of a new project that increased the lanes of the roads, the exit of the plaza could only lead drivers to go right, in which case, they would have to drive many kilometers to make a turn in a towards the inside of the city. This made drivers start to making an illegal turn in the entrance just to save time. In this case, the motorcycle was going near the left side, and the walls couldn’t let my friend see the motorcycle. While they were turning, they collided, resulting in severe injuries for the motorcyclist. I pondered a lot about this and came into some conclusions. First, that I must know the general behaviors of other drivers in my area. For example, in my city, most people drive appropriately except for some motorcyclists, bus drivers, and certain cyclists who will sometimes go in the opposite sense or not make a stop when they are supposed to. Secondly, I should get to know better the streets in my city, and drive slower in areas I consider I could potentially be involved in an accident.

With all this, I want to emphasize that education is vital, but the responsibility is left on the driver alone. Education we currently receive for driving isn’t enough and learning from others and driving cautiously are the best choices to preserve our lives.