Slowing Down and Come Together

Driver’s
Ed was important for me, not to teach me how to drive, but to teach
me to be afraid of the power I have while behind the wheel, and aware
of the responsibility I have to myself and everyone who comes into
the car. I still remember the videos of people sailing through
windshields, the “backseat bullets” who become deadly speeding
masses, and often become dead themselves.

Every
time I drive, I remind myself that I could kill someone. I think
about the guilt I would carry for the rest of my life if my reckless
or even just thoughtless driving were to result in someone else’s
death. When we teach people to have more reverence for their power
behind the wheel, they use more caution; but this alone is not
enough. We live in a society where everything is rushed. We must
produce goods fast, work fast, get places fast. And so we drive fast.
We’re always looking for quick solutions and topical fixes. Stop
kids from driving fast by showing them videos of high-speed crashes.
But the cars still drive fast, roads keep being built, life is still
demanding and requires us to run right over the speed limit of our
capabilities and our health.

Right
now we’re in a climate crisis, and some are touting carbon capture,
planting trees and recycling. These are topical solutions that will
not stop global warming. We need a total societal shift in the way we
produce goods, energy, and a shift in the way we live. We need to be
more collaborative, live more communally, share more. One step in
this direction is public transportation. The United States is not
investing in public transportation nearly as much as it needs to. In
fact, auto and oil lobbyists have advocated against this. Public
transport would reduce emissions, create more equitable access to
jobs, and cut car crashes and subsequent deaths. This is not an easy
investment to make in an economy with powerful automotive, oil and
gas sectors. It would serve the people better, but not the profits of
large corporations. These are the tough issues we deal with.

To
make driving safer, first we need to do less of it. I don’t mean
practice driving less before you go and take your driver’s test. I
mean commit to use more public transportation, or even just carpool
more. But even so, it is also the responsibility of the government to
make public transport accessible to all people.

Second,
we need a lifestyle where we slow down, and where we care for each
other more. We’d have less angry, emotional drivers, who will have
less road rage and crashes. We need a lifestyle where people value
community more. This would mean a commitment to using and advocating
for projects that benefit the public, like public transportation. We
need a society that doesn’t glorify speedy, polluting cars. We need
an economy that doesn’t make us rush around, that undervalues the
individual and necessitates that we all function independently,
fending for ourselves. Right now, time is money. But what if time was
just time? What if time was reflection, focus, feeling?

Although
many factors are beyond our control, everyone can afford to slow
down. Because at the moment, we’re barreling at high speed towards
an ecological disaster. Right now we need to slow down and have more
patience with each other. Slow and alive is so much better than
speeding to death.