Put Your Best Foot Forward… In the Driver’s Seat

Driving
is a risky and potentially deadly undertaking, made deadlier by the
frequency with which we do it. In the United States especially,
driving a car is necessary in order to function well in our society,
as the US not only covers a lot of area geographically, but most of
our towns and cities are not well-designed to move people around
efficiently with public transportation. Given that driving is
essential across all age ranges and for purposes as diverse as
getting to work and just for the sheer pleasure of it, it is
crucially important that every driver is aware of the responsibility
they take on every time they get behind the wheel. Drivers ed
is essential to remind people that they are not only responsible for
their own lives, but also for the lives of their passengers, the
people in other cars, and anyone else on or near the road, such as
bicyclists and pedestrians. Anyone who takes a moment to let the
weight of that implication sink in should feel appropriately sobered
by the seriousness of driving.

The
problem, unfortunately, is that many people do not think about what a
serious task driving is. It is easy to view it as a fun, or at worst
mundane, exercise that functions as a means to an end. For some
people, such as my father-in-law, driving recklessly is even
something they enjoy and get a kick out of. I remember one harrowing
trip in particular, when my husband, father-in-law and I were riding
in my father-in-law’s Jeep, and he thought it would be fun to drive
off the neighborhood roads and “four-wheel it” around some grassy
hills around an office building. Though we suffered nothing worse
than being roughly jostled around, I lost a
considerable amount of respect for him that day, and am still
appalled at his decision-making. His behavior is similar to that of
many teenagers and young adults, who feel invincible behind the wheel
and even if they know that driving is dangerous, easily disregard
that information in favor of fun and thrills.

It
seems to me that the most important steps that should be taken to
mitigate deaths related to driving is to make a structured,
scientific study of how best to appeal to people emotionally to get
them to take something seriously. Education in the facts is very
important, but it is not enough, especially when one factors in the
developmental challenges posed by teenagers’ and young adults’
immature brains. They cannot help that their frontal lobes- the seat
of planning and responsible decision-making- are not yet fully
formed, and that they are developmentally hard-wired to seek risky
behaviors. Therefore, efforts must be focused on reaching them on an
emotional level, so that they will be likelier to consider all the
consequences that could result from not putting their best foot
forward behind the wheel.