Driving issues and safety is one of the most important things in anyone’s life especially a teen’s life. The minute they are out on the road, they not only put themselves at risk, but others around as well.

Teen driving safety is such an important public issue to address as many teens are getting their licenses young and may not be fully knowledgeable about the rules of the road. Getting your driver’s license is one of the most exciting moments as a teenager because most teens see it as freedom. However, freedom also comes with consequences and risks in which most teens are not fully aware of. It goes by saying that teens “only know how to drive” but “don’t know how to drive safely,” Most teens opt for driver’s education while others are taught by their parents or even friends these days. Driver’s education is a staple piece that addresses the issues of safety and why it is important to stay safe. It also addresses issues about how to get out of emergency and how to safely drive to not risk the lives of yourself or others. Driver’s education is a fundamental foundation that addresses these important public issues for teens to understand that driving isn’t just for fun but there is a cost to it, their life.

Lots of teens these days no longer opt for drivers’ education and instead learn driving from another adult besides their parents/guardians and even their friends. One of the biggest challenges teens face on the road is peer pressure. Often times their friends will influence them in driving fast or speeding, or even making dangerous decisions out on the road. Often times, most teens will follow along with those pressure because it makes them look “cool” and keeps them from staying “lame.” Teens are easily influenced by peers because they are not fully grown yet and their frontal lobe is not fully developed yet. In order to avoid these types of things, its best for a teen to be sent to driver’s ed so they can practice with a real professional instead of a friend that will easily sway them.

Another distraction that teens often come across is texting and driving. In the age of social media and cell phones, texting while driving have been the reasons of multiple car crashes and accidents.

I have a sister who often texts and drives while she’s in the car with me which is a really dangerous thing because not only is she risking her life, but she’s also risking my life as well. There are multiple bad drivers out there that you’ll come across on the road and a little distraction such as texting and driving can take a small thing into a big thing immediately.

These sorts of distractions are not easy to overcome because most of the time it becomes a habit and habits are hard to break. What’s so important about safety in teen driving is breaking habits. Bad habits in driving are easily picked up upon especially if teens who started driving picked it up from whoever taught them. This is why its so important that teens learn from a trusted adult or takes drivers ed because these habits can be simply avoided if they were never formed from the start.

Its time to take action. Some actions that parents and communities can take to promote safer driving amongst teens is to sign them up for driver’s education. I know a lot of people who took driver’s ed and have developed safe habits for driving who I feel safe getting into a car with them. There are also a lot of people out there where I would not feel safe getting into a car with them. I think that driver’s education is such an important aspect to introducing teens to safe ways of being on the road.

I also think that some states should have policies where if a teen fails their drivers test for three times, then they need to take driver’s education.

I think that driver’s education is a really important for teens to develop healthy and safe relationships with driving. Moreover, parents are more trusting of driver’s education if they are not free to take their kids out to practice compared to their teen learning on their own from a friend and the parent has no idea. A way for teens to practice safer driving is by practicing. Most of the times, inexperience and fear out on the roads are the reasons why accidents occur in teen driving.

Practicing a skill over and over again helps you gain that muscle memory. Practicing good habits while practicing that same skill over and over again will do a better job of strengthening your skills. Its important that teens are 100% confident before they start driving on the road because there is no second chance. The minute they are on that road anything can happen, so its important that they not only are confident but feel safe driving, because you can’t force yourself to win over fear especially out on the roads.