I believe driver’s education is a very important and almost necessary part of growing up and learning to drive. My parents tried their best to instill good habits in me but they are only human, they make mistakes while they drive and serve as examples which are not always the best ones. As a person that took driver’s ed I have a strong belief in the driver’s education curriculum and it’s role in the production of safe and informed drivers. Driver’s education ensures safe and effective decision making for new drivers by empowering them with information. In my experience, teen driving presents an important issue particularly with the increase of road rage incidents and distracted or impaired driving accidents from the ages of 18-24. I learned early in my driving life not to speed or drive recklessly and frankly I was too scared to present any forms of road rage to other drivers. Living in Portland I was scared that someone might take it too far or have nothing to lose and that was reason enough. Less than a year after I had gotten my driver's license I was driving home from work one night and was speeding and got pulled over. I was extremely grateful to have not gotten a ticket but driving too fast down the wrong road and I almost ended up in a ditch.
The most horrific example of why driving safe is so important is that I had a classmate that unfortunately passed away earlier this year because of unsafe driving. She had been in an ATV accident which rolled over onto it’s side, both her and the driver who were underage had been at a party and drinking was involved. This rocked the community, it was already a small town and the impact was measurable. There were suddenly more posters for stopping drunk driving and an increase in police presence. This situation while saddening is an example of not driving while under the influence and the importance of critical and safe decision making.
With more teens on the road it is essential to ensure that they are getting proper education to help them create safer roads. Driver’s education drills the road manual and good habits into young drivers and help shape their mindset when it matters most. School sanctioned driver’s education and free driver’s education through certified volunteers would increase access through the removal of financial barriers. Speaking from experience, and as a psychology major the biggest challenge to teens is impulse and the search social acceptance. They’re driving and a text message lights their phone up, is it from their friends, their partner? They don’t want to potentially miss out on something exciting. The dopamine they receive from doing something exciting like drinking at a party or driving fast is a pleasurable effect that they want more of. The consequences don’t exist in the brain until the consequences are right upon them. Teens tend to have FOMO and so they might rush to be somewhere or believe the way of fitting in is not doing thing the safe or right way. Often rules or threats make it more enticing to do something they’re not supposed to because of the “it can’t be that bad” or the invincibility mindset. These present dangerous challenges to teen drivers and the best way to reduce those is to place more of an emphasis on community engagement in setting effective strategies to counteract those impulses.
By placing barriers and measures like phones off, practicing the no techniques, and teaching them the potential consequences of their actions with measurable effects, it can help to reduce distractions and limit impulses. Driver’s education aims to reduce the hard learned lessons by teaching them upfront the consequences which is a step in the right direction. I think there should be a bigger effort on a larger scale in order to effectively combat distractions. For example phone and IOS developers should find a way to limit distractions while driving with phones beyond the extent of driving modes. Community efforts should be hosting open nights where young teens can hear experience from drivers who have made mistakes where they can see the real life consequences, like the commercials where the smokers with trachea tubes told them how they never should have started. Commercials regarding distracted or drunk driving, should portray the reality of the consequences. And of course when a tragedy does happen like the one my community experienced, drivers should be glad it wasn’t them and understand their mistakes so they don’t make the same ones.