In America, driving is a pastime shared by many. Open country roads, beautiful scenery, and an automobile to view them in. With Auto pioneers from Henry Ford to Elon Musk, and cars from the Model T to the Ford Mustang, the history of driving is quintessentially American. However, Driving is above all, a necessity. America is set up in a way that practically forces you to own a car. You need one to drive to school, work, your kid's soccer practice, lunch with friends, and the list goes on and on. You can always take public transportation, if it's available, but hygiene, limited routes, overcrowding, and expensive prices make driving the lesser of two evils for many Americans. Due to how many people are driving in America, it's no surprise that automobile accidents are one of the nation's leading causes of death. Thus, due to the heavy reliance on cars as transport, and the many casualties because of it, elevated driver safety is as important as it's ever been. To make driving less dangerous, Heightened driver education and changes in driving infrastructure are necessary steps in America.
Driver education is incredibly important in creating safe drivers and less casualties. Everyone has to do go through driver education at some point, online education, a permit test, 6 months of driving with a parent and/or instructor, and then your actual driving test. While simple, this system is incredibly flawed. One of the first flaws I experienced was the lack of verification. One of the requirements for your final driver's test is 50 hours of driving in the day with a parent, and ten at night. There is no proof required for this, which unfortunately makes this “requirement” optional in most people's eyes. Two groups that cause accidents frequently are teens (16-17) and newly licensed drivers. These groups likely suffer from the same problem, lack of experience. Driving is undoubtedly something you get better at with time, and thus the more time someone can spend practicing in a safe environment (with a parent or licensed adult) the better driver they will be by the time they start driving alone. Another aspect of driver education that is flawed is the driving test is well, just that, a test. The test the DMV offers is incredibly standardized, and thus incredibly easy to “study” for. Many of my peers would just memorize what they had to do to pass, and nothing more. This allows people who aren’t fully ready to be on the road to get their license.
Unfortunately, I have personal experience with unsafe driving. In the first year of my license, I was in two accidents. The first came because of somebody speeding through a parking lot and hitting me while I was turning, and the other I was rear-ended on the freeway (luckily nobody was hurt in either accident). Something I took away from these experiences is how the main focus of these accidents is entirely insurance money, and never on correcting the driving mistake. Especially when I was rear ended, the driver who hit us just drove away with no repercussions. Who knows how many people that driver has hit, causing thousands of damages (both to vehicles and people), and the likelihood they are stopped or corrected anytime soon is almost zero. With the parking lot accident, the man speeding was incredibly reckless, but also confrontational after the fact, making me and everyone in the car feel unsafe. His vocabulary was littered with curses and even slurs (yes including the one you’re thinking of), and not only did his driving go unchanged, his behavior remained unchecked as well. Therefore, I think another necessary step in increasing driver safety is correcting those who cause accidents. For many, after they get their license, they get better and safer drivers. But for many more, their bad habits that slipped through the exam continually compound, until they drive past, and you can’t help but wonder “How on earth did that person get their license?” I think a way to combat this is to have recurring driving tests. This has been suggested for elderly people, and while I think it's a good idea, I think limiting it to only the elderly is a bad idea. Why not apply it to everyone, or at least people with a certain number of accidents? Every 5 years or 3 accidents a driver has to take a test that assesses their driving ability. It won’t be the same as the driver's test for new drivers, but a simpler one. I truly believe this could greatly reduce the number of dangerous drivers on the road.
To reiterate, America has a rich history of driving that is being tarnished by the rise or driver casualties. These casualties are caused by many things, but the biggest problem and easiest one to solve is the drivers themselves.