Driving education is one of the most important factors, if not the most important, in reducing driving-related deaths.. The first step to solving any problem is awareness. Driving education is both the awareness and the solution needed to solve the problem. Of course, we want to educate new and existing drivers, but that can be more complex in practice, especially with limiting real-world factors of time, money, staffing, and legal difficulties. These can be overcome with the right, realistic strategies. I personally believe encouraging driving classes, advancements on the written and road DMV exam, and increased awareness of how critical safe driving is are the most important and attainable steps to solve this crisis.
Driving lessons are the core of driving education. In order to obtain a license, it’s required to spend a minimum number of hours driving in various conditions. This is to develop the good practices and habits that ultimately make a successful and safe driver. Unfortunately, many parents(cough, cough—mine included) shortcut this step by having the student driver drive the family wherever the family needs to go throughout a normal week. While this seems like an easy and simple multitasking solution for families, it comes with crippling consequences. The student driver will generally only drive within a very small local area. They may learn how to drive in their local area but lack broader driving skills. I noticed this problem with myself. I was comfortable driving in local neighborhoods and memorized streets and intersections, but I was nervous and unsure when it came to situations I just never practiced on with my very limited local driving. What makes a driver is the constant repetitive practice. It’s not the written test that gives them the experience needed. It’s the quality and quantity of time in all sorts of situations—from intersections to roundabouts to highways. To prevent parents from shortcutting, I believe driving lessons should be more available and encouraged to allow students to be more diversified in their driving expertise and not confined to the skills needed to navigate to the store and back. In addition to these driving classes, I believe an elective class in schools should be dedicated to driving education. Even just a classroom driving ed would definitely help reinforce a lot of the dangers and PSAs of driving in the most commonly affected group—teenagers. To make this happen, DMV groups could potentially lobby for a federal grant for schools that implement some level of driving ed elective into the public education system. Personally, I don’t believe student interest in the class will be a problem. Many students are already interested in getting that license and hitting the road, and even something as small as a semester class can make a big difference for them.
Next up is the DMV written and road tests. I’m an Arizona resident, so the advice and feedback I have is influenced and tailored for what I’ve seen through my own experiences at my DMV. So disclaimer: It may not be as applicable to other states. The DMV test is divided into 2 main parts. The written test and the road test. The written exam is all multiple choice. In preparation for the written exam, there are 3 practice tests. The final written test is a compilation of these practice tests and can be retaken over and over until passed. And since the practice exams are the same material on the final test, driving students never have to go to any external material and can pass within 5 minutes. While this does give driving students the time and resources to learn and practice the material, the way the test is structured isn’t ideal. Multiple choice questions are suitable for assessing knowledge, but not reinforcing learning. This is seen in various studies. I believe the practice tests shouldn’t be static. There should be a question bank and each test should be dynamically generated. This encourages knowing the full set of questions beforehand. And there should be links to youtube videos and maybe references to other sites that use science backed methods of learning(Quizlet, Kahoot). Tying back to the driving ed elective idea, classes could study via Quizlets and compete in Kahoots to make memorizing the content fun and natural. While some may say this is not a big deal, I noticed that not even my licensed family members knew many of the questions on these tests. I doubt even one of them could reach a passing score. It’s just because the exact distance your car needs to be from a fire hydrant seems really bland and isn’t memorable without a dynamic learning approach to make it stick. Next up is the road test. The route took about 15 minutes max to complete. What I noticed is that while it did contain all the basics: (parking, signalling, lane changes, school zones, etc.) it fell into the same problem as with local driving. It didn’t test drivers in a variety of circumstances. Due to time and location constraints, I understand this isn’t realistically attainable. A potential solution could be to use a simulator test alongside the road test. This can test drivers in a wide range of situations and be a comprehensive exam of their overall driving abilities. While the technology for realistic driving is still in the works, this could be a potential solution to save for the future. I believe that by putting more effort into making DMV tests not just a one time basic check of new drivers’ skills, but a well-thought out process on developing drivers abilities and ensuring safety.
Awareness is a big key to all this. Scholarships like this are definitely a great step forward with awareness. Helping the very group this problem affects most develop creative and innovative strategies to fix it is brilliant. The real issue is that people don’t know what they don’t know and don’t want to admit they aren’t as skilled at driving as they think they are(especially in front of friends). There are 4 main things that would promote awareness the best: content creators focused on driving safety, incorporation of driving education into public school(previously mentioned), apps and notification reminders to combat distracted driving, and greater emphasis on how big the problem really is(statistics, media). The internet and socials are the best ways to spread awareness and information on any topic. Why would driving education be any different? I’ve seen some youtube videos on driving education but I think a greater push to make educational videos, even just short clips, can make a huge difference. Another way to raise awareness is apps that actively track and critique driving. Insurance companies use apps to monitor the safety of customers to give them better rates. This should also be used with teaching! With the rise of heavily teched out cars, implementing these softwares into the cars themselves could be a real solution to developing better driving habits. Software can obtain data on how fast a user is moving and how often they pick up their phone. A user moving at a high average speed over minutes, with periodic pickups is most likely a distracted driver. Apps, or even the default phone software can block interaction or send notification warnings to pay attention if this happens. Checking our phones has become such an instinctive habit that some drivers may need something like this to help break the dangerous habit. Technologies like this can be life-saving! Finally, awareness for driving education and safety can be raised by providing statistics. While general statistics are great, personalized statistics and data from the apps mentioned above can make the message really hit home to drivers. When it comes to awareness, there should be a priority to make safety a very relevant and personal concern. Statistics should be presented in a way that really shows the impact and relevance of the issue to the audience. Instead of “X% of drivers reported being somewhat distracted by technology while driving”, it should read “X% of teenage drivers admit to quickly checking their phone at stoplights. Do you?”. Make statistics specific, personal, and impactful. Connect it to these dangerous habits. Give a call to action. Awareness is the first step for change.
I’ve seen how dangerous distracted driving can be. Just last week, one of my coworkers totaled their car due to distracted driving. Thankfully they were OK, but personal experiences like this show you just how real of a problem this is and how close to you it can strike. Last year, one of my friends was driving with another one of his friends. We never figured out the exact reason and cause behind the crash, but they were both injured pretty badly. My friend was lucky to get away with just some bad bruises and scrapes, but his friend's arm got hurt pretty badly and he ended up having to go to the hospital. My friend always felt really guilty about it and I can’t help feeling that it’s because of something that easily could’ve been prevented. A quick glance at a phone or something similar. It’s crazy to think that a quick glance can end up with someone not coming home. I’ve personally always been very careful with driving, especially with what happened to my friend. It’s made me more careful, always double checking for my friends when they are driving and keeping my phone on silent so there isn’t even the ghost of a temptation to check it.
Remember that, ultimately, changes made to improve driving education and habits should spark change in the average person. They should be as actively engaged in playing a personal role in ending this public health crisis as much as anyone else. I believe that changes in how driving is taught and how we approach driving safety—through classes, safety technologies, more involved teaching, and media awareness—can be a key preventative to this life-or-death crisis. Thank you for your time, and, as always, drive safe!