Education is Key

6

DRIVER EDUCATION

Making Drivers ed Mandatory

Reagan Long

Vincennes University

Making Drivers ed Mandatory

Since 1885 people have been putting themselves in danger by getting behind the wheel of a vehicle. No matter the age, humans are subject to accidents and are increasingly likely to cause them when operating a vehicle. In some cases, it truly is an unfortunate series of events, but usually, it is the fault of a distracted, young, or inexperienced driver. Drivers ed courses teach young people the rules of the road before allowing them on the road and allow them to practice with a professional before driving independently. Regardless of age, a drivers ed course should be required before receiving a driver's license, because it produces safer drivers, and reduces accident rates among young drivers.

The idea behind teaching young drivers the rules of the road before allowing them to drive is to create an overall safer driving community and reduce accident rates. Current research shows that "teens who complete standards-based drivers ed programs are safer drivers" (Huff, 2006, p. 306). There was a study that compared the accident rates of students who have taken a driver education course and that of those of have not. The study showed that accident rates decreased when students were educated prior to earning their license and were safer drivers as a whole. According to David Huff, "quantity of driving experience alone is insufficient to develop safe driving skills" (2006, p. 306) and the quality of drivers ed is what truly creates safer drivers. Driving for 40 hours before earning a license does not guarantee that those hours were spent driving correctly, but if students are driving with a trained professional, they will learn the right way to drive and be practicing those skills instead of spending 40 hours building bad habits.

Allowing amateurs to teach young drivers only creates more amateurs, adding to the existing road safety issue. If teenagers have observed their parents poor driving habits throughout their life, they are likely to inherit them if the only driving instruction they receive is from their parents; if taught good habits by a professional, they will be less of a danger to unsuspecting civilians on the road. As stated by Andrea Nakaya, "we treat [driving] as one more rite of passage" (2006 p.1) instead of a skill set one must master to earn the privilege of driving. A license is not equivalent to the drink an untrodden twenty-one-year-old buys on their birthday, simply because it is a milestone that affects others, and could potentially cause harm. Driving is a skill that requires "study, manual dexterity, judgment, concentration and maturity", (Nakaya 2006, p.1) all of which are not acquired by the passing of time but the effort to gain them. Unlike many responsibilities, driving is not one that should be earned solely on the coming of age, but rather the ability to drive responsibly and safely. Giving a teenager a license who has not demonstrated the skills and maturity to have one, is putting not only his/her life, but the lives of others in danger. Making driver education mandatory would diminish, if not extinguish unsafe drivers.

Over the past fifteen years, driver's licenses have been awarded in stages based upon age and education level, which has seemed to decrease the number of accidents in the first year of teenagers driving (Mohn 2012 p.1). While this change has brought a season of safety to the roads by restricting young drivers from having young, non-family passengers, and driving past a certain hour, there still is no parallel to drivers ed when it comes to creating safer drivers. There has been an attempt to draw more teens to be educated by allowing them to bypass certain stages if they take drivers ed. This has been noted as "counterproductive" and to "do more harm than good" (McCartt 2012). While these young drivers are educated, they are not given limitations to the number of distractions and dangers they expose themselves to in their early driving endeavors. The graduation program slowly gives young drivers more responsibility to lessen the likelihood of an accident within the first year of driving; allowing teenagers to skip a leg in the stages, while it is enticing to young drivers, could realistically be putting them in more danger.

Driver education may not teach maturity and awareness but has been proven effective in decreasing the number of accidents young drivers have. Graduates of drivers ed have been involved in "12 percent fewer crashes, 20 percent fewer convictions for driving offenses and about 50 percent fewer suspended licenses" (Mohn 2012, p.2) than their uneducated counterparts. The statistical evidence alone indicates that drivers ed produces safer drivers and should be mandatory before a license is earned. Since there is no standard for drivers ed, there is a wide variety of knowledge gained prior to getting behind the wheel. While some states such as Oregon include "classroom training, substantial supervised driving instruction and parental involvement" (Mohn 2012, p.2) other states do not provide such adequate education for young drivers. In Sacramento California, a young boy went to the movies and never returned. It was only a few weeks before his 17th birthday, and he was killed in a crash with another young driver. The California drivers ed system does the "minimum amount to prepare young drivers before giving them control of a lethal weapon" (Mohn 2012, p.2). The vast array of standards for educating young drivers would lessen if a drivers ed course was a requirement for all young drivers. To produce a safer generation of drivers, the education standard must be raised. If drivers ed was mandatory before receiving a license, maybe the young boy from California would have come home from the movies that night.

Those who say that "drivers ed does little to educate new drivers" (Zuber 2006) are, to a degree, correct. The current method of educating young drivers does fall short of demonstrating anything more than the fundamentals of driving but has been proven to increase the safety of young drivers. There is a depth to the skill of operating a vehicle. One must possess the concentration, awareness, and maturity to hold such power and responsibility, all of which are touched upon in drivers ed. It is not the fault of the educators, but that of the standards, or the lack thereof. Young drivers must be adequately educated if one is expecting to observe a safer society of drivers. Requiring young drivers to complete the course successfully, instead of allowing then to receive a driver's license based solely on a single test score, should begin the succession of safer drivers. By allowing teenagers to omit driver education with the only goal being to pass a driving test, the system has already failed. If education becomes mandatory it will prove effective by teaching not only the rules of the road but the fundamentals of safe driving as well. Instead of clicking through an online course, or learning from a simulator, young drivers "need to feel a car's reaction to their inputs" (Zuber 2006). True learning is achieved through experience, and one cannot gain effective experience without proper instruction from a professional and supervised demonstration of safe driving. If drivers ed becomes a requirement for earning a license, there would be a decrease in infractions and accidents caused by young drivers.

Driver education teaches young drivers how to be safe on the road before allowing them to drive on it. Requiring proper instruction and practice prior to driving independently allows mistakes to be corrected, distractions to be limited, and accidents to be infrequent. Education should be mandatory before receiving a license because it has proven to be effective in creating safer drivers and a reduction in accident rates in the early years of driving.

References

Huff, D. C. (2008). Driver Education Lays a Foundation for Safe Teen Driving Skills. Teen Driving. Retrieved from https://go.gale.com/ps/dispBasicSearch.do?userGroupName=avon12&prodId=OVIC

McCartt, Susan. “Education: Presidents 92 Budget in Education: Mixed Bag.” PsycEXTRA Dataset, 1991, doi:10.1037/e382202004-033.

Mohn, T. (2012). The Mixed Bag of Drivers ed. The New York Times. Retrieved from https://go.gale.com/ps/dispBasicSearch.do?userGroupName=avon12&prodId=OVIC

Nakaya, A. C. (Ed.). (2006, January 1) Better Drivers ed Will Make Young Drivers Safer. Retrieved from https://go.gale.com/ps/dispBasicSearch.do?userGroupName=avon12&prodId=OVIC

Zuber, K. L. (2006). Death at the Wheel; Traditional drivers ed does little to educate new drivers. Auto Week, 56(36). Retrieved from https://go.gale.com/ps/dispBasicSearch.do?userGroupName=avon12&prodId=OVIC