Enternal Passenger Princess

            I am Legally blind. I wasn’t always legally blind though. I was diagnosed when I was 25. So, in high school I took the drivers permit test and passed. But I’ve only driven a car three or four times. I just never had the motivation or need to. In college, everything was within walking distance, and I didn’t like the deal of having to shell out a bunch of money for gas and insurance just to be able to get places faster. Each time I drove it was incredibly terrifying. I felt the reality of the danger of driving. You could feel the weight of several tons in your hands. Knowing this feeling, it’s incredible that anyone decides to be an unsafe driver. Now, as a lifelong passenger, I feel like I see people’s driving habits in a way that they don’t see about themselves. 

            I’ve been in a couple of fender benders, but more importantly I think, I’ve experienced people practicing dangerous driving numerous times. As a passenger, it always amazes me the shortcuts and risks people will take to do things like check their phone, avoid something that annoys them on the road, or get to a place faster. Especially incredible is road rage. How can anyone think that they can maneuver two tons of metal effectively while angry baffles me every time.

            To me, participating in Drivers Education is a debt that every driver owes to society. It should be a requirement for getting a motor vehicle license. Learning the DMV handbook is not enough. That teaches you the laws and the rules of driving but doesn’t effectively communicate how to be a safe and responsible driver. If a person wants to risk other people’s lives to get places faster, I believe they need to demonstrate that they are fully aware of the dangers and how to most effectively avoid them while driving. I also think that continuing education needs to be more frequent.

            I think driver’s education can be improved immensely to further reduce deaths and the dangers of driving. To me there is a whole behavioral psychology component that is missing. Drivers should regularly have to reflect on thinking errors that they commit while driving and show how dangerous those thinking errors are to commit. One that comes to mind is the error of thinking that switching lanes constantly can get you to your destination faster. It’s not true, and even if it was, the little time saved is not worth all the danger you put others in. Also, I feel like drivers don’t consider things that are maybe not fatal but still create an emotional burden of stress for the other drivers around them.

            I think empathy for other drivers also needs to be a prime component of driver’s ed. Driving can be emotionally exhausting, which then makes it harder to drive safely. Drivers need to be required to act considerately towards their fellow drivers to reduce this emotional burden. Flipping others off may feel good (I never have experienced road rage so it just looks childish to me) but making another driver angry and distracted is not something you should do in any situation. 

Finally, I think that drivers need to be made aware of the misconceptions they have about their own driver. I always see statistics floating around that 84% of drivers think they are better than average, which obviously is impossible. Whatever the statistic actually is, it illustrates the point that people don’t accurately judge their own driving. This is incredibly dangerous. I’ve never ridden in a car with anyone that thought they were below average at driving. It’s incredible the way drivers deceive themselves. They think that they are ‘good enough’ at driving. The truth is that no one is ever ‘good enough’ to be completely safe and we all need to be constantly trying to be the best drivers we can be. 

            So yeah, as an eternal passenger prince, I feel like it’s my duty to po8int out to all of the drivers ferrying m around about how they might be driving in a way that’s not optimal. We as passengers can’t be inactive. We need to be active in making sure the person driving us is as safe as a driver as possible. I always say goodbye to people leaving my house with the phrase ‘don’t forget to use your blinker’. When I get in the car with my brother, for instance, there really isn’t a drive where he’s not angry at some driver or another. He drives a big truck. Over the years I’ve consistently but kindly pointed out ways he can be safer on the road and urged him to empathize with other drivers. Let’s all do our part and normalize considerate driving.