My experience with teenagers driving is slightly different from the average high-schooler. My high school had just finished being built by the time I was a freshman. To make the addition of a new school easier for our small town, the school only allowed the addition of one grade level at a time. Because of this, there were only freshmen in the school for the first year, sophomores and freshmen the second year, and so on. Therefore, the student parking lot did not get a large amount of activity until my Junior year. As more of the student body gained the ability to drive, the amount of wrecks at the entrance of the lot grew. Every other week, the school intercom would announce that students late for their first class should be excused, and every teenager knew that there had been another car crash that slowed down traffic.
Because of my experiences, I believe that the biggest challenge that teen drivers face today is a lack of preparation for driving in the ‘real world.’ Many children are able to get their driver’s license without being truly prepared for what can happen on the roads. For example, many of the accidents around my school revolved around students being unaware on how to properly navigate a yield sign. The test for a person to get their license does not usually contain a yield sign, so this may have been the first time a lot of new drivers in my area were seeing one. Similarly, I have been panicked while driving through active construction sites, not truly sure if I am taking the correct action. Because of unfamiliarities like this, teen drivers become a safety hazard for everyone in the community.
While one person cannot be expected to know how to handle every situation when first getting their license, I do not believe that the education in my area prepares teenagers nearly enough. My high school does not offer any driver’s education classes, and the high schools around me that did offer such courses combined them with health classes, so students do not spend a large amount of time behind the wheel. Plus, the state I live in does not require teenagers to take official driver’s courses before receiving their license as long as they are seventeen or older. Therefore, many of my peers were getting their license with their only driving experience being with their parents. While I do not frown upon individuals that learn to drive from their parents, as most people start out by doing such, many parents tend to leave out important details and pass down poor driving habits. Increasing the amount of driver’s education for teens would highly improve the quality of teenage drivers, and increase public safety by a large amount.
There are many actions that people in communities can take to combat the lack of preparedness of driving teenagers. Teenagers could put more emphasis on learning how to truly drive, rather than just getting their license. Many of my peers rushed themselves to get their license, and were not focused on knowing some of the minor details. Building a community that revolves around new drivers actually learning to drive, rather than just knowing the skills that are required to get their license, would heavily improve public safety. Secondly, schools could work on building more comprehensive driver’s education courses. This would allow teenagers to be taught how to drive in a more professional manner with more time to learn various skills and applications. Lastly, communities could work on preparing teenage drivers with more experience before being allowed to test for their license. For example, many states across the country require students to take formal driver’s classes before getting their driver’s license. South Carolina requires individuals of the age of sixteen or under to attend an eight-hour lecture and drive for a total of six hours with an instructor. More regulations such as these would allow teenagers to practice safer driving methods. Overall, various changes within every aspect of a population could allow teenagers to be more educated and prepared to drive.
My high school made me very aware of the various challenges that teenagers face when it comes to driving. Many incidents in my community have been caused by my peers not being fully prepared to drive, even though they passed the test to get their license. This lack of experience could be solved by simple policy and attitude changes regarding driver’s education. While it wouldn’t be easy to fix the problems, society should not be scared to make changes that would make the world safer for millions of people.