I'm Talking with the Man in the Mirror

Word Count: 498

Ariel Escobar

Youth Forward

Round 1

30 Mar 2020

I’m Talking with the Man in the Mirror

As a society, we’ve been conditioned to think a wildly speeding car belongs to a young boy who craves the feel of freedom. What we don’t realize is that this car could very well be driven by a well-meaning American who has driven for decades. 

Our community suffers from a lack of education in this respect, as a proper understanding of the road could save the lives of many thousands. The knowledge required to earn a driver’s license is valid, but the teaching method is laughable. Being a teenager, I bore witness to many instances of speeding through the DATA course and waiting for the timer to end, myself included. If there’s a method available which would allow us to engage with the material, such as Drivers ed in high school, then both drivers and passengers would retain the knowledge necessary to be safe on the road. If classes could be made more available in schools and the general public, then I know people would be inclined to really learn what it means to be a safe driver.

Being knowledgeable is absolutely a key factor in decreasing the deaths seen by motor accidents. However, another factor lies within the correction system in place for traffic violations. Through psychological study, it’s been discovered that punishment is less effective than reward in regards to modifying behaviors1. This trend is demonstrated in a study of speeders in Maryland, which returned results showing drivers who received a speeding ticket were almost twice as likely to receive another in subsequent months as opposed to drivers who received no citations2. Another tidbit to consider is that most speeders admit to doing so intentionally3. With these in mind, it’s considerably obvious that speeding, among other violations, cannot be discouraged by punishment, and should instead be discouraged by promotion of good traffic behavior. Perhaps this can be executed similarly to safe-driving bonuses, where good traffic behaviors can be tracked by a company or by the car, and drivers can be rewarded for their diligence.

In any case, reckless drivers can be found everywhere. My father drove his first vehicle when he was ten, and until he arrived in the United States at twenty-six, he’d never received any driving education. To this day, he fails to stop at signs, doesn’t use his signals, consistently drives over the speed limit, the list continues. I intrinsically know the behaviors he exhibits--and those I’ve picked up as a result--are irresponsible, and since I’ve earned my driver’s license, I’ve tried to correct those actions to become a safer driver. I think progress is being made, though behaviors such as these are tough habits to break. Perhaps I can invest some time in an engaging Drivers ed course, or implement a reward strategy of my own. After all, the road to being a safe driver is one that can be taken by anyone, as long as they’re willing to make an effort for the sake of themselves, their passengers, and their neighbors.

Works Cited

Alonso, Fransisco, et al. “ Speed and Road Accidents: Behaviors, Motives, and Assessment of the Effectiveness of Penalties for Speeding.” American Journal of Applied Psychology, vol. 1, no. 10, 2013, pp. 58–64., doi:10.12691/ajap-1-3-5.

Lawpoolsri, Saranath, et al. “Do Speeding Tickets Reduce the Likelihood of Receiving Subsequent Speeding Tickets? A Longitudinal Study of Speeding Violators in Maryland.” Traffic Injury Prevention, U.S. National Library of Medicine, Mar. 2007, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17366333.

Lee, Amy. “Speeding.” NHTSA, US Department of Transportation, 12 Dec. 2019, www.nhtsa.gov/risky-driving/speeding.

“Scholarship.” DmvEdu.org, DMVedu.org, www.dmvedu.org/scholarship/.

Wagner, I. “Total Number of Licensed Drivers in the U.S. - by State 2018.” Statista, N.p., 26 Feb. 2020, www.statista.com/statistics/198029/total-number-of-us-licensed-drivers-by-state/.

Wächter, Tobias, et al. “Differential Effect of Reward and Punishment on Procedural Learning.” The Journal of Neuroscience : the Official Journal of the Society for Neuroscience, Society for Neuroscience, 14 Jan. 2009, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2765863/.

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