I was 17 when I first took the driving test and didn’t pass because I almost hit another car. There went my hopes of ever wanting to drive again, especially since I was already incredibly nervous driving, even before I took the test. If I’m objective, I probably should have waited a little longer to take the test, as I was still not very good at some of the more important aspects of driving, such as staying inside the lane lines. Unfortunately, I think the main reason I didn’t wait any longer was due to the time limit that forces one to take the driving test no more than one year after receiving the permit. If this time had been extended to two years, I would have had more time to practice and could have taken more driving lessons. Learning to drive safely was especially important in my case, seeing as I nearly hit a car, so more focus should have been put on better driving habits, instead of just focusing on getting me just barely ready for the driving test.
Driver safety is important for everyone, as everyone should know how to drive properly, but it’s especially important for those just learning to drive, which are usually teens. As teens are just getting used to the roads and the mechanics of driving, they don’t know as much as someone who’s been driving for months or years. They only know what they’ve been taught from lessons, but those lessons do not show all the things that can happen on the road. Once someone has been on the road for a longer time, they know how to deal with other difficult drivers or difficult situations that may not have been encountered during driving lessons. Teens get into more accidents compared to other age groups, so it’s especially important for them to be prepared for the road outside of driving lessons. Even though experience is the best teacher, driving lessons are especially important, as they provide the initial experience for a teen that gets them more used to the road. Without driving lessons, it would be more difficult for teens to navigate the roads, as they do not know the proper road rules, and may cause more accidents.
In my opinion, the biggest challenge of all that teens face nowadays is distractions. When I’m going somewhere, I always notice people driving by while on their phones or being so distracted by their phones that they don’t see that the stoplight has turned green. Phones are such a dangerous distraction when on the road, as so many accidents occur around where I live likely due to distracted driving. The area where I live has so many car-related accidents each year, and I would not be surprised if a lot of them were because of phones. While not a car, one time I noticed someone on an electric bike looking at their phone, while going extremely fast and not bothering to check their surroundings. To stop these phones from being a distraction, there needs to be more of a police presence on the roads or there needs to be more cameras at stoplights to find the people who are on their phones while driving. The fear of being jailed or fined should keep most people from being distracted by their phones. Unfortunately, the fear of hitting someone is not enough for some people. I also think that phones should come equipped with a sensor that detects when someone is driving, and I know technology is now good enough to the point where that sort of tech should be easy enough to create.
The best way to promote safe driving is to have a better system in place for driving schools. To get the permit, there should be classes prior to taking the permit test. This way, the permit test is easier to understand, and teens get a deeper understanding of each topic covered in the permit test. There should also be more required driving lessons with a professional, as for where I live, only 6 hours of driving lessons with a professional are required, and the rest is up to the parents. It’s too easy for parents to lie about how long they’ve driven with their teens, and parents are not always the best example of good driving. If the required number of hours with a professional at least increased to around 20 hours or more, teens would get a lot more help with areas they need improvement on that perhaps their parents aren’t much help with. It would also be beneficial if the time limit that the permit is valid for was extended to around two years or was indefinite. Permits come with restrictions, so it’s unlikely someone would never get their actual driver’s license, so allowing someone to keep it around indefinitely would allow for more practice before the test and would likely not be of harm.
When living in a country that is very centered around cars and isn’t very good in terms of walkability, it’s more important than ever to prioritize safe driving skills. Teaching these skills needs to be mandatory, and more needs to be done about the epidemic of distracted driving and bad habits of teen drivers.