The Bad & The Beautiful of Teen Driving
Essay 2: The Bad & The Beautiful of Teen Driving




What are the biggest challenges teen drivers face today, such as distractions, peer pressure, or lack of experience, and how can they overcome them?





When tweens officially become teenagers, the first thing they think of is getting their driver's license. A very exciting time for them, but also very scary. Being a teen in today’s world can be nerve-wracking for parents because of how easily kids can be distracted by their phones. According to the Pew Research Center, teens who use their phones while driving are four times more likely to be involved in an accident than adults. Inexperience can also play a role in why parents are petrified of letting their child drive. Having just taken driver’s ed courses and passing their test, still isn’t enough to make parents confident in how their child does on the road. Due to inexperience, particularly among drivers between the ages of 16 and 19, they are around four times more likely than those over the age of 20 to be involved in an accident for every mile driven. Although driving is essential for life and is a milestone for excited teenagers to start driving on the road, distracted driving and inexperience can cause bumps in the road for teenagers. They can be life-threatening to themselves and others. Therefore, distracted driving and inexperience are the biggest challenges to face when it comes to teenage driving.

There are a lot of occurrences that can happen in a vehicle that can make you distracted, the radio, a phone call, events outside the car, and even passengers. But the biggest one out of all of them is phones. The usage of phones occurs in our everyday life, whether it’s at your 9-5 or a chill day at home, we use them all the time. Most people get a phone in late elementary or early middle school. But today, it seems that everyone has a phone, and that can cause detrimental harm, especially in a vehicle. Phones are the biggest cause of deaths from distracted driving because of the attraction to people with their phones. It can go from one second of picking up your phone to send a text, and the next can be your car getting totaled. Using your phone causes time off the road, which can last about 4-5 seconds, and can make accidents occur very quickly. Even though there is Bluetooth in most cars today that use a hands-free system for phones. Just having a conversation while driving can still be a distraction because of the focus you're having on the chat. Even though we have put in laws to prevent distraction driving from phones like the MCL - Section 257.602b, which states “Holding or using a mobile electronic device while operating a motor vehicle; prohibited; exception for commercial motor vehicle and school bus; ‘use a mobile electronic device.’” Some other ways we can prevent this are by using the “Do Not Disturb” mode, which allows users to not be distracted by their notifications. This can help prevent distracted driving because it silences your phone without turning it off fully, and can be used to decrease the urge to look at your phone. Another cause of distracted driving is peer pressure from others while in a vehicle. Having passengers, for the most part, can be fun and beneficial, but sometimes it can lead to deadly mistakes. Peer pressure is when someone forces someone to do something against their will. People can feel pressured by feeling the need to impress someone and make them think that they’re “cool” to fit in. Examples of peer pressure can be speeding, not wearing a seatbelt, and sometimes driving under the influence (DUI). Having peer pressure and having more than 1 passenger in the car can weigh heavily on your conscious because having an accident can lead to people getting hurt, and it’ll be your fault because you took the action even though there could’ve been a solution. A way to mitigate the problem of peer pressure while driving is to establish clear boundaries with your passengers. You can set up these standards by communicating to the people in the vehicle the rules everyone should follow when driving, ensuring a safe journey, and ensuring that everyone arrives at the destination safely. If an issue arises during the trip, you must prioritize the safety of yourself and others by being kind yet assertive. If it reaches an unacceptable point, you have the right to pull over until a compromise is reached or let them fully exit the vehicle. Another way to prevent peer pressure is to say “no”. Saying “no” is one of the hardest but confident ways to tell someone that you are not comfortable with something. Saying “no” can be addressed kindly or can be straight up. But it all truly depends on what the situation is. In all, distracted driving is one of the main causes of accidents in teen driving, along with the causes of phones and peer pressure, but there are ways to solve these problems, and we need to act.

Even though when we first learn how to drive, it can be scary, of course, but it can also be fun and a big accomplishment for most people; it can also cause distress about what to do on the road, and that’s because of inexperience. Inexperience happens in every driver, but eventually comes with experience over time. Usually, in 5 years of being on the road to be is officially “experienced”. Being inexperienced includes not being aware of situations around you, speeding, tailgating, failure to yield, etc. But there is a solution to become experienced; you must focus on the significant standards for driving and understanding the laws. Some core knowledge can be reading the car manual, mirror usage, and smooth and calm driving. You can practice this in rural environments that don’t have a lot of vehicles to practice your driving, and you can progressively get higher up in more urban places. Another solution is to focus on safety on the road. Focus on not just your car, but the surroundings of it, other cars, pedestrians, objects, etc. Even though your safety does matter, others’ safety matters as well. You can do this by using “defensive driving”. Defensive driving is a proactive driving style in which the driver foresees possible risks and takes precautions to stay out of collisions. To reduce dangers on the road, it involves staying vigilant, paying attention to your surroundings, and making wise decisions. Some ways of using defensive driving are to keep a good following distance from other vehicles, take caution of weather advisories, obey traffic signals, and always be prepared. Another cause of inexperience is poor decision-making on the road, which can include overconfidence in driving, being emotional, overwhelming situations, distractions, and overestimating a speed limit. These things can all contribute to poor decision-making while driving and can cause major accidents. But having no experience can lead to not making the correct choices on time or taking a risk. Lack of awareness of your surroundings can make it difficult for drivers to respond appropriately to dangers like traffic, freeways, or abrupt changes in the road, which can result in an accident. Some risky choices while driving can include speeding, tailgating, DUIs, and not wearing a seatbelt. Making poor decisions can lead to fatal accidents, tickets, increased insurance, and legal issues. A way to solve this problem again, use defensive driving to help drivers become more aware of situations on the road, build confidence on the road, and avoid distractions. New drivers can acquire the abilities and self-assurance necessary to become responsible and capable decision-makers behind the wheel by continuously putting safety first and putting these techniques into practice. As a result, inexperience in new drivers can also become a major highlight of challenge faced by teenage drivers because of not having much experience as a driver on the road and poor decision-making while driving. The biggest solution to both problems is to use the skills of defensive driving and be aware of others’ surroundings.

Having been a new driver myself, I think teenagers can definitely start to implement solutions to these challenges by starting to silence their phones, making boundaries with other passengers, driving in low-risk areas, and practicing defensive driving. So, the biggest challenges of teenage driving are distracted driving with phones and peer pressure from others, and inexperience of driving with little to no knowledge of the road and poor decision-making. But all these problems can be solved by teens who care about their own and others’ safety as well as their driving.