A notification popped up on my friend’s phone. Quickly, she grabbed her phone to check it, her attention on both the road and her phone at the same time. Others in the back jokingly said, “don’t send us to the hospital”. A car next to us honked their horn, and we all laughed somewhat uneasily. She put her phone down, and we all got home safely. But I know the story could have been much worse.
Drivers ed is often seen as a teacher of rules and regulations, but for youth to drive safely, it must go beyond and develop a mindset. Signs on the road do not just correspond to an action, they correspond to consequences. When drivers ed instills a mindset of alertness, a driver can develop a mindful relationship with driving. For example, I was taught in drivers ed that a road is not just a machine you have to operate with buttons and procedures, but a changing, adaptable process that you must devote your full attention to. Snow, rain, hills, and other unforeseen circumstances are there to make the buttons on the machine useless. This mindset has helped me adapt to & become more confident in driving with unique circumstances.
Just like how a parent teaches a child, drivers ed develops in drivers a world view - that in messing up, you should minimize the damage, in failing, you should think critically about why that happened. Teaching rules & procedures alone is like teaching a child the meaning of specific words, but never showing them how the words form sentences & meanings.
My friends and I are not and never will be the “perfect driver”. Driving is dynamic, never stationary: like the car that journeys through different landscapes and environments, your mindset adapts to different times and places. Rules alone make people comfortable and unattentive, because after a while, they’ve memorized it all. But with “the dynamic driver” mindset, drivers will always be alert and attentive, making appropriate judgements as the surroundings change. They can form coherent sentences, while others rely on flashcards. When this mindset spreads from individual to individual, it will promote a healthy driving culture for youth.
As a result, it will be easier to hold others accountable for when they fall short. There is no concrete rule for what to say when a friend engages in risky driving behavior, like checking their phone whilst on the road. But with a mindset, like a driver willing to put their comfort aside, it becomes easier to help all drivers unlearn damaging habits & protect lives. Even a masqueraded joke, like the ones my friend made, worked. By shifting the focus of driving from “one size fits all” rules to developing a mindset, we can be remembered as the generation that reduced car-related deaths.