The Gap Between Ready and Prepared

            Less than five minutes. That’s how long it took for me to experience the reality of driving on real streets, alongside real vehicles, and with real lives in my hands. I had just left the DMV after receiving my license, excited that the world was now at my fingertips. My mom had come to support me and after the personal victory she had decided to treat us to a celebratory lunch. I got behind the wheel with her in my passenger seat and got on to the open road for the first time with a license. Just minutes later while driving down the road, the car next to me started drifting into my lane. My heart started to race, and hands tightened on the wheel as I swerved into the middle turn lane to avoid a disastrous start to my driving career. Luckily no contact was made and the driver who swerved into my lane was an older woman who probably never saw me, but those five minutes were enough to teach me that my earlier practice wasn’t enough and with time I would truly become equipped for the challenges of the open road.

            Only a little over a year earlier I didn’t even have a permit. I was crawling along at ten miles per hour in an empty parking lot, my mom in the passenger seat once again, talking me through the ins and outs of the basics of driving. I remember how stressed I was, making simple turns or trying to park within the white lines. The concentration it took to do something my parents and other adults did every day was humbling to say the least. The parking lot taught me the mechanics of driving, but it couldn't teach me how fast a situation on the highway can turn dangerous, or how little control I actually have over what other drivers choose to do.

            That’s exactly why driver education matters. Learning to steer, brake, and park are only the beginning of being ready for driving on the open road. To be fully capable of handling the road it takes time and many different experiences to showcase how unpredictable it can be at times. The driver who doesn’t check their mirrors before changing lanes, the one who is distracted on their phone, or the ones that think they are better drivers than they are, are all examples of challenges that you could face every day when you get on the road. Every year, thousands of preventable deaths happen not because people don't know the rules of the road, but because they, or the drivers around them, aren't prepared for the moment those rules get broken. Reducing that number starts with education that goes beyond the basics and treats defensive driving, not just legal driving, as essential.

            In addition to the previously mentioned bad driver examples, living in North Dakota has shown me another layer to the lesson of being equipped for driving. Weather and car mechanical issues pop up all the time and sometimes there is very little you can do about it. For example icy roads here are commonplace, and you will have to get used to them for maybe four to five months out of the year. I learned quickly that the rules I'd practiced in dry, sunny conditions didn't apply the same way once the roads turned to sheets of ice. Braking distances stretch out. Tires lose their grip without warning. A turn I could normally take without thinking suddenly demanded my full attention. In addition to the weather, worse conditions outside mean cars tend to break down more often. At any moment in rain, snow, or even on a perfect day you could be sitting on the side of the road or worse due to mechanical failure. Conditions like these are one more reason driver education needs to equip people for reality, not just for a clear, calm test route. Slowing down, increasing following distance, and remaining calm when things don’t go your way are steps that can keep people alive and safe.
            But so far in my driving career nothing has tested me more than a trip I took with 3 of my friends down a two-lane road to another friend’s lake cabin. We were headed toward a hill on a narrow road with no shoulder to speak of. As we reached the peak, a car coming from the opposite direction was drifting into the center of the road, and I quickly realized they weren't going to correct in time. I swerved as hard as I safely could, feeling the tires grip and the car shudder as it hit the gravel lining the outside of the road. The difference between a normal drive home and a tragedy that would have either seriously injured or killed four people came down to reaction time and instinct built from every mile I had driven since that empty parking lot.
             I don't think of myself as a naturally gifted driver, just someone who's been shown how thin the margin for error is. A distracted lane change, icy pavement, a driver drifting into my lane on a hill. None of it was my fault, but driving demands constant attention to everyone else on the road, not just yourself. I check my mirrors before every lane change, leave extra following distance the moment conditions turn, and keep my phone out of reach once the car is moving, because those habits are what put me in a position to react instead of just hoping. Every time you get behind the wheel numerous people's lives are in your hands. Being safe doesn't end at the test, it's a responsibility you renew every time you turn the key.