The Habits I Did Not Consider

Emily Moncada

The Habits I Did Not Consider

I got my license over two years ago and I am a distracted driver. Not entirely, but I do have some bad habits that could reap major consequences. I have never been close to experiencing any sort of accident but I do not ever want to find myself in that situation. I have come to realize that it is time that I take a step back and evaluate my driving habits. 

When I first started driving I thought it was the coolest thing in the entire world. I had no regard for driving safely, I was just happy to be able to get out of my house. I was playing music at full volume and my phone has always been a distraction, not sitting in my seat properly, and not obeying the rules of the road. And even though these actions never caused an accident I have grown to realize that I can be putting people’s lives at risk. 

I would sit terribly. Like I would have my seat way too far from the steering wheel, and I am a pretty short person so doing that did not help me in any way at all. I would cross my left leg under my right leg, or I would bring my left knee near my face. I would sit slouched, unable to the street that was directly in front of me. 

My phone has always been a distraction for me. I was not straight up scrolling or texting when I was driving but I would check my notifications when I was at a stop sign or stop light. I would think to myself “the car is not really moving, so I am not actually driving right now.” The second I was not moving my brain would treat my phone as if it was not a distraction. There have been a few times where I became too distracted with my phone at a stoplight that someone behind me had to honk their horn at me. 

A habit that I honestly did not pay much mind to until recently was my music. I love music, and I love to play it really loud, like extremely loud. And I truthfully never considered it a distraction. I would turn my music loud enough to the point where I can not even hear the clicking of the turn signal or a fire truck that would be a lot closer to me than I realized. I would constantly make the excuse that music helped me focus but it honestly just cut off one of my main senses from being able to tell what was going on around me. 

It was not until I started to drive other people around that I realized that the way that I drive is extremely important. People were entrusting me with their lives to get them from one place to another. If I were to drive distracted I would be risking the lives of everyone in my car and that made me want to improve my driving habits. There was once a time where I took four of my friends in my car to go to Swig, a soda shop. My car was full, I made everyone put on their seatbelts, I kept the music really low, mostly because everyone else was talking, I did all the right things. When we were leaving Swig I was backing out of my parking space to leave and I did not really think to check around me before we left because when we were walking to the car I did not see any cars near us. But just as I was leaving a car came out of nowhere and sped behind us, thankfully my car stopped and no one was hurt. In that moment I really realized that I had a responsibility over these individuals' lives.

My younger sister recently got her license and has been super eager to drive on her own. When she had her permit and was driving with our parents my dad would always say “drive defensively” and that always reminded me of something my boss says which is “assume global incompetence.” Which, as harsh as it sounds, it is true. The best advice I have been given is to drive/live life as if everyone has no idea what they are doing, this helps to prevent small accidents and miscommunications. 

Now when I drive, the first thing I do is put my phone on a Personal Focus so I get absolutely zero notifications. And my music is now kept at a level where I can hear my own voice clearly over the music, also the older I have gotten the less appealing I have found loud music. And when I have additional passengers I keep my responses to them very minimal, sometimes I will just nod or shake my head. 

The more I have driven and the more I have ridden in other people’s cars I have learned that being a safe driver is more than just keeping yourself safe but keeping others around you safe.