Ensuring a positive experience on the road

Experience.

When it comes down to it, experience is more valuable than anything we can learn from a textbook. We can read a manual to change our oil, watch a video to can green beans, or sit through a class to be a teacher. But nothing equates to just doing the thing – good old-fashioned, hands-on learning. That’s true for the previous examples, but it’s especially true when it comes to driving, specifically teen driving.

Where do most teens get their experience driving? My guess would be mostly from parents. Parents are the go-to source for all things road related. Children watch their parents’ driving habits when they are younger, turn to them when it’s time to study for their permit, and lean on them as a licensed driver to help when it comes time to slide behind the wheel.

According to the National Library of Medicine, driver’s education classes are offered in every state, but they are not universally mandated. This means that in lieu of a driver’s ed course in high school, other adults must step up. Teenagers have a higher rate of fatal crashes, due mostly in part to their lack of experience, slow reaction times, and not-always-great decision making.

Communities can help. Our best course of action is to simply be good role models. That means buckling up, going the speed limit, using our phones responsibly and slowing down in town or construction areas. We can intervene when we see too many kids piling into one car for a night out, knowing that the more people in a car, the more distracted the driver becomes. We can be conscientious about having teen drivers on the roads.

Fall is full of new, young drivers. They’re driving to football games on Friday nights, they’re headed home from college on the weekends, they’re going to and from after-school activities during the week. Let’s keep our eye out for them and make the roads safe for them. Then, as they venture out onto our roads, the experience will be a positive one.

— Annie Wooden