Driving and You, a Proposition

By Kai Feldhaus (11/17/2022)

        It becomes obvious to those willing to look that there is no day-to-day activity more dangerous than driving. The concept itself pits men in earth shaking behemoths against the common man as if they were equals, leaving alone factors such as old age and disability. And were this disregard not flagrant enough, any juvenile fresh out of high school can guess their way through a few questions before speeding around an empty lot for 15 minutes. Their reward for this? A full pass to drive any smoke-spewing contraption with four wheels and a license plate. Every one of us, from the delirious ingrate to the model citizen is more or less forced into this system from the age of 16 onward. And somehow, despite all of these issues no one challenges the notion. We only recognize the problem after bodies hit the pavement. Then we slap the perpetrator on the wrist and drive smart for an hour or so before sinking into old habits once more. We as a culture lack the confidence to say it, but it has to be said. The safety of our roadways is the responsibility of everyone on them, big and small, old and new. How is the trouble really, and there are more than a few ways to broach the problem.

        Some would say that driving is the responsibility of the individual. Every mind on the road is responsible for it's own safety, and that consequences are earned. This is not only a lazy assertion, but also a selfish and unnuanced one. These people simply want to wave off the issue, as surely they would never be so careless. To do this ignores the reality of our shared roadway. An inattentive driver does not always crash into a tree, but sometimes homes, and god forbid people. And with barely a modicum of consideration, it becomes obvious that individuals are not the fault in most incidents. An aggressive or unskilled driver is nonetheless skilled in their brand of driving, and it's those forced to adapt that often suffer for it. When I say that road safety is the responsibility of everyone I mean that we need to worry about not only ourselves, but also how we interact with others. By now everyone knows that drunk and distracted driving is bad. When people do these things they most often know the moral implications of their actions and the possible consequences, they just don't act on them. What we need to keep an eye out for is what we can't outright label as reprehensible.

        A prime example of this is emotional driving. Emotions are an inevitable part of human life. From the moment we leave our beds we have something brewing behind our eyes, so we definitely do while driving. However, all too often these emotions boil over and cause a plethora of problems. We've all heard of road rage and the myriad of accidents caused by it, but few know that roughly 1200 injuries and 200 deaths are attributed to the phenomenon between 1990 and 1996. But what of other emotions? The weaving between lanes of an excited driver can be indistinguishable from a bog-standard aggressive one. And those with a lot on their mind inevitably wander. Even dull emotions like boredom or contentment cause drivers to slow down and distract easily. Virginia Tech Transportation Institute found that drivers were almost ten times as likely to get in accidents while driving under intense emotion. Some claim that because of this the problem is inevitable, and to some degree they are right. It's a fools errand to ask someone to simply stop being emotional, but you do possess some degree of control over these factors. In any case a drop of awareness can make all the difference. It's one thing to get behind the wheel angry, another to ignore that fact. All in all, every driver needs to accept this reality and adapt accordingly.

        As ingrained as your emotions are, they are not nearly as entrenched as your need for sleep. Yet somehow studies show that 37% of workers get less than the recommended 7 hours of sleep each night. Normally one could chalk this up to poor time management skills, but the working man knows that today's companies get more and more demanding by the day. N.I.O.S.H. (The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health) advises that employers allow sufficient break times on extended shifts. They also recommend training supervisors on identifying fatigue, as well as offering screenings for sleep disorders. But we all know that leaving these things up to our politicians and businessmen is a mistake, so N.I.O.S.H. also leaves some advice to the public. Try to keep an eye out for erratic driving, and to pull over for coffee and a nap if need be. But as with emotional driving, the most important aspect is personal accountability. Be honest with yourself when driving late, no time slot is worth your or anyone else's life.

        Overall, the one thing that everyone needs to remember is that these roads are chaotic by nature. No amount of laws, cops, TV ads or roadside signs will change that. But we as a community have a duty to our friends and neighbors to make a safe lane of travel for everyone, not just ourselves. So next time you get behind the wheel do well to remember these warnings. You can also do your part in cataloguing your own experiences, as generations of drivers to come will have use of them. And do take a moment to look through the windshields of your countrymen. See that they too are peop
le with wants, needs, and destinations in mind. Remember that next time you stare down your local highway

Sources:

Unknown Author. “Researchers Determine Driver Risks Using Large-Scale, Crash-Only Naturalistic Database.” VTx, 23 Feb. 2016, https://vtx.vt.edu/articles/2016/02/022316-vtti-researchdistraction.html. 

NIOSH, The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. “Driver Fatigue.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 27 Feb. 2020, https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/newsroom/feature/driverfatigue.html.

APA, American Psychological Association. “The Fast and the Furious.” American Psychological Association, American Psychological Association, https://www.apa.org/topics/anger/road-rage.