I’ve heard so much discussion about texting and driving. Mostly angry rhetoric about “those guys”, and how terrible they are. But the real culprit here is our lack of taking driving seriously.
Operating cars is a core part of American culture, a rite of passage, cultural status symbol (what you drive says so very much about who you are), etc. We drive so much (we invented the ‘Sunday Drive), and from such a young age, it’s hard to remember how dangerous this is.
Thousands of pounds of mass hurtling through space, bearing an amazing amount of force. And yet we eat, apply makeup, text, talk…rarely do we fully focus on driving. Funny, really, that we minimize the power of driving. Such a powerful act, controlling amazingly powerful forces, keeping everyone around you (as well as yourself) safe. That wound be worthy of adding to your resume for anything less mundane.
The solution requires a more rudimentary cultural-psyche change than many realize. We must elevate driving from the mundane to the serious. Or, I guess we can automate it. Acquiesce another thing to our machine overlords at Google. Taking the human out of the equation might be for the best.
I was absolutely terrified to get my driver's license. So much so, that I didn't get it until I was almost 19 years old. It's not that I don't necessarily trust myself (albeit my sense of direction is shit), but it blows my mind how much blind faith you have to put into others to behave responsibly behind the wheel of a huge piece of machinery that could KILL you. Blows my mind still to this day. I was almost hit in the middle of a pedestrian crosswalk on campus last week by a woman who was texting and driving. The sickening part was the fact that she didn't even realize she almost hit me… She just rolled right by without EVER LOOKING UP. Are you kidding me?! I think they should raise the age requirement to 18 and also work on changing the way driving is looked at in general. People just don't take it seriously. Your lives are literally in each other's hands, people!!!!