Let's talk driving

By: Gary Magwood

Date: Monday, 02. February 2009

Gary Magwood is a driving educator and freelance writer.

Several of my recent columns have elicited much response in the form of emails and phone calls. I also found myself deeply involved in driving discussions during my recent cross-country tour with a car company. If I add all this to the many conversations I had with those of you who attended my winter driving clinics and your subsequent emails, letters, and phone calls, I have to conclude that we driving citizens want to open a larger dialogue regarding driving and traffic.

The myths

I am fascinated by the myths, misinformation, and lack of genuine knowledge about a subject that so dramatically affects our lives. In every city I visit I'm told with stunning conviction that the world's worst drivers inhabit their area. I'm told with equal certainty that our traffic problems result from (pick your most cherished belief): old drivers, young drivers, impaired drivers, cell phone users (the latest hot button topic), ethnic incapacities, women drivers, little car drivers, big car drivers, truck drivers, SUV drivers (our current favourites), van drivers, BMW drivers, cabbies, bicyclists, pedestrians, old men with hats, and more!

Of course, the discussions also encompass highway design, traffic lights, bicycle lanes, pedestrian crossings, current vehicle technologies, future developments, speed limits and their enforcement, left lane pains, traffic calming efforts, and once more the list goes on.

Then blend in our perceptions of what causes crashes such as: black ice, fog, night driving, speeders, critters crossing the road, tailgating, red lights runners, fatigue, over-loaded vehicles, or the 'other guy'-it 's not hard to understand our confusion.

The truths

The truth is we crash all types of vehicles, new and old, on bright, warm, sunny days. Sober drivers of all ages and stages, ethnic backgrounds, and experience levels are involved.

The real truth is that we crash because we all make mistakes behind the wheel or compound another driver's error. We make mistakes because we never learned how not to. We respond to other drivers' errors and indiscretions by getting angry instead of dealing with the crisis. How can we handle an emergency behind the wheel if we were not taught a process that enables us to see, look, and take appropriate action when the world unravels around us?

What's most interesting are the responses we offer the cops at the scene of a crash or collision. "I didn't see it/them/the truck etc.," is the most commonly blurted epithet. We don't "see" because we are not trained to "see." I know we are admonished to look up and look down the road sometime during the license acquisition process. Unfortunately, the admonition is almost an aside lost in the concerns of mastering the art of parallel parking, the major hurdle to the possession of a drivers license! Strange when we realise that fatal and non-fatal injuries resulting from inept parallel parking are statistically non existent!

The resistance

I digress! My point is we cannot admit that very few of us have the necessary education and training required to drive today's vehicles in today's conditions. We're more than capable and can learn to perform the most complex tasks when motivated. Why the resistance to learning more about driving?

I'm writing this column to ask these questions. I am hearing from many of you who would like to press for changes. How can we propose changes to a system unless we learn more about it? Where can information about driving be found? Unfortunately most of the printed materials from various safety councils, insurers, and automobile associations merely repeat what we've been told to do since day one: in essence, "drive safely"! Driving textbooks pay little attention to dealing with crises behind the wheel. Even pamphlets and brochures prepared by governments and safety organizations are inadequate and even inaccurate. I picked up a winter driving booklet recently. The information about braking on slippery surfaces was vague and made no mention of the vital role vision plays in braking.

On the same page there was a sentence that really caught my eye, "Consider taking an advanced driver course, one that teaches emergency driving skills." Numerous phone calls to a variety of phone numbers at the ministry that produced the brochure resulted in nothing but recorded messages. I wanted to find out more about these advanced driver courses, but could not track down such information and got no response to phone calls. It's difficult to get involved if you can't make a connection!

Take action

So here's my suggestion for those of you who want to learn more about driving and be in a position to discuss the real issues. Log on to www.Drivers.com. This is international forum that deals with all traffic issues. The site hosts virtual conferences, workshops, and discussion groups. It also provides knowledgeable and extensive articles and dissertations from a variety of players. Engineers, driving educators, government ministries, insurance companies, automobile manufacturers, and many of the folks who daily toil away to improve the situation on our roads and highways participate. So can you.

If you are concerned about untrained drivers then why not take action, become involved? In the U.S. the new head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration recently pointed to the huge losses on the country's roadways (worse than the Vietnam war!) and asked "where are the protestors?"

He's right. Let's all get involved in improving driving and reducing the incredible carnage that slips past us every day on our highways.

Simon Shek:
Mr. Magwood's article seems to stress the importance of driver education, skills, and that the "worst drivers" can be found anywhere on the planet. Agreed. But something that can't be tested or measured, unlike driving skills, is whether or not people actually WANT to drive well....

Ken Smith:
Gary Magwood's article raises two issues. One is, if so many of us are bad drivers, why doesn't 'the government' do something about it? The second is that....

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