American’s were raised looking out the car window at the wonders of the world. We experienced our town, the people, and all of the beauty that makes us proud of our Country. We watched our Mother’s and Father’s, older Sisters and Brothers, and even parents of friends navigate their way through this world. We learned how to be courteous of others. We learned “fear” of the Highway Patrol. And we learned that those that were a hazard were avoided.
We also compared driving styles. We say that Grandma drove a lot slower than your older Brother. We felt our neck snap as our Sister waited until the last minute to jab her foot at the brake pedal. All and all, we figured out who we wanted to drive like and who should be taken off the road, even if they were related.
Somewhere in time we introduced the seat back babysitter, more commonly referred to as the seat-back video. Sure they keep the kids quite; sure they keep Mommy’s level of stress down. What is the cost? Is the driver actually safer with less stress from the occupied child? What is the loss of future driving skills? I am interested in your thoughts.
When an immigrant comes from a country where driving is not commonplace, what ingrained driving skills do they have? In Italy a driver’s license is about as easily attainable as getting head of the line privileges at the Post Office. Here in the USA we hand them out with basic skills demonstrated one time. If someone has never seen driver courtesy, how do they use it? What about their car tires? If they have seen cars driven on smooth tires when do they learn that they are increasing everyone’s risk on the road?
Is nationality something that should be considered at the DMV, or will this be called racial profiling and dismissed as another attack by assigning labels?
In future post’s I’ll share my thoughts on these questions. I won’t provide my thoughts on a solution until you share your thoughts.
