Driver Education Needs
http://www.ny.aaa.com/safety/driver_training/story.asp?xml=workshops.xml&zip=12603
Above is a link to AAA/Auto Club of NY re: Driver Training Offerings
(Make sure to scroll to bottom to take part in my poll)
My industry is that of providing safe, quality transportation to clients that book with that expectation. The ability to provide, what I feel is the key component “Safe” transportation, is determined by a number of factors. Most of these factors hinge upon the ability of the driver of their (the customer’s) car and the other drivers on the road at the moment). While my company and most other transportation providers require a “standard of safety”, which includes driver capability, testing, training and monitoring, unfortunately that requirement only impacts roughly 10% of the vehicles on the road, that is “professional” drivers whom are licensed as such. Our industry standards do not have impact on the greater majority of other drivers on the roads daily. While I have faith that almost everyone on the road means well and has the intention of moving between their destinations in a safe manner, it is their skill as a driver (or a higher power) that actually dictates most outcomes of driver travel. That most important skill set, which includes knowledge that isn’t being given proper and necessary attention, after a driver completes their involuntary 5 hour driver education during the process of getting their driver’s license for the 1st time. While this is truth in fact, I do not blame the average driver themself, I place that blame solely upon the shoulders of each state that issues and regulates driver licenses. Its my opinion that each agency should make continued driver education and remedial training a necessity for every individual to maintain a valid driver license. I know those reading this are already thinking “so I’m going to have to pay more to keep driving?” or “who is going to pay for this?”. Actually, we are already paying for it by the fees we pay to the DMV to maintain our driver licenses everyday and the insurance fees to keep our vehicles on the road. Each state agency has its own standard requirement on the fees it collects, Driver Education if offered by the local DMV’s – Dept. of Motor Vehicles could and would be at no cost to each driver (again as a standard requirement) . When we consider the cost for, increasing insurance premiums as a result of more unskilled drivers on the road having accidents, downtime for repairs when a vehicle is damaged in an accident and possible personal downtime due to injury or loss of life, the trade-off of requiring & providing education on the rules of the road and defensive driving techniques just makes sense!
In closing, how many times have those that are “good drivers” asked the question “what the heck is that person doing, do they know how to drive?” While forming your opinion on this posting consider how many times you’ve said that and/or how many times you may have avoided an accident due to the un-skilled driving of someone else. Our roadways are seeing more and more volume every day; safety & driver education/re-education needs to increase right along with the number of vehicles on the road!
