Arizona, where I live, does not have a driver’s education requirement for students. Some high schools offer driver’s ed. Others don’t. Nationwide, only about 32 states have some kind of driver’s ed requirement for students.
Which is why I believe any good Dictator for a Day will order everyone to take driver’s ed, at least in high school.
I have another idea for high school driver’s ed. I’ll get to that in a few moments.
Back to Phoenix where there is no driver’s ed requirement.
Drivers here generally drive like they’ve never heard of driver education (they may not have) or driver etiquette. They also drive like there’s no tomorrow.
The whole place is like the Mazda commercials a few years ago. “Zoom Zoom.”
Plus assorted crash, bang, clatter.
Ninety-five percent of all drivers will tell you they’re better than average. Sounds like new math.
I think I’m better than average. But maybe I’m not.
Here’s what I know. My dad taught me to drive.
This was long before I was in high school where the football coach, Jerry Lemon, who was also the Driver’s Ed instructor, would blend the finer points of backing a car and being an offensive guard on the high school football team. Not ok to smash something while backing the car. You’re supposed to smash things in football.
Before my coach-slash-driver’s ed instructor - I was barely a teen when Dad had me sailing down narrow gravel roads between fields of corn in that flatlander’s paradise called central Illinois.
When you can handle freshly graveled roads at 70 miles an hour in an old Pontiac, divided four lane concrete interstates pose no problems.
I think my dad also taught me to drive early because he had a love affair with cars and driving. For a time following his Army discharge after World War, II, he earned a living teaching others to drive. In the Army, he’d been an MP, military police officer.
In his personal life, he favored Pontiacs and Oldsmobiles. He named every car he ever owned the same name – don’t ask. And he synchronized each newer car purchase with the completion of payments on each older car. Just ask my mom. She would also tell you that every car they owned developed mysterious symptoms of potentially terminal mechanical problems just before the final payment. Strange.
So, along with the truth about parallel parking and other driving secrets, my father taught me one rule I have always remembered: “Son – you’ve got to drive like everyone else on the road is out to get you.” It was my dad’s version of defensive driving. It’s truer today than ever.
Truth in driving, I am a displaced Wisconsinite accustomed to driving on snow and ice, where sliding into a ditch is usually just a “Hold my beer” moment.
I currently live in Phoenix, Arizona where there is never snow and ice. And it hardly rains. So the pavement is almost always dry. Speed limits are considered suggestions. Average Phoenix drivers feel automatically licensed to travel at any speed their hearts desire, which means most of their hearts are in tachycardia. Fact is, if your car is moving at the higher end of the speedometer, you’re barely keeping up. And that’s just on city streets. Freeway traffic looks like rats on crack. Driving here becomes a contact sport if you’re not ever vigilant.
Don’t even think about other drivers watching out for you – unless you’re driving a semi or something along the lines of a Cat D-11T bulldozer (curb weight, 284,500 lbs.) And even then I’m not sure most Phoenix drivers would back off.
Backing off in the face of changing traffic lights is also unheard of in this town. The old joke “Red means stop, green means go, yellow means go faster” has been codified in Phoenix.
Turn signals are optional.
Truth be told, I’m not certain cars sold in Phoenix actually come with turn signals. And if you see a car with a turn signal actually operating, the driver probably hit it accidentally.
It’s also a constant race to occupy the pole position on Phoenix streets. The overriding strategy is to make your move before anyone else has a chance to. Never let another vehicle move into the space you’ve been eyeing. Sort of “Do unto others before they get a chance to do unto you.”
Passing on the right is also pretty much a standard practice.
Drive in Phoenix and you’ll quickly learn your blind side is a favorite side for most passing. Drivers feel the unbridled need to sneak up and get past you before you move into that empty space next to you.
On all Phoenix roads pickup trucks are required to faster than anyone else on the road, except for pick up trucks owned by landscaping companies and hauling trailers. They can go even faster.
On any freeway the HOV lane looks more like a high-speed singles get-together. Hardly any car in an HOV lane has more than one occupant.
Tailgating is also an all-season pastime, as popular in Phoenix as it is at Lambeau Field in Wisconsin. Of course, at Lambeau, fans sit on their tailgates or in patio chairs while grilling brats.
Age doesn’t seem to have anything to do with anything in Phoenix. Young, middle-aged, old and really old work really hard to leave one another in the dust, change lanes without signaling OR get thru the stoplight. This is regardless of whether they’ve had driver’s ed.
By the way, stopping at a stop sign in Phoenix is always optional. Traffic lights are pretty much just for decorative purposes.
If you actually stop for a yellow light, you’ll get rear-ended.
When I first arrived in Phoenix I was told that the speed limits are only suggestions.
I don’t want to say driving at breakneck speeds is universally acceptable in Phoenix. But I did hear of a driver who was stopped for doing 20 over the limit, then ticketed for impeding the flow of traffic.
On a more serious note, a lot of people I talk with seem to think the lack of a driver’s education requirement for young people in Arizona may have something to do with how people drive here. They grow up not knowing. You’d think common courtesy and common sense might enter the picture… it doesn’t always.
A company called SmartAsset this year ranked Arizona 9th on the list of the nation’s worst drivers, based on Arizona having the 9th most fatalities per vehicle miles driven.
Smart Assett declared Mississippi is the worst, followed by Tennessee, California, South Carolina, Arkansas, Missouri, Nevada and Kentucky, then Arizona. All based on driving data like fatalities, arrests for driving under the influence, that sort of stuff.
Of course, Phoenix isn’t the only city with a bad rep. Lots of cities have a bad reputation as cities to drive in. The bigger the city it seems the faster people go. I’ve done a lot of driving in both Wisconsin and Chicago and the moment you cross from Wisconsin into Illinois the speed jumps 10 to 20 miles an hour. Boom. Just like that, you’re in Illinois and you’ve got to hit the gas or get run over.
So here’s my idea if I was Dictator for a Day or that you might want to consider if you get to be Dictator for a Day.
Require Driver’s Ed for everyone! And have police officers conduct the course, giving the driving instructions.
Active or retired police officers who’ve seen what can happen when drivers don’t drive safely.
This is not a new idea. There are private driving instructor schools around the country where active and retired law enforcement professionals teach driving.
I think it could have a lot of advantages.
Police officers have a deeper understanding of the law and must know it inside and out to enforce it. That gives them a different perspective on the law and the reasons for the laws. They can also bring in real life stories from their own personal experiences as police officers. Personal stories, first-hand accounts, are always more effective teaching tools.
And there’s something else. Interaction. Cops and students would get to learn more about each other and understand each other better. After all, it’s not easy a teenager or a police officer. Especially these days.
Like my Dad said, “Son, you’ve got to drive like everyone out there is out to get you… except the police. They want to keep you safe.”