United States Drivers Need to Periodically Retake Road Test for License Renewal

Thank You LittleGnomeChomsky for taking the time to debate with me. I propose that the United States require all drivers with a non-commercial license to pass a driving skills test every 3-5 years in order to renew their license. A. Drivers develop unsafe driving habits after they obtain their license. 1. Distractions on the road. Driving has certainly changed from its birth. We are now able to use better technology without getting out of our vehicles and store all our intricate personal belongings all within the grasp of our hands. However it is this convenience for multitasking in our motor vehicles that has become a dangerous factor decreasing the safety of the roads. The National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration (NHTSA) define distractions as a subset of “inattention driving,” and even then it is separated into three categories: visual, cognitive, and manual [1,2]. Meaning that every time we eat in our cars, watch television, listen to radio, or try and follow that annoying GPS we are distracted drivers. The reason that this is so detrimental to the safety of other drivers is that people are bound to make more mistakes. Consider the relationship between just talking on a cell phone while driving; one study compares the risk of using your phone to the risk of driving while intoxicated, where they report that, out of 699 that agreed to phone record testing, 24% were using their phones 10 minutes before their motor vehicle collision [3]. This is just from a cognitive distraction, as well as manual even though the risk of hands free phones and hands-on phones were the same, imagine how much worse it would have been if they were texting which requires, visual, manual and cognitive distractions. Now this study brings up that fact that at the time of the study (1997), there was not enough rise in the use of phones for people to relate it to crashes and fatalities. One would argue about the seriousness about distracted driving however, more than “nine people are killed and 1,060 more are injured in crashes that involve a distracted driver,” and in 2011 17% of crashes resulting injury (sound familiar) were due to reported distracted driving (which might have been higher due to lack of those admitting fault); meaning, that while you are driving with distracted drivers, alone, you have a U33; chance of getting into a collision [4]. If you still think those odds are good, you might not when considering the added factor of reckless driving. 2. Reckless driving is just as bad. I’m sure many of us have seen, or maybe have been, a reckless driver at some point in our lives. Those are the people that decide to speed 20+ mph over the speed limit. They are those that think yellow means speed up and run a red light. They are the people that decide to speed up from behind you, cut you off by switching lanes without a signal just to get to the off ramp a 0.4 miles down the highway. Those are the people that you have to scream “I have the right away!” towards at a stop sign, and they are a big problem. Let’s consider just one of the factors of reckless driving: speeding. In 2009 the US census reported approximately 34,000 traffic fatalities, and of those fatalities about 11,000 were due to speeding, 5,000 were due to distracted driving [5]. Roughly, speeding and distractions accounted for 32% and 15% of the motor vehicle fatalities respectively. Just one factor of reckless driving is double the death percentage of distractions alone. B. Methods, rules and laws that are used are reactive instead of truly preventive. 1. Laws/protocols already in place to promote safety of driving. As stated before, distractions such as texting, and reckless driving, like speeding, are problematic to those that wish to be safe on the road. In fact it has become national interest to issue regulations and laws banning such acts, including: DUI, texting, unrestrained driving, etc [6-10]. However, despite their best efforts, these rules place a toll on law enforcement to catch and prohibit bad driving behaviors, and here lies the rub, after the act has already been committed. In addition, some offenders are given multiple opportunities to drive again before complete license revocation. To give an interesting analogy, since so many could apply: that would be like a water park putting dye in the water that reacts to urine. Now as we would be able to identify children, and some adults, that pee in the water more easily and issue bans on those people, the fact of the matter is, they already peed in the water, and it could have already affected a lot of people before anyone noticed. Instead it would be better to ensure that someone’s bladder was completely voided every time before they even step in the water. 2. How do people get their license renewed? Surprisingly there is a lot of variety in how states handle license renewal times, and out of state requirements. In general most states have somewhere between 4-10 years before you need to renew your license, and the process usually includes: a fee, identification, eye exam, and new photo [11]. One thing that stood out to me is that Alabama believes that if you have an expired license, only after “3 years” do you need to start proving that you can drives again [12]. I find this problematic since, in addition to not making sure people are safe drivers on the road, they allow people on the road who do not have the responsibility to get their license renewed to show they are a valid driver. Thus we have the risk of people on the road with bad skills and no valid license. 3. What the DMV misses? Simply put the DMV misses a driver’s awareness, undivided attention to driving, motor skills, and knowledge of driving customs by only requiring an eye exam and identification. These are the exact features that are tested in a driving skills test. C. Potential Benefits 1. A filter to promote better driving behavior. While many of us would like to think so, we are not as great of drivers as we may claim. Unchecked driving means that many of us could be practicing some of the most common, or nuance, mistakes of driving [13, 14]. It’s these bad habits that cause too many future problems and potential deaths.http://youtu.be...http://boston.cbslocal.com... 2. Insurance and Cost Simply, lower damages and crashes will mean lower insurance rates [15]. While we may think these distracted drivers are harmless, youth alone (15-24), 14% of US population, will cost up to 30% of the total cost of motor vehicle injuries, that’s about 19 billion dollars down the drain [16]. It is clear that another method to reduce poor driving on the road is a benefit for individuals and the nation. Sources: 1. http://www.nhtsa.gov... 2. http://www.nhtsa.gov... 3. http://www.med.mcgill.ca... 4. http://www.cdc.gov... 5. http://www.census.gov... 6. http://www.iihs.org... 7. http://www.iihs.org... 8. http://www.iihs.org... 9. http://www.iihs.org... 10. http://www.iihs.org... 11. http://www.dmv.org... 12. http://www.dmv.org... 13. http://driving-tests.org... 14. http://expresslane.idrivesafely.com... 15. http://www.cdc.gov... 16. http://www.cdc.gov...