Why Improved Driver Education and Manual cars will not help in lowering accidents, casualties, tickets, and road hazards.

Driver Education isn’t the problem that we face when it comes to most road issues; not paying attention, driving while intoxicated, speeding, and dangerous road hazards are. The claim I am Rebutting is “Could improved driver education aid in lowering accidents, causalities, tickets, and road hazards? And could Manual cars assist in saving the day?” However, this claim is untrue. While some argue that improved driver education and manual transmission vehicles could be a major panacea for road safety, others will shove facts at us the outcomes will not be as straightforward as we would think.

The main cause of accidents is actually Distracted Driving (ACCIDENT LIST CITE), not poor driver education. Distracted driving occurs very frequently and I’m sure almost all of us have done it or witnessed someone else doing it. Drivers will end up driving them selves off cliffs, into trees, and even head on into other cars all because they are not paying attention in some way or another. That text can wait. Even with all of the education drivers receive and the terrible accidents they hear about today, distracted driving is still the leading cause and is only getting worse. Human error is still significant factor in accidents, and with the amount of ignorance people have, making drivers education more complex may not help. The National Center for Biotechnology Information actually did a systematic review of other systematic reviews which resulted in proving that with more education, the test subjects overall driving performance increased… but reduction of accidents stayed the same.

If driver education could only increase the drivers knowledge of operating a car, why didn’t it reduce accidents? Is it because of how ignorant people still are that they proceed to ignore that facts and evidence and continue to drive while distracted, intoxicated, way too fast, or even just flat out recklessly? Because it seems that no matter where these drivers came from or what state they may be in, the same issues have occurred. This is a major issue and it seems driver education didn’t even seem to have an effect. It’s never good when people get too comfortable.

There is also the thought of these new Simulators that have become an eSport recently. But how effective are they in education? Well, considering how expensive they can be, they can be quite tricky to get an accurate representation of driving in real life. You will also need to train and hire staff to maintain, tune, repair and possibly build these machines. But once again, this won’t be very successful in reducing the true issues at hand like Driving while distracted, intoxicated, and more. It’s is also very difficult to simulate depth perception and speed through a simulator. So not only are you immune to the feeling, but your eyes are tricked as well. So, as much as it may assist in giving drivers an idea of how the car works, it can alter your driving style and throw you off; and the absolute last thing we want is people thinking they can drive like they are in a video game.

Another claim that isn’t entirely true is that manual cars could aid reducing accidents and more. Manual cars are tricky and confusing for most, and they can cause more issues if not handled properly. Drivers will stall a lot, create more accidents due to misuse of the transmission and could lock up or shift into the wrong gear at higher speeds or around corners, causing major mechanical malfunctions and nasty accidents. These transmissions could back up drivers education because of how much longer they take to learn. It is not easy nor quick to learn how to drive a Stick-Shift car, and trying to switch back and forth can also be confusing. Let’s not also forget how much money we would be wasting fixing these cars because new drivers keep overheating and wearing out the clutch to fast, grinding gears, and also possible blowing up engines by downshifting instead of upshifting. Also, they may be a distraction in itself. Imagine trying to learn the rules of road, operate a new style car where you must use every limb for many operations at once while paying attention to the car and it’s RPM’s, speed, and everything else. It’s complicated to say the least.

Some may argue that improved driver education will reduce accidents, but there has been extensive testing to prove otherwise. They performed an experiment with many age groups ranging in different amounts of driving experience and gave them more education to advance their knowledge and experience. The result of this testing demonstrated that more education helps drivers with driving, but not reducing accidents. As stated many times before, most of these accidents are human error, not mechanical or education related. The leading reason of these accidents? Distracted Driving. That is why so many accidents still happen. You can try to make drivers not prone to distracting, but the fact is that there are so many distractions out there it is almost impossible not to shift your attention… its human nature after all.

So in conclusion, increasing the difficulty of drivers education, and adding the increased effort of these manual transmissions is a waste of time, effort, parts, money, and possibly whole cars. The only talk of a system that could work is through a virtual simulator, but those can be pricey and also require a technician to be able to ensure the simulators are in working order. Also, for a simulator to give you a real driving experience you need to dump thousands of dollars to even come remotely close. So, do you think that it’s worth it? Reducing distracted is only getting more difficult in this day and age. With all of the features of these present day cars and everything that occurs around and even inside the vehicle, we are losing hope on less distracted driving. And adding manual to the mix will only complicate things more. What hope do we have left at reducing these accidents? This is why Improved Driver Education and Manual cars will not help in lowering accidents, casualties, tickets, and road hazards. So what do we do?

REVISION NOTES: REFERENCES FROM BIB, GRAMMAR CHECK, INSERT MISSING CITATIONS (multiple), AND COMPLETE REVISION

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