Changing driver habits and attitudes — more impatience, more aggression, more entitlement — make it increasingly difficult to defend the presence of motor vehicles among the clamor of city pedestrians and cyclists. There is a way for foot and motor traffic to safely coexist in cities, but I’ve seen firsthand over 25 years as a driving instructor and DMV License Examiner that an increasing number of drivers no longer deserve that privilege.
My driving school in Brooklyn was named number one in the city in customer satisfaction by Distinguished Teaching. We were also profiled in Car & Driver magazine along with another school for our success in teaching older students to drive. But this editorial is not a commercial advertisement. Instead, what I would like to do is highlight some concerning trends in the behaviors of new students and drivers more generally.
The public’s entitled attitude toward the danger-prone privilege of driving is on display in the behavior of wannabe drivers at schools like mine and at the DMV.
When I conducted New York state road tests back in the late 1990s, we gave applicants their results on the spot. If they passed, we gave them a temporary license. If they failed, they would be told how to schedule another test. That process continued until a few years ago. In 2021, DMV changed the procedure: The agency now informs applicants of their road test results electronically later in the day after their test, partly to protect examiners from outraged student drivers.
News reports have highlighted attacks on DMV License Examiners in response to negative test results. One license examiner in Queens told NBC that he had witnessed “irate student drivers push examiners and even try to run them over with their test vehicles.”
I only recall one incident in my five years at DMV where a license applicant shoved an examiner after they told them they failed. That incident was broken up quickly and ended with an apology and a plea: “Please don’t block me from re-taking the test.” This refusal or inability to accept “bad news” also surfaces when students learn they must wait for road test appointments, sometimes as long as four weeks during the summer.
Before anyone can take a road test, they must complete a mandatory lecture that covers accident avoidance and the multiple violations that can lead to losing one’s license. Known colloquially as the “5-hour Class,” we used to conduct them from 5:30 to 10:30 PM on weeknights. Today, it can be taken virtually from the comfort of their homes. Still, the amount of students who ask to bypass that requirement, even offering to pay more, is increasing. “Don’t you want to be a good driver?” I ask.
Some students are equally as unattentive during lessons. A few years ago, I was getting a licensed driver from another country ready for his road test, going over the points system on the test. It was obvious immediately that he knew how to maneuver a car, but there were some driving habits that needed improvement. Besides a disdain for wearing a seatbelt, he would not check for oncoming traffic before pulling out. When I pointed out his mistake, he replied, “I worry about what’s in front and those guys back there worry about me.”
He could only manage a shrug when I asked, “What if they’re not paying attention or their brakes don’t work? You should avoid leaving your safety in the hands of others,” I stressed.
Experienced drivers, whether those who let their licenses expire, or those who drove abroad, are often the most difficult to prepare for the test. Their habits are formed by their experience and teaching them to be prepared for worst case scenarios - defensive driving - seems like a pointless exercise to them. Each time I go over the list of errors they make during the lessons and how that would affect them on the test, and in the real world, they insist that they should just be allowed to drive without a test.
“A waste of time,” they say, or, “It’s just a money grab from the government.”
In the past, licensed drivers who did not drive often were steady customers. They soaked up defensive driving techniques like sponges and they embraced the idea of constant practice. In contrast, many of today’s students want to know “How good can I get with two or three lessons?”
Another concern is the increasing number of my students who show up for a driving lesson smelling of marijuana. The law is clear about driving and consuming cannabis products. It’s not just the students. I see and smell the marijuana smoke from open car windows as they pass by on the street. I have even had to turn away driving instructors for showing up to work smelling like weed.
Equally as bad as impaired driving is distracted driving, on the rise in huge part thanks to mobile phone technology. I have had many new students, some during their very first lesson, want to check their phone while driving. The biggest offenders are the “smart” watch users. Their wrists buzz and their attention shifts from the road ahead to the friend on the other line. We even had one student pull out her phone and snap a selfie for Snapchat during her road test. “But we were at a stop sign,” she complained when the examiner immediately ended the test.
My students often shrug when I remind them that driving is a privilege that can be taken away. Recently, for the first time since we have been in the business, former students have begun showing up at the office in need of another road test, their driving privileges having been revoked for either moving violations or a DWI conviction.
“Don’t drink and drive,” I insisted during the lectures. Twenty years ago, they knew the right answer whenever I asked “What’s the worst that could happen?”
Today, they say “suspended” or “arrested.” It’s death, I tell them, while turning on a video about the disasters associated with drinking and driving. Minutes into the video, half the room is on their cell phone.
During lessons, I stress that the streets are not a racetrack, that it is not the fastest who goes first, but the one who has the right-of-way. Almost every time I point that out, another driver on the road breaks a rule. The student says something along the lines of, “You see, they did it, why can’t I?”
The cars at our school have no less than three signs, including the large roof toppers, alerting others that a student is behind the wheel. Twenty years ago, fellow drivers gave us extra room when trailing us. Today, many drivers, including school bus drivers, tailgate our cars even when we are driving at the speed limit, sometimes honking, passing us recklessly at even the smallest opportunities.
I am still hopeful that cars and pedestrians can coexist. I always felt if the rules were religiously followed and if drivers adapted defensive driving techniques, including a heightened awareness of cyclists and pedestrians, that crashes would drop. During in-car lessons and mandatory pre-licensing course lectures, I stress the importance of not having tunnel vision. I stress that the roads are meant to be shared with other motorists, pedestrians, cyclists, horses, carriages and even farm vehicles.
“Pedestrians don’t crash into cars,” I implore.
But when I get to the part where I explain that up to 94 percent of car crashes are a result of human error or “choice,” I begin to lose hope.
Not too long ago, the drivers I observed were more courteous. They knew that you had to take turns with other vehicles when merging, unlike today, where many drivers are intent on not letting anyone in front of them. Back then, drivers would stop and let you park. Today, they are too eager to pass through even the smallest of spaces rather than wait the few seconds it takes for someone to back into a parking space. Driving was more of a social activity in the past, with the use of hand signals to advise the other cars of their intentions and also to give a friendly wave of the hand to say thanks when you let them pass. That intimacy is gone.
What might also be a thing of the past is the privilege to drive in the city — a privilege that is becoming harder and harder to defend.
