A simple, free way to make driving safer for everyone: Just take a breath

The automobile offers incredibly fast and flexible transportation. This gift of the modern world would have been unimaginable even to our recent ancestors. 

On the flip side, though, we have seen a dramatic rise in impatient and aggressive driving, speeding, tailgating, blowing through red lights. This is a giant step backward, leading to tragic loss of life and devastating injury.

In 2021, for instance, speed-related traffic deaths increased 45%, sending overall traffic deaths to highs not seen since 2007, the Star Tribune reported in 2022. Althoug the situation has improved since, as the Reformer recently reported, traffic deaths are still up compared to pre-pandemic. 

We have tools to address the problem. We could certainly benefit from better road design and improved automobile safety features, stricter enforcement of driving rules — especially speed limits — and continuing efforts to repair bad habits left over from the stress and disruption of COVID-19.

I believe, though, we are missing something very important. How is it that we routinely set out to operate a several-thousand-pound automobile, a machine that if driven carelessly could kill or cause grave injury, with little thought about the important task at hand? We must find a better way to promote a mindset of care for the community and personal responsibility before getting behind the wheel of a car. 

With that in mind, I am proposing one more tool, one supported by current thinking and centuries of wisdom, one that would cost nothing and take little time, one that if widespread could make a meaningful difference. 

Thresholds are powerful. What if we could adopt a mindful habit as routine as closing the car door and starting up the engine? So much could be gained by a moment of care, gratitude, and shedding distractions to focus on driving safely. I would brand the practice “Take a Breath.”

Here is the simple habit I propose:

When you get in your car, take a moment for a deep breath. With gratitude, feel your sincere desire and responsibility to care for our community and to keep yourself and others safe. Say or think silently: “May I be a safe and patient driver.” 

That’s it. This practice would fit both the religious and the nonreligious, take little time, and cost nothing. Try it yourself and feel the powerful and positive shift a moment can bring. Encourage others to try it, too. Take another deep breath and repeat the phrase along the way, should traffic conditions and the stress of the road dictate. The value of such a moment has abundant support, from the increasing focus on mindfulness in the secular and modern world to centuries of religious, cultural and spiritual practices. 

Modern mindfulness practices teach that a moment to focus on the breath can help us stay present when we feel tempted to rush breathlessly from one thing to the next. My motorcycle-riding friends, who operate very close to the dangers of the highway, describe taking a moment for a pre-ride inspection and checklist to ensure that the machine — and even more critically, the rider — is ready for the important task ahead.

A common practice in Japan is to change from shoes to slippers before entering a home, to gracefully transition from the public realm to the private one. It is nearly universal in Japan to take a moment before a meal and say “itadakemas,” i.e., “to receive.” The brief expression shows gratitude for the ingredients and the efforts of producers and cooks. There are many theories as to the precise origin of the practice, influenced by Zen Buddhism and traditional habits. Most important for my proposition is how very widespread the practice is in Japan, along with the element of gratitude and focus on the moment.

For millennia, Judaism has treated thresholds and threshold events with deep reverence and awareness of what these moments mean for the individual, family and community. Enduring rituals guide the process of leaving one place or circumstance to consciously and positively enter or begin a new one. This is valuable wisdom on the importance of fostering a caring and responsible state of mind.

The traditional Christian monastic practice of statio was born centuries ago but fits very well in the now. Statio, which in Latin means position or location, focuses on stopping one thing before beginning another. It is meant to center and mindfully ground a person, to emphasize being present and conscious of what is next. The lesson here is the importance of taking a moment to be aware and leave behind distractions and irritations.

These are all such valuable lessons. What could be more important than a settling moment before undertaking something as important as driving? 

I hope this simple practice becomes widespread, including through driver education curricula. 

A threshold ritual to shed agitations and distractions and cultivate a mindful and responsible attitude could help ensure that we receive the gift of modern transportation with gratitude and exercise it with due care. 

A moment to take a breath could save lives.