A Little More Drivers Education Would Help Us All
You see it too many times...someone has an accident with their car. Maybe it's your child, your friend, someone you don't even know. Could the accident have been prevented??? Ohhh, and how many of us have *weekly* near-miss driving incidents because someone does something near us without paying proper attention!!!
Getting a license in the US is *easy*. I self-taught my oldest son and he's been driving 2 years without a driving incident. Others are not nearly so lucky. State Farm told me that 80% of teens getting their license have an incident in the first year.
In Germany, I understand getting a license is not so easy. The test is much more rigorous, because, after all, that license can get the person driving on the German autobahn driving at very high speeds. Yet, sometimes we hear that teens are trying to do just the same thing on our streets....go faster than the legal limit (and we ALL know these limits are set low to help collect revenue - plus the subtle safety aspect).
Maybe the answer is to require people to take Drivers Education (no, not the one the US teens currently take). Now, the infrastructure isn't in place to do this today, but could be worked-on over time. Everyone who is 18-21 would attend a weekend driver education with a company such as The Drivers Edge driving with an instructor at speed learning car control. Over time, the drivers on the streets become much more capable and the accidents go down. Voilla!!!
cars automobiles vehicles autos drivers+edge drivers+education state+farm germany autobahn
Getting a license in the US is *easy*. I self-taught my oldest son and he's been driving 2 years without a driving incident. Others are not nearly so lucky. State Farm told me that 80% of teens getting their license have an incident in the first year.
In Germany, I understand getting a license is not so easy. The test is much more rigorous, because, after all, that license can get the person driving on the German autobahn driving at very high speeds. Yet, sometimes we hear that teens are trying to do just the same thing on our streets....go faster than the legal limit (and we ALL know these limits are set low to help collect revenue - plus the subtle safety aspect).
Maybe the answer is to require people to take Drivers Education (no, not the one the US teens currently take). Now, the infrastructure isn't in place to do this today, but could be worked-on over time. Everyone who is 18-21 would attend a weekend driver education with a company such as The Drivers Edge driving with an instructor at speed learning car control. Over time, the drivers on the streets become much more capable and the accidents go down. Voilla!!!
cars automobiles vehicles autos drivers+edge drivers+education state+farm germany autobahn
posted by Jim at 6:04 PM
8 Comments:
I do agree with you Jim, but I do think there are other issues as well. A lot of the accidents that the younger people get in involves young and old. One extreme to the other. Sometimes it seems that when people get older and start to lose their senses the driving goes with it. My grandfather is 79 and in the past year has had over 10 accidents with half of them involving other people. My family has told him that he needs to retire his driving he is just not capable of it anymore. But he is stubborn. When he hits the bumps that divide the lanes instead of moving back over into his lane he straddles the bumps. Speed of the youngins and the diminishing senses of the older generations do not mix. As well there are a lot of people who wait to get their drivers license after a certain age, because the requirements are not as strict as you get older. I also think this is a problem.
Jim, I agree wholeheartedly about the driver's education for youth and seasoned drivers as well. I was shocked when my 16 year old neice announced that she was ready to take to the wheel after only 3 weeks of driver education..........
I think that it should be mandatory that drivers in the US take the defensive driving course to be able to renew their driver's license.
One of the encouraging things that I have seen is the new toy cars that children ages 4 and up have. Whether we realize it or not, if these children can learn to reverse, drive straight and turn in the small vehicles, I do believe that they will be better drivers in the long run.
I'm in favor of mandatory driver education for every driver that is of age to receive a license.
I believe that the author was correct. We do need more intensive test to obtain our driving licence. Their also should be more direct driver's training available for not just the young, but the old as well. We do have many outragous drivers in the world. Many distractors make driving hazardous to your health. I blelieve that one should have to undergo more than one test in their life-time, especially when one reaches the Golden Years. Many older individuals don't have the insight they once had. My grandmother, rest her sole, was a sharp driver. She would zoom and dart better than my mom. In the later stages of her illness, she started to lose a lot of her sharpness. We were once almost in a wreck for her not seeing the fast moving car approaching us. She moved off the stop sign without given it a second thought. We should re-evaluate are current techniques when it comes to driver's eduacation and also the one-life time test for licensing.
You can always send your children to take their driver education online, a nice website for this http://www.teendrivingcourse.com
A little driver's ed could help but paying attention would help alot more. I drove an Olds Vista Cruiser for a number of years -- a loong station wagon with celestory windows around the top behind the 'cab'. We lived in a small (wee/tiny) town where nobody drove hastily -- no need. Yet, me and my VC were invisible at times: e.g. about 20 or so feet from the entrance to the store's parking lot and this lady drove up to the edge of the street we were approsching on, looked me square in the eye and proceded to enter in front of me without even a pause. My husband was along on this incident (one of quite a few being 'invisiblle' to other drivers). He actually 'white knuckled'it for a few minutes.
I agree that everyone, not just teens, could probably use a refresher course every once in a while when it comes to driving. More and more often I see people on the roads doing things other than driving. I have seen everything from your standard talking on the cell phone or putting on makeup, to the more extreme reading of the newspaper or answering e-mail on the laptop in the passenger seat. And those are the adults on the road.
Think back to when you were a teenager, with your hormones racing and your nothing-bad-will-ever-happen-to-me attitude. I remember watching the quintessential driver's education movie, Red Asphalt, in high school and thinking that it was all just another scare tactic that adults were using to keep us kids from having any fun. I am sure that the same sentiments run true today. You can force your average teenager to go through a few more days or weeks of training, but I do not think that it will really sink in or make a difference in their behaviors on the road.
Not too long ago on Dateline on NBC, they had a story about teenage drivers. The teens that were chosen to be profiled and followed were all thought to be safe drivers by their parents. However, the hidden cameras proved otherwise. There were instances of kids making u-turns in the middle of divided highways into on-coming traffic, talking with their friends on their cell phones, driving over the speed limit, and attempting any number of dangerous maneuvers. This seemed to be most prevalent when the teens were in the car with other teens. It was almost as if the kids driving were trying to show their friends how “cool” and “daring” they could be. And this was the case for both boys and girls.
So I guess what I am trying to say is that the solution is not just a case of requiring more time in the classroom or paying for more on the road instruction. I think we need to increase the level of instruction and supervision of our teenage drivers. I know that it is easier said than done when it comes to closely supervising a child’s actions. But I think the effort is worth the prevention of a tragedy.
I agree that everyone, not just teens, could probably use a refresher course every once in a while when it comes to driving. More and more often I see people on the roads doing things other than driving. I have seen everything from your standard talking on the cell phone or putting on makeup, to the more extreme reading of the newspaper or answering e-mail on the laptop in the passenger seat. And those are the adults on the road.
Think back to when you were a teenager, with your hormones racing and your nothing-bad-will-ever-happen-to-me attitude. I remember watching the quintessential driver's education movie, Red Asphalt, in high school and thinking that it was all just another scare tactic that adults were using to keep us kids from having any fun. I am sure that the same sentiments run true today. You can force your average teenager to go through a few more days or weeks of training, but I do not think that it will really sink in or make a difference in their behaviors on the road.
Not too long ago on Dateline on NBC, they had a story about teenage drivers. The teens that were chosen to be profiled and followed were all thought to be safe drivers by their parents. However, the hidden cameras proved otherwise. There were instances of kids making u-turns in the middle of divided highways into on-coming traffic, talking with their friends on their cell phones, driving over the speed limit, and attempting any number of dangerous maneuvers. This seemed to be most prevalent when the teens were in the car with other teens. It was almost as if the kids driving were trying to show their friends how “cool” and “daring” they could be. And this was the case for both boys and girls.
So I guess what I am trying to say is that the solution is not just a case of requiring more time in the classroom or paying for more on the road instruction. I think we need to increase the level of instruction and supervision of our teenage drivers. I know that it is easier said than done when it comes to closely supervising a child’s actions. But I think the effort is worth the prevention of a tragedy.
As a Texas Education Agency licensed in-car driving instructor for a privately owned company in a large northern suburb of Houston, I truly believe that the state of Texas needs to revamp it's licensing requirements for teenage drivers. Here are the state requirements: a teen needs to have 32 hours of in-class instruction with written tests, 7 hours of observing another driver, and 7 hours of actual behind-the-wheel training with a licensed instructor.
The requirements for receiving a TEA issued instuctor's license is much more stringent than what a teen needs to receieve their driver's license. I had to do the same 32 in-class hours, collect articles of traffic related accidents and laws for a booklet, and do 42 hours of in-car training. Plus, I have to attend a six hour yearly in-service to maintain my license.
Here is my observation of the 32 classroom hours. The amount of information thrown at these teens in 16 two-hour classes is incredible! During the school year, the students have a choice of 4 PM or 6 PM classes. You can imagine their attention span after a full day of school; much less the lack of sleep. Then, many of them sign up for their driving lesson immediately following class! This is truly brain overload!
Another concern is the lack of and incorrect parental supervision. Many parents aren't up-to-date on new driving laws and techniques. We have parents that come in and tell us that we're teaching it all wrong. When the law and reasoning is explained to them, they leave contented.
Now.... as for what I have seen happen on the road while instructing students would blow your mind away!!! All of our vehicles are clearly marked as a driver's education training car and there's a student driver. It's unfathomable the road rage that's directed towards us. We have been intentionally forced off the road, people passing us with a solid yellow line, being passed in the middle of an intersection, people turning in front or behind us as we're making turns, and the list goes on and on. When I'm able to get a license plate number, I write and file a report with my county sheriff's department. I know this is effective because they appreciate my efforts and inform me as to as the outcome.
You may be wondering if any student drivers have been involved in accidents? The answer is YES. In the two plus years I have been doing this, there have been 8 accidents involing our cars. Not ONE accident was our fault. Most of the accidents occured because the car behind us was tailgating while we were making turns. Have I been the instructor in one of these accidents? YES...a driver was going 40 mph in a 20 mph residential area. The driver ran a stop sign directly in front of us and totalled our car. Incidentally, the other car spun out across a ditch and ended up in the trees. The students weren't injured. But, I sustained a whip lash.
I feel that we live in a "me, me, me" generation. Most driver's think that they should go first at stops, they speed to get past another car, NO ONE comes to a complete stop at stop signs, and my biggest peeves is, "I drive a BMW or Mercedes and I'm more important than you!"
I do have views as to what needs to be done to help curb road rage, especially towards driver's education training vehicles. I have a friend on the State Board of Education and have spoken to her about these concerns. We're hoping to meet with our local state representatives and maybe something positive will prevail.
My apologies if I rambled too much. I have such a headache from clenching my teeth while writing this!
Thanks for letting me vent!
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