Like most new drivers, teen-me learned how to drive first from observation as a passenger, then by driver education classes in high school, accompanied by seat time with an instructor – in my case, behind the wheel of a Plymouth Horizon TC3, thus establishing a near unbeatable benchmark for performance, quality, and fun that has rendered every car since a crushing disappointment.
Anyway, the classroom and driver’s seat training were 100% about rules of the road and approximately zero percent about vehicle dynamics and any kind of experience at all with emergency situations. At best, students may have been advised to “steer into a skid,” illustrated by nothing at all and left completely to the student’s imagination to conceptualize its meaning. “Of course, steer into a skid, that makes sense.”
Now, if I were in charge of nationwide driver education standards, I would require all students to actually experience skidding and learn how to recover from a skid – safely, on a skidpad, of course. I’d also like students to perform evasive maneuvers, “moose test” style, so encountering such a quick-action scenario in real life won’t be a total shock to the system. I also believe every driver should get jolted by one of those 5mph impact simulators to encourage seatbelt wearing, even though kids seem pretty good about wearing them as it is.
How about a closed-course gauntlet of simulated intersections, pedestrians, and corners that students must navigate while replying to texts from the instructor? Hmmm, maybe not – the kids will see it as a challenge to show how good they are at it. Put the phone down!
Your turn:
What Lesson(s) Would You Add To Driver’s Ed?
Top graphic image: DepositPhotos.com
I took a 3 day Skip Barber class 25 or so years ago. It taught me a LOT abot car control, etc… I’m honestly due for a refresher.
Make them attend a Street Survival program put on by the local SCCA region.
Ask your tires to do only one thing at a time (under non-emergency conditions, of course).
Instead of braking in a turn, brake a bit, let off, and then make the turn.
Likewise with acceleration, e.g. when merging on to a street: pull out, make the turn under light throttle, then accelerate (vigorously, if you like).
The idea is to ensure you do not exceed the traction limits of the tires, especially in inclement weather. Yes, driver aids, etc. but they probably won’t help if the new driver overcooks a turn and understeers off the road.
Correct mirror adjustmentDriving (and turning and stopping) in poor conditions (snow, rain…)Emergency reactions (lane change, panic stop)Situational awareness – find the dangerwhere are the cars around you?what are the drivers doing (drifting around the lane? no speed control? eating cereal?)?what condition are the cars in (super-low tire, brake lights non-functional…)?what’s the road condition? What’s the road likely to do around the corner you can’t see through?
Indented list levels aren’t happening for me today once I get out of the preview window 🙁
All bullet points are sub-items under “situational awareness”
Oh man, you are really inviting us to rant here on all the brain-dead shit people constantly do behind the wheel:
-Put the F-in phone away (not just down into the cup holder).
-when turning onto a multi-lane street, stay in the near lane (don’t swing it wide so somebody turning from the opposite direction has a lane).
-If you don’t have a protected left green arrow, pull your ass up into the intersection so you can turn if there is a gap in the oncoming traffic.
-Don’t camp out in the left lane!!!! It’s not your job to regulate highway traffic.
-If you have your cruise on and are creaping up on another car, punch the accelerator to get around them and don’t just do a slow motion pass that holds up other cars.
-Actually use your turn signals!
-Turn your lights on when it gets dark, but not on constant hi-beam.
-This is a tough one, but teach them to drive a stick. It will come in handy on that post-college trip to Europe.
-Your car is not a restaurant – pull over to eat that salad.
-Stop at crosswalks when someone is waiting (I live in a college town – that’s a big one).
-Show kids where the actual parking spots are at gas stations.
Okay, I have to go to a meeting, so I’ll stop there.
Learning stick is not all that important for the college trip to Europe anymore but I do think knowing stick makes you a better automatic driver anyway just by having more intuitive vehicle awareness.
“Don’t camp out in the left lane!!!! It’s not your job to regulate highway traffic.”
Nor is it your job to judge.
Bad take…sometimes we must judge anti-social behavior.
Indeed. Speeders should be judged. Preferably by courts with actual judges.
And never by left-lane campers
it is 2026 I wish more kids could still afford that post college trip. Most kids are being told to never go to college just trade school and never go to Europe either.
In addition to all the other great suggestions I’ve read, I think reviewing what mechanical actions are happening in a vehicle when we are operating can help new drivers feel more confident about what they are doing, because they understand the mechanics, and maybe act a bit more repsonsibly behind the wheel because they know how many things they are controlling.
I am aware that all the bad or annoying behaviors I see on a daily basis are already addressed in driver’s ed, people just don’t pay attention
No, those people are exempt. Silly Ranwhenparked, the rules only apply to YOU.
Safe following distance.
Lane curtesy
https://ww2.motorists.org/issues/lane-courtesy/definition/
Lane courtesy does not extend to speeders.
The hell it does.
Found the speeder.
Ok. Don’t throw stones in a glass house.
That the most important part of defensive driving is being predictable.
Yes, it’s important to pay attention to what’s going on around you and what people are doing. But being predictable is how you let other drivers be defensive.
Speed up to merge. Don’t slow down to let someone merge when they can easily go behind you.
Use your turn signal – before you start to brake not after you’re already in the turn lane.
Keep right except to pass and then get the fuck back over.
Go on your right-of-way, stop waving people through just to be nice.
You aren’t driving a semi, don’t swing wide to turn.
WHY THE FUCK ARE YOUR HAZARDS ON IF YOU ARE TRAVELING WITH THE FLOW OF TRAFFIC. WE ALL KNOW IT’S SNOWING! AND TURN YOUR FUCKING LIGHTS ON.
Lots of good suggestions here but I think you have the best one. It’s why driving in NYC didn’t bother me, sure it was tight and hectic but I knew exactly how everyone was going to behave. Conversely I actually think Colorado has some of the worst drivers in the country because you can’t really mass stereotype them as a whole (maybe by car individually). I’d rather be surrounded by a buncha jerks than not knowing what to expect.
I don’t mind driving in NYC (some confusing highway interchanges, but that’s just because I’m not used to them). Is there traffic? Yes. Are we all going 55 with 2 feet between us anyway? Also yes. Need to get over? Put on your turn signal and get over. Want someone to leave you a gap? Sorry, you’re staying in that lane.
1 – a course on vehicle physics
2 – a course on high speed driving/racing
I want drivers to know the real hazards that come with operating a vehicle at speed, and how to operate it at speed competently, even at illegal speeds. Those two things would save more lives than any safety standards could.
Situational awareness, Patience, and merging onto the highway at speed.
CHANGE HOW YOU DRIVE BASED ON WEATHER CONDITIONS.
In this day and age of distracted driving I think adopting lessons from the Motorcycle Safety Foundation (MSF) would be helpful to new drivers.
#1 Assume you are not being seen by those around you,
#2 Prepare yourself to react to them doing something idiotic
Not related to the MSF, but I believe an equally important lesson:
You are not that important. Put the phone down.
My favorite personal rule is: Never be behind another car when you could be in front of it. There is high a liklihood they will do something stupid to annoy you, so remove yourself from that situation.
My father taught me to assume that everyone else on the road is a complete idiot and that I would be correct much of the time with the occasional surprise of intelligence.
Also, turn signals: never trust a light bulb with your life. Watch the front tire for intent.
Given the 100+ vehicle pileup we just had in Michigan, I feel like we really need to emphasize that just because the sign says 70mph doesn’t mean you can safely drive that fast in a snow storm.
BuT I hAvE a BiG 4×4 tRuCk!
Yeah, some of those photos were brutal, I think the most damming one was the 4×4 pickup truck with the snowplow well off the road and buried in a ditch. I’m pretty sure they thought they were just gonna go around everyone.
TURN THE LIGHTS ON WHEN VISIBILITY IS LOW OR WIPERS ARE ON
Modern operators don’t understand headlights. They drive at night with only the DRL’s on because their dash is all lit up. They drive around with high beams on 24/7; dawn, dusk, on-coming traffic, city traffic blinding the people in front. They just set the switch to A and go back to browsing tik-tok.
I just want to go back to instrument panels you can’t see when it starts getting dark. That was the universal symbol for people to use their lights if they didn’t already. Now everything is illuminated and, along with DRLs and ambient lighting in populous areas, people can drive around oblivious for a long time.
I also think “Auto” light settings should be illegal now that I’ve lived with them for around 20 years. It needs to be a conscious choice. Every conscious choice we remove from the driving equation is one more step towards complete driver disengagement.
I don’t follow. I leave mine in auto and it works as intended: DRLs when light, headlights around dusk and when the wipers turn on. If auto wasn’t there I (or at least other drivers) would be more likely to forget to turn on headlights at night given the dash is always on.
Headlights and taillights on at all times when vehicle on should be the standard. It should default there every key-on cycle regardless of what you choose the last drive.
Basic car maintenance like checking tires, adding air, oil and filter changes, then how to change a flat on the side of a road, and finally reaction tests.
What, you mean “Please consult your local authorized dealer or service center” isn’t sufficient advice for you?
Good List!
Tires are so so much better now. There are people who have been driving for decades and not have ever had a flat tire. It is still a skill I have and my car actually has a full sized spare and I taught my kid how to change a tire.
Merging and speed-matching
Adjusting your mirrors so you don’t have to turn your head much (if at all)
Most other stuff really needs to be locally-specific, IMO. There are universal skills like parallel parking that can be learned later if you’re not anywhere you need that regularly. More interstate training for people in the burbs, to start — keep right except to pass.
For me, parallel parking is like remembering all the lyrics to Welcome to Paradise by Green Day. Yes, it’s excellent to know, but it doesn’t help me enough to justify the space it’s taking up in my head 🙂
Man, I lettered in parallel parking. I freaking own it… even though I live out west and rarely need it.
Merging, good call.
What is it with people trying to merge onto interstates at 20mph below the speed limit. The accelerator is the long skinny pedal, learn how to use it.
Yes I try to stay out of the left lane as I do not drive 30mph over the limit but then constantly have to deal with people entering the highway 20-30 under.
1/4 of the people on the road look like they are experiencing a scenario for the very first time.
1) start to accelerate down the on ramp
2) as soon as you can see where you’ll be merging STOP accelerating and focus only on merging. Don’t worry about the half mile of ramp you have left. It is very difficult to merge and it’s important to focus everything into this. Holy shit people are driving so much faster than you. This is going to be really difficult. don’t think about anything else until you’ve merged.
3)Merge
4) repeat as necessary to get across all lanes of the highway to the one you want to be in
5) Ok, phew, you made it. Now you can focus on accelerating up to the speed limit or the speed of traffic.
I want them AT the speed of traffic when they merge. not slowing down or entering the right lane 24-40 mph below the limit.
It’s still not a terrible idea to turn your head a bit. I’m not sure it’s really possible to position your mirrors to give you 0% blind spots.
And, even if it was, I’m still not going to trust my life to it.
In high school and beyond I knew at least a few people who never ventured into “the city” bc of their fear of parallel parking. While maybe not necessary to teach for everyone, I think it genuinely limits some ppls’ ability or willingness to go certain places.
Basic inspection/maintenance. How to check/change a tire, how to check fluids, how to change oil, replace a battery, etc. Things you’re gonna have to do one day on the side of the road.
This is a solid idea, and one that might actually be practical to include… No closed course or specialized facility required.
We need to take Canada’s Worst Driver and revive it as a driving school.
Send teens to like a 6-week boot camp on how to drive, offer them like a 25% insurance rate reduction to make it worthwhile.
Less a specific thing and more an ethos – perceiving traffic as a system. Aka it’s not all about you.
Drivers Ed often focuses on micro things like mechanical skill and knowledge of rules – which are the most important, sure – but relentlessly placing them as existing within a macro framework could help mitigate the tendency toward solipsism that we all get behind the wheel.
A way to teach people that what goes around comes around would be nice. Sure you might save a fraction of a minute running that red light, but in equal measure you will be slowed down that exact amount or more waiting for a red light runner eventually…or worse. Thinking about driving as averages instead of local optimums would be nice.
100%
Yeah, we teach transit bus drivers to basically read the world around them and figure out the smoothest way to integrate into that perceived world.
Everything we teach them, from signal timing to lane placement, 4-way stop procedures to wheel angle.
It’s all how to clearly communicate your intentions to the general public, combined with teaching them to read other traffic and their intentions.
Signals are almost useless as a feedback device from other cars to me. It’s everything else about how they move that consistently gives me the most accurate read of their intentions.
This requires people agreeing to put the needs of society above their own. Which, to many, is Godless communism.
Sat through two light cycles the other day bc someone advanced into the intersection knowing that stopped traffic would not allow them to clear it. That didn’t even benefit them: they were stopped in the middle of the intersection instead of stopped in front of it. All it did was make dozens of cars wait for no reason. I don’t think you can “teach” someone who does not accept they should care about other people.
Not to use the cell phone while driving!
How to handle a slide, emergency lane change, and threshold braking. I had my daughter take a teen car control clinic at Thunder Hill and it was 1000 times better than drivers Ed.
Limit breaking is something that most people don’t ever attempt before they are in a situation they need to, and that is a fantastic suggestion.
Someone, surely: “No need, cars have ABS now.” TEACH IT ANYWAY
They would have a pretty fair point, tbh… But even in that case they should still be required to perform a few ABS assisted stops to gain some familiarity with how it works.
Agreed – knowing how it’s going to feel on dry pavement versus snow and ice is important. Acceleration too- what does it feel like when you have a wheel spinning or are understeering on different surfaces.
100%. If you don’t know what’s happening, ABS sounds and feels unlike anything you’ve experienced. Someone could easily panic, think something was wrong, and take their foot off the brake
I think most people have no idea how hard they can actually brake.
It seems like even older people who drove an old crapcan car are scared to push either pedal more than half way. Maybe because shit broke more often back then, IDK. But knowing how hard you can hit either pedal seems really important.
I took an advanced motorcycle class and part of it was doing panic stops. Instructor kept yelling at people they could have stopped shorter. While it feels terrifying, it’s not something you can understand until you actually do it. And, even if you still wont apply 100% braking force, at least you’ll comfortably apply 70% instead of 40%.
I’d add a technology component. i.e. how to minimize distractions while driving. Using AA or carplay features to automatically put your phone in a less distracting state. Also on how to train your brain to avoid taking your eyes off the road for a given amount of time. Something as simple as a 3 second rule.
I would also add a question like this to the test:
You are driving on a 4 lane road, there is moderate traffic around you. What can you assume about the other drivers?
a) They are about to do something stupid
b) They are about to do something stupid
c) They are about to do something stupid
d) All of the above.
Obviously it’s not practical in this country, but nothing makes you better at driving a car than driving a motorcycle. When you assume everyone on the road is trying to kill you, your are suddenly aware of blind spots, distractions, and morons.
yes, driving an older car helps too. When your steering isn’t tight as a drum and your brakes are a little more variable on their effectiveness you think a little further ahead about your actions and the actions of others. Plus the insular nature of new cars which give you a false sense of isolation.
How and when to turn off your G** D***** bright lights!
Ha, yes x100
Lmao
All lights are brights now.