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?
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Definitely should teach to road rage somewhere else. The guy you are raging against might have a gun, maybe your wrong. Instead of getting out of your car, drive somewhere else. It’s hard to shoot you if you are miles away.
During my time in Texas, I never honked my horn. Not even at a light that had been green for 10 seconds. I never knew who might be packing heat. Because, though a pretty decent shot in my day, I never did down there. I worked on my deescalation skills down there.
“Be predictable, not polite.”
Simple as that.
I love back-up cameras but cover them up and learn to back up by turning around. The back-up camera is the secondary source of information. The driver’s side-view mirror should show you what’s in the next lane, not the side of your car.
If you aren’t hearing a loud grinding noise, the back of the car is still there and you don’t need a mirror to see it, so point the mirror at the other cars.
I like having the backup cam for the initial situational awareness, but then its mirrors and neck swivels from there on out. And the camera does a good job of gauging the distance to the garbage or recycle bins in the alley in my condo complex.
I learned 30 years ago how to adjust the side mirrors to not see any sheet metal.
Learn to budge for, and purchase car insurance.
Driver’s education lesson number one for truckers – If you try to pass another truck by going only .5 mph faster than the truck you are passing and it takes you 7 miles to complete your pass and you have a whole line of cars behind you you’re blocking, then you automatically fail.
How to behave on a traffic stop. It’s amazing what people try, and fail to get away with.
Part of the hours of classroom education should be to watch at least 3-4 hours of YouTube car accident videos.
Not the crazy ones, just the US/Canada ones with lots of idiots. It’s really clear after a while that most accidents are caused by only a few different mistakes.
For most videos, I can see the accident coming, from experience. I think they’re a great way to get that experience without years of driving.
Over and above the standard/basic things they teach here in Ontario, I’d add:
-Lane discipline/etiquette which would include not hanging out in people’s blind spots and keeping right except to pass or if you are on a city street and have to make a left turn
-How to turn around safely… when a U-turn is okay, when to do a 3 point turn and when it’s better/safer to ‘go around the block’ instead.
-How to handle left turns properly… including vehicle positioning and not turning the steering wheel until you’re ready to go.
-How to drive around street cars.
-What to consider when driving around large trucks
-Things to know related towing a trailer
-How to handle understeer and oversteer situations… and how FWD differs from RWD as well as AWD.
-How to change a tire (I’ve seen more than a few cases where someone calls for a tow truck just for a flat tire that they don’t know how to change).
-What to watch out for in places with a lot of pedestrians and cyclists
-what to watch out for when driving on dirt roads… which would include how to handle deep ruts and if you see a big pool of water, stop and test how deep it is using a stick. If it’s above a certain depth, go around rather than through it.
-When to use your high beams and when not to.
-When to use your fog lights and when not to
-When to use your 4 way flashers and when not to (have observed some idiots using 4 way flashers for lane changes and other dumb things like that)
-When/how to use your turn signals and when not to (have observed drivers using the left signal to turn right and vice versa)
-How to adjust your driver seat properly so that the airbag won’t crush your chest and kill you if it goes off.
-How to adjust your mirrors properly
-How to merge into traffic and how to merge onto the highway.
-what to do when you see a collision happen in front of you or if you are in a collision.
-Considerations for driving in fog, heavy rain or in a snow storm.
-How to ‘read’ other drivers
-How to look down the road and be aware of your surroundings (so many drivers seem to be fixated just on only what is directly in front).
Growing up in snow country, every new driver should have at least one lesson that consists entirely of them doing snonuts in an empty parking lot. There’s no better way to get a feel for what happens when the tires let loose and how to control the vehicle when it happens.
As someone who lives where it snows a lot, anyone who can’t control a slide should not have a driver’s license, yes a lot of them crash enough cars to have to move away eventually but it would be better for everyone else’s insurance if they never got to drive in the first place.
Inclement weather driving. Have two identical cars, one with new(ish) tires and one with bald, and let them learn how important fresh tires are. Bonus for “all-season” vs. snow tires when the white stuff flies.
When I was learning, my Dad saw a snowstorm and told me to get in the car. He had me intentionally get stuck so I could get a feel for how to work as a team to get a car unstuck from snow. We also hit up an empty parking lot to see how bad brakes and steering were in those conditions.
My personal experience getting my license was Driver’s Ed (classroom, laws etc), then Driver’s Training in a two-speed automatic Carolla. This was all in high school and paid for by taxpayers and not me. I got to do some auto crossing with a friend and his dad in some mid-60s Cortinas. This was early mid-70s. That was helpful.
By the time my kid was learning how to drive (2011-12), it was a private program we had to pay for and was taught by retired traffic cops. He wasn’t (too) scary to ride with but certainly didn’t know anything about vehicle dynamics.
His mother and I had split by then, but one of my favorite things to do on my weekend visits is take him to big empty church parking lots on Saturdays, set up empty garbage cans and a couple of abandoned pylons I found and set up scenarios.
The car we had that would do the least damage if things went awry was a 2001 Honda CR-V AWD with ABS. I may not have done it in the best order, but the first thing I talked him through is knowing how fast it could accelerate. In an emergency. I am generally a pretty tame driver, owned a VW Jetta TDI he had spent a lot of time in as a passenger, and he was a bit surprised at how quickly the CR-V could get going. Then how quickly it could stop and know what it felt like and means when the brake pedal starts vibrating. And then get him adept at steering around the trash cans while in ABS after I told him to nail the brakes when he was too close to come to a stop before hitting them. And we practiced parallel parking a fair amount as well.
And finally, I taught him how to drive a stick. The Jetta was a very patient vehicle in which to do that.
It never snowed and barely rained during the times we were doing any of that, so he learned how to drive on snow and ice on his own during law school in Wisconsin. So far, so good. He passed his test on the first try and hasn’t banged up anything in 14+ years. And he is a courteous and patient driver in heavy traffic.
I think about whether performance driving instruction would be a good thing or not. For some teens, I think it would encourage hooliganism. Or inflate what they think their skills are. Still pondering that.
Winter driving and make them drive with a semi to see that you can’t cut them off
Not a bad idea. I was taught to not move back in front of a truck (or anybody) until when you can see their front license plate in the rear-view mirror. I usually give it that and then some.
When I drive my RV it annoys me that people don’t understand I can’t stop as fast as a car or just move around them, driving a big slow vehicle makes you much more aware of what they deal with.
Yeah, my father drove a Kenworth and a set of bottom dump trailers, back when I was in high school and early college and I rode with him a few times, so I know what it’s like for them.
And it annoyed me all the time in Texas when some F-150/250 wannabe NASCAR driver was right on my tail in our X5, then MDX or Accord and the left lane was open, and they could just go around. And knowing if an emergency arose in front of me, I knew was going to get hit.
It’s like I intentionally left the left lane open, when there was a left lane. Sometimes it was on an FM (Farm to Market, how quaint) road with a 75-mph speed limit and there wasn’t a left lane. So, I am typically a 5 over the posted limit driver, on cruise control (to be pretty consistent with velocity) and I was either being tail-gated or passed and then they’d slow down to below the limit.
I don’t miss driving in SE TX at all. I really don’t miss any aspect of SE TX, other than my ex-wife in her better days. She was the only reason I spent time there, and due to alcohol, she’s not the same person I met and married.
Peter, et al.,
Several of the items you mentioned are taught in Tire Rack’s Street Survival course. For $175, it is a one day class with a mix of classroom and behind the wheel instruction that includes emergency braking from 60 MPH, slalom, emergency lane change (you drive up to three marked lanes and the instructor waits till the last minute to tell the driver which one to take), and skid pad (both wet and dry).
I had my daughter take this class and I think it really helped her confidence behind the wheel. Students use their own cars while an instructor sits in the passenger seat. They don’t have regular classes, so you have to wait until one is offered near you.
Essentially what I did with my kid without realizing it. My son and I had a good rapport, but I can imagine it could have been even better coming from a third party.
There are driver’s training schools in Austria where they have wetted surfaces and kick-plate like at the Porsche experience centers. I’m surprised the insurance industry in the states hasn’t latched onto that concept and require it.
The number of people I met in college who refused to use the cruise control was astounding. I understand with the advent of radar cruise it’s less of an issue, but getting stuck behind someone in a two lane double yellow situation is extremely frustrating when they don’t maintain a consistent speed. A similar thing happens on the interstate when you pass someone while using the cruise, to which they either accelerate to prevent, or they re-overtake and slow down in front of you. All of these situations would be avoided if proper cruise control etiquette was taught.
I drive 25k+ miles per year and never use cruise control and never have used it.
I would argue that is a problem. But also, what reason is there not to use cruise in the big 2026?
I am the human operating the car and I will determine the vehicle speed, not the vehicle. It never even crosses my mind to use cruise control.
You’re not gonna believe this, but you can actually choose what speed the cruise is set to.
I can do that with my right foot and don’t have to worry about pushing any buttons.
You don’t know about the best part, once you push the button, you don’t have to hold or push any pedals or buttons until you want to slowdown, at which point you just use the brake pedal!
I have to sit there anyhow, I’ll just go ahead and regulate the vehicle speed myself, thanks.
You’re not gonna believe this, but you can actually choose what speed the cruise is set to.
“when you pass someone while using the cruise, to which they either accelerate to prevent”
What I’ll do is step on the throttle to get an extra burst of speedso I pass the person quickly so they don’t have a chance in hell of speeding up in time unless they have a really powerful car.
“ or they re-overtake and slow down in front of you.”
Assholes like that are really annoying.
And related to that, on a dark unlit stretch of highway, some drivers want to hang out in the lane next to me a little back… just enough to cause their headlights to reflect into my mirror.
In one case, I deliberately slowed down, went behind the car, flashed my highbeams so they got a taste of what they were doing to me and then I passed them.
Another time one guy insisted on always matching my speed. So I got fed up and gunned it… kept accelerating and the dipshit lost his nerve as I passed 130km/h and saw him ‘give up’. I kept my speed up for a while until he wasn’t visible… then I’d dropped my speed back down.
So annoying.
Ugh, that happened to me last year, and even worse I could see the idiot was messing around on his phone so I really didn’t want him behind me. When I let him go in front he proceeded to slow down about 10 MPH under the limit too. I finally just gunned it and got far enough ahead to break contact.
Been there. Done that.
Agree completely about the annoyance of being around people who can’t just stick to a speed. My car is pretty good at holding a set speed, uphill and downhill. On 6% downgrades, it will downshift two gears to try to hold the set speed without requiring the use of brakes.
Between Seattle and Sacramento on I-5 are some passes that are pretty steep and windy. Sometimes windy as in crosswinds, too.) A lot of I-5 between those two cities are only two lanes each way. So, there are times when a semi is in the #1/fast lane trying to get past a slower semi. Hypothetically, one might be doing 70 (65 speed limit +5) and suddenly you’re scrubbing your speed down to not hit the trailer of the truck that pulled into lane 1 at 45 or 50. I wish it was 3-lanes wide for the whole stretch.
I use cruise control, but my car doesn’t have the adaptive version, so I do have to pay attention. Which I should. It’s fine. The adaptive CC on a 2018 MDX I used to be involved with was not great and I just stopped using it except on wide open spaces.
My driver ed teacher took us to a snowy parking in the school-provided 1993 Grand Am SE 4-door (it was blue for those keeping score at home).
He’d have a kid get the car up to 30mph and then reach over and jerk the wheel with the left hand and pull the handbrake with the right to begin a skid. Needless to say the first kid he did this too also made his own skid… in his shorts.
I was prepared for it as I had friends who already were in the instructor’s class in a previous session. After he did that to me and I didn’t flinch, I started to mess about and drift in the lot and the other two students were both experiencing a mix of being terrified and electrified. This all ended soon as the instructor remembered that he had a passenger brake pedal too.
He scolded the crap outta me in front of the other two students, but later pulled me aside and he said “I think you’ll be fine, just don’t do that stuff on a public road… you’re cool under pressure, but a bit of a showboat.”
Needless to say, I’ve only ever gotten 3 speeding tickets ever, and the last one was 15 years ago. I still drive like a bat out of hell and hoon my cars, but looking at my record, you’d never guess.
As someone who put 30 miles in a snowy parking lot as a kid (at least that was what the ODO said), I did take my kids to drive on snow, and I taught them to drive with their ass. They needed to feel that while the steering wheel was going one way, they could feel the real path with their backside.
They also have to be careful on the throttle with a front wheel drive car. When you lose traction, you have also lost steering.
There’s the ass dynamometer and then the ass yaw sensor and hopefully the gray matter that can figure out the difference between what’s happening and what you want to have happening. And how to bring all that in alignment.
Some basic car maintenance would be helpful. How to check your tire pressures (and where to find what the pressure is supposed to be), how to use a spare tire, how to know when a tire is worn or damaged, how to check your fluid levels, how to change a wiper blade, how to check your brake pads. That sort of thing.
Both of my kids could not drive the family without showing me that they could change a tire.
I didn’t get that far down the maintenance chart. I taught my son how to read the oil level, how to check TP, how to change a tire, how to change the oil (he never had to). Some people I know, their kids can’t even read the gas gauge.
My son, when he was home, spent many a hour, “holding the flashlight” and helping me work on the family fleet. He now know why stuff will cost so much to fix, but will probably not work on cars.
My driver’s ed teacher took me out on a steep gravel hill and showed how ABS worked and not to panic feeling the brakes pulsing. I thought that was pretty smart.
I also went to a BMW teen driving event where they taught us how to properly control a skid, such as if you slipped on ice. We also practiced braking techniques and did a moose test. Again, super helpful for a young driver, and it’s memories that have stuck with me.
In snowy areas, proper winter driving techniques should be taught (or at least simulated as closely as possible). Practice putting on a set of chains or tire socks before you’re stuck on a pass at night and it’s a blizzard outside.
We never had, and still have no form of driver’s ed where I’m from. You turn 16, get a permit by answering some basic-as-hell multiple choice questions, spend 6 months or so driving with a licensed adult as a supervisor, take a basic exam and off you go.
Obviously having parents be the only source of information for kids learning to drive is a pretty bad choice, as many of the parents of said kids are the problem.
In NY we had to take a 5 hour “relicensing” course which is pretty similar to the defensive driving courses you can take to lower your insurance. But yeah, then it’s down to your parents to teach you.
My town had a good mix of driving to graduate from around the neighborhood, to the bigger roads, to the highways, so that was a plus. My wife grew up in the country and her experience learning sounds terrible.
They keep trying to push the age up (I think in many states) despite studies showing it doesn’t really make a difference – people who start driving later in life are just as likely to get into accidents- but not the skills required.
Also in NY, and yeah, we had the 5 hour course, but that was mostly just watching “drunk driver ruining lives” videos, which while that may be somewhat effective to dissuade that sort of behavior, has absolutely nothing to do with the actual operation of a vehicle.
I grew up in a small city with a mix of different types of driving, so yeah, plenty of exposure to what you might expect. Our tests were at least done on city streets. The rural driving tests were a joke, and often done in parking lots which… lol.
Staying off the phone when sitting at a stop light. What lane to turn into on a 4 lane road. Merging onto Freeways properly, Maybe explain who has the right of way and do the 5MPH jolt thing to ingrain that into them.
I would actually like the instructors and even policemen to actually try the zipper thing in real time and comment on and train the kids to merge when the congestion is not yet compacted enough to fully effect safe distance zones when merging, and again instill the right of way reality in those instances.
Don’t get me started on zipper merging. In concept it’s a perfect idea, in reality it’s just a bunch of impatient jerks speeding ahead of everyone stuck behind the last minute lane changers who have to slam on their brakes to slow down.
I’ve also adopted a personal choice of just leaving enough space in front of me to let cars merge he entirety of the slow down. It sometimes even works.
If everyone is zippering properly, both lanes have the same number of cars. It’s the people getting over too early that screw up the zipper, not the people staying in the lane that’s ending.
That basically never happens though, mostly because both lanes aren’t going to start with equal numbers of cars in them. What you end up with is the less populated lane zooming to the front of the line and slowing down the more populated lane.
I will grant that a lot of people zipper merge improperly too, but the whole concept is more flawed than traffic engineers (who probably also designed all of the theoretically perfect but practically stupid intersections in my city) like to admit.
I really think the “zipper” thing only works when vehicles are moving slowly and just trying to get aligned in the new configuration of lanes. It only takes one asshat to throw the whole thing off.
I don’t think we are in disagreement.
Like Ben said, that’s a big if. Driving up and down I-5 dealing with family stuff, it’s often two lanes wide and I spend most of my time in the right/merging lane and when it’s busy but there’s an empty spot in the left, I’ll move over..
In Michigan, we need to add back in Driver’s Ed. It got cut and now you either go to a private driving school I don’t know what, but boy, does it show on the roads.
Watched a TV thing years back starring May of Top Gear and Mikka Hakkinen. Hakkinen explained that Finns have an extremely rigorous driver education and evaluation system. The techniques described would make every driver better and more able to deal with the challenges of driving.
So I propose taking that system as is and making it the federally mandated driver training program. For road ragers; first offense, immediate loss of license for 3 months, anger management courses, retake driver training program and application to a graduated 5 year probation to getting back full license. Second offense – firing squad catcher.
would need to have NHTSA install Traffic cams on all new cars to properly share the blame here. Just like making babies, it takes two(or more)
THE LEFT LANE IS FOR PASSING. IF YOU’RE NOT ACTIVELY PASSING ANOTHER VEHICLE, YOU SHOULD MOVE OVER TO THE RIGHT!
this is an often unenforced law in most places. I do kind of see the benefit when the local governments have failed to properly maintain the right lane and it is basically all washboard because of semi traffic, and of course as long as nobody is being held up behind you. it definitely should be a thing to have to get over if being overtaken by somebody trying to break the speed limit laws.
Got a couple of years until the kids hit this stage. I’m sure I’ll have a long list of specifics then. As well as a drinking problem.
The general state of affairs on US road suggests that something big is missing because a lot of adults are barely functional despite spending years behind the wheel. I think adults should be required to pass a comprehensive written and driving exam every few years.
A repeat test or refresher certainly isn’t a bad idea.
There’s a cramming aspect to the test that is probably part of people forgetting things. And if you aren’t using the skills you learned you’re going to to forget them unless you practice them again. Parallel parking is a good example.
I think you’re right that something is missing in general – it seems like we’re requiring the bare minimum knowledge of driving to get your license with the expectation that people will improve with experience. This is in opposition of the fact that a lot of people don’t learn anything from their experiences.
It’s also in direct opposition to the fact that some driving mistakes can permanently end one’s ability to ever learn anything again.
In Ontario once you hit 70 there is a mandatory structured renewal process.
“ The renewal involves a vision test, a group education session, and simple cognitive screenings (like clock drawing and letter cancellation). Depending on these results, you might need further medical reports or even a road test, with drivers 80+ renewing annually and others every two years after 75, ensuring continued fitness to drive safely.”
I personally think it is a good idea. Got two years to go.
That’s a very good idea.
I am sympathetic to the fact that losing your ability to drive in most of the US means you are reliant on friends and family because there isn’t public transportation available.
Unfortunately that mean a lot of people keep driving past the point that it’s safe and until they fuck up badly enough that someone takes their license away.
My father persisted in driving well past his skill expiration date. I avoided driving with him unless he’d let me drive. He eventually totaled his car in an accident. Luckily no one has injured. He lost his license BC of the accident.
He was always a poor driver, never paid attention, drove like he was on a tractor plowing a field.
My grandparents (and great aunts/uncles) thankfully were very aware of their abilities. They stopped driving after dark pretty early on and would carpool with friends if they had an event to attend.
My coworker’s grandmother sounds more like your situation. She got into an accident but it was brushed off as someone pulling out in front of her. Got a brand new subaru, and a couple weeks later totaled it going through a red light. Luckily no one was hurt
I try to limit my night driving as I’ve always had problem with glare. It’s much worse in the rain. Whenever we drive long distances we switch drivers every 2-3 hours. Doing so keeps us fresh and alert.
IMO 90% of safe driving is awareness and staying within the limits of the car, road and surroundings. If I was to race, I go to the local autocross of racetrack.
I commuted 70 miles a day every day for decades. I always kept to the speed limit or traffic flow speed and still do when going into town.
The car can easily go 85 the entire distance, excepting the 45 miles at 15-20 mph due to heavy traffic.
I benchmarked the commute time and fuel savings over a week at 85 vs 65; the time savings came to 8 minutes one way with a loss of a quarter of a tank of fuel.
No contest on the speeding vs casual drive. Lock it into cruise in right lane and let the delusional collect the tickets, wear their tires and engines out.
Boring but smart IMO.
Yeah, most learning to drive is just operating the vehicle; not doing so safely, avoiding road rage, sharing the road, being aware of surroundings, etc. There might be token nods to things (particularly, “What do these signs mean,”) but it’s not really forced into you.
If for no other reason than they keep introducing new traffic control measures (roundabouts and those pedestrian crossing signs with the flashing yellow lights, for example) that weren’t around, or at least common, when many adults took their original test.