At 911 Driving School, we offer a variety of driver’s education programs for teens, covering a wide range of important topics, principles, and skills. This could include the foundations of safe driving, signals, signs, and markings, the rules of the road, and even starting and stopping properly.
These are, of course, the basics of defensive driving – the things you need to pass your written and road tests. Your teens can get this kind of information from a variety of sources (although, it must be said, most of them won’t be as good as teachers who have spent time in law enforcement), but we go further than that to ensure our graduates are ready to face everything the open road might throw at them.
Throughout our courses, teen drivers will learn how to:
Avoid Distractions
Distracted driving is directly responsible for more collisions than most people realize. According to the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, some of the most common things that distract drivers include:
- Interacting with one or more passengers in the vehicles
- Texting and driving
- Looking at something inside the car
- Staring at something outside the car
- Singing or “getting into” the music
- Grooming
- Reaching for something in the car
Both adults and teens are susceptible to any or all of these types of distractions, and even though they may seem like small things, any of them could lead to a collision.
Teens may be more at risk for distracted driving, though, simply because they don’t have as much experience behind the wheel. Our instructors instill the importance of staying focused when they’re on the road.
Handle Other Drivers
There are a lot of other drivers out there who seem determined to ruin your day. We teach our students to deal with the traffic that surrounds them by staying calm and always making the best decisions.
Our teen driving school teaches new drivers to understand how things like bad weather creates tense situations and brings out the worst in others. We show them how to read the flow of traffic and make adjustments as necessary. We also make it clear that it’s more important to drive defensively than try to engage with other drivers in an aggressive way.
Build Confidence
We want every driver to be confident with their new skillset. The basics we teach give new drivers the experience and knowledge they need to function properly out on the road. The confidence our instructors give their students, though, helps them make decisions quickly – even when they’re under significant stress.
Confidence is a crucial part of defensive driving. If you’re holding your breath or clenching up anytime something unexpected happens, you’re probably going to add to the problem at hand.
Instead, we want our teen drivers to know the right thing to do and why it’s the right thing to do. This way, there’s no question about it. They’ll just do it.
Calm the Road Rage
Knee-jerk reactions on the road never lead to anything good. Unfortunately, one way or another, all of us are going to get mad at someone else while we’re driving. For teens, this can be especially difficult to handle because, again, they simply haven’t had as much experience dealing with anger-inducing situations.
We teach our drivers to keep the rage in check by:
- Never forcing someone else to change speed or direction.
- Never assuming that someone did something specifically to annoy you.
- Never escalating a situation.
- Always being the generous driver.
Deal with Extreme Weather Conditions
Anyone can master basic driving skills when the weather is on your side. When the snow, rain, fog, and wind start ganging up on you, however, things can get a little more stressful.
We focus on teaching your teens how to drive in all these different road conditions so they can consistently make the best decisions when the weather turns against them. Is it time to pull over and wait it out? Should they slow down a little more, or are they creating more problems by going too slow?
We’ll make sure your teen can make these decisions when faced with a challenge.
Get Started Today
There are a lot of things you can do as a parent to help your teens develop good driving skills. If your teen is ready to drive, our instructors are ready to go beyond the basics and give them the experience and knowledge they need to be safe behind the wheel.