Either drive or text you do not do either very well the 2 together is an accident waiting to happen
When your teen asks why you get to push the speed limit, tell him/her that you can afford the speed tax that comes in the form of speeding ticket, increased insurance and possible loss of license:-)
On those mountain roads, teen thinks can go the speed marked for the corners-- not unless they can stay between the lines.
skipp
Drive the speed limit, or below.
Young men. I was young once. I remember it well, sorta. When I was a new license holder I had two things in mind. 1. Get a car. 2. Get a girl to go riding in my car with me. Now both of these things are reasonable. Driving a car is fun. It’s freedom. It’s also a big responsibility. Yeah, I know, Your Dad has already lectured you all about this. But listen, in this age as well as in my early driving age, the quickest way to get dead was in a car. Sometimes booze was involved, sometimes a pretty girl and booze was involved. I can tell you that the girls who enjoy fast boozy rides in your car are not the girls you will end up being either an item with, or even friends with. You may even end up sharing an awful experience with them. I am not saying that these girls are bad people. I’m saying that when you are young you think you are invincible. You ain’t. Don’t do it. You want to drive like a loon? Do it with your Dad in a parking lot. Or on a well frozen lake. Most of all, do it sober. The girls you want so desperately to impress will be more impressed by a handful of wildflowers than a beer, a shot, and a high speed run on a lonely two lane. Trust me on this. There’s a lot to look forward to in life. Stick around and live it.
The most important thing to practice is saying no to driving when you are not ready to do it. This is no joke. Practice it with your parents. Let’s say you’ve borrowed the car for an activity and you are too tired to drive yourself home. (It happens to everyone at one time). Call your parents and ask them for advice about what to do: taking a bus, getting a ride with a friend’s parent, waiting for them to pick you up.
This will really prove that you are dead serious about the responsibility of driving. Even at 43, I will sometimes call someone to pick me up instead of driving myself in a less-than-safe way. Driving is a deadly serious responsibility. You need to practice getting OUT of dangerous driving situations.
Teens:Park in the driveway, but don’t drive on the parkway and Mom and Dad will likely raise your allowance!
I think every kid should be taught how to drive a stick. Even if they never again in their lives see another clutch, it’ll give them a better appreciation on how the car works and what it can and cannot do. And it gives them a skill that most of their peers won’t have.
I have some advice for the parents of recently licensed teen drivers. Recently here in Connecticut, there has been an awful lot of teenage drivers (along with their passengers) getting themselves killed. Quite a few of these accidents have one thing in common, the type of car being driven. I fail to understand why parents are allowing their children to drive anything that can be considered a muscle car. If the car is capable of accelerating from zero to warp 8 in less than 7 seconds, maybe the kids shouldn’t be driving this vehicle. In addition to driving restrictions for recently licensed teenage drivers in CT, maybe another restriction should be created, something along the line of horsepower limits. If a teenager had his or her license for less than say two years, they shouldn’t be allowed to drive anything with a turbo, anything with more than 100 Hp, or anything big enough to take out a house. After they have been driving a while, and their driving record shows nothing of major consequence, can they upgrade to something faster, bigger, sportier, or whatever.
Teens: You don’t live in the movies. There’s a reason they say “Don’t try this at home”. Hot chicks do not want to hang with dopes who showed up on “World’s Dumbest Drivers”. To paraphrase Nike, Just Don’t Do It!
I’ve looked around for a driving school that teaches stick but none of them near where I live teach on a manual shift. I had to teach my son myself on our old Saturn. I guess I did a good job because he told me when he buys his own car, it won’t be one with an automatic. Just for the record, the Saturn is 15 years old with the original clutch and my son has been driving it for almost a year now and the clutch is still going strong with 110,000 miles on it.
After doing on the road with a couple of nieces and my daughter I have gotten thanks for forcing them to look over their shoulder before changing lanes! The other 2 are because the light turns green it does not mean you go, as you need to make sure nobody running a light is going to broadside you, the other is “Cars come out of nowhere” Keep looking for cars because they can pop up out of nowhere.
My best advice was “don’t drive like your dad!” But he did anyway – so now 3 wrecks and 4 tickets later his insurance on our family policy is canceled and he is paying his own high-risk premiums. For liability only, it’s $291.00 per month. All the money he earns from his part-time job goes for his gas and insurance. He’s an A student, getting ready for college and, other than his driving, he’s been a great kid. This has been a pretty costly lesson for him. My advice is make a driving contract and stick to it.
My best advice is to take lessons from a professional driving school then practice with Mom or Dad. When I got my license (1967), the saving in insurance paid for the class. My dad would set up cones or rocks so I could learn where the right side of the car is at all times. I also believe that EVERY driver should know how to drive a truck, not so you can but so you can avoid making mistakes that will cause an accident with a large vehicle.
A rule I follow today that my Dad taught me way back in the early 60’s. DO NOT FOLLOW TOO CLOSE!!! To this day I leave enough room to see pavement between the front of my car and the rear of the car ahead of me. That way, if I’m rear ended, I’m not going to be pushed into the Hiney-end of the other car. (Unless a semi hits me and then we’re both doomed). Oh, and stay on the cellphone.
Funny answer: have another steering wheel and brake pedal installed on the passenger side of the car. Buy or hang on to really old car; it will not go very fast, and your teen will have to take corners slowly (see userid).
Truthfully, my mom taught us to be “360-degree drivers”, that is, keep your eyes moving from the left side mirror, sweeping across the windshield, to the rear-view mirror, to the right side mirror. Be aware of all of the cars all the way around you, not just the little 45-degree angle you can see through the front windshield.
She also taught us that when you pass a car, wait until you can see both headlights of the car behind you before you move back over into the driving lane. That way, you are not clipping the front end of the passed car (I wish I had a dime for every large SUV that does not observe this common-sense rule).
When I was growing up, there were plenty of empty parking lots to practice. Nowadays, they seem to be full all the time. I don’t know where kids can practice. Any suggestions?
My son wants to get his learners permit when he turns 15. I am having to save money for hair dye because of the graying process.
Think about what you are doing and what is likely to happen next.
Drive closer to the center line of a road than to the edge of the road. Correcting an over steer toward oncoming traffic has two possible drivers who can correct the situation. If you drive toward the edge, you have the real possibility of dropping off onto the shoulder and ending up in a ditch, the woods, over an embankment, etc. And in this case the driver is the only one who can correct it. Keep in mind, the road is smooth and corrections can be made without consideration of surface features. What lies off the edge of the road is unknown and recovering from driving off the road requires turning back into traffic, possibly from a lower elevation to a higher one. The possibility of losing control is very real.
One important thing to tell a teen is should they ever get into a situation where they shouldn’t drive or ride with someone who shouldn’t drive, call you. Go get them and there is absolutely no penalty. Would you rather have a live drunk teen or a dead one? It’s important for them to know that they can do this.
I had the advantage with my step-son of being involved in SCCA competitions, mainly autocrossing. He ran a number of events as a teen but was never able to beat me. That gave me creditability you can’t buy. In addition, I was willing to teach almost anything. He wanted to learn how to do a handbrake 180 turn. I was able to show him and let him practice.
I tried to convince my boys that when they got their “own” cars, they should drive it with the radio/stereo/CD player OFF at least once a week, to become familiar with how their car engine sounds when it’s working right. If they never get to hear it running “right”, they wouldn’t be able to recognize when it was making a ‘funny noise’ or sound.
They didn’t listen to me then, but now that they are in their 30’s they agree it was a valuable, although not taken seriously, “tip” and they could have saved big bucks in car repairs, had they learned to ‘listen’ to their cars.
Number one rule for parents of teens - YOU be the adult. If the destination doesn’t seem right, or you don’t know who the other kids are that will be passengers or you cannot be sure there is not any drinking going on - Do Not let that car leave the driveway. It doesn’t matter if they shoot back with “What’s wrong? Don’t you trust me?” I would always risk ruining a good time for the safety of my teenaged drivers. For the first year (at least) the rule is “no passengers”. It worked!