Prepare Your Teen for Adverse Driving Conditions
Posted on October 13th, 2010 by Keri DeVrieze
Before letting your teen get their drivers license, it only makes sense to have them practice driving during the day. However, it doesn’t often occur to parents to have their young one practice at night or during inclement weather. The fact of the matter is that your teen will eventually have to face adverse conditions. In addition to the standard practicing of parallel parking, merging and stopping, a new study shows that teenage drivers don’t get the experience they need when it comes to handling tough situations.
The AAA Foundation for Traffic Study and the University of North Carolina Highway Safety Research Center says that teen drivers average about an hour and a half of supervised driving each week (mostly on routine trips along the same roads). The year long study showed that 47% of parents said there was at least one driving condition they felt their student wasn’t prepared to handle. One in three parents believe their teen isn’t ready to drive alone in heavy traffic or on the highway; and one in five believe their teen isn’t ready to drive alone in the rain.
Despite their doubts, 35% of these parents allowed their teenagers to go ahead and get their drivers licenses within one short month of them being eligible.
Most parents don’t think much about having their new driver practice the tough driving circumstances. However, AAA recommends that parents should ensure their teen practices in all sorts of driving conditions. According to Arthur Goodwin, the report’s primary investigator, “Humans learn complex tasks like driving more from direct experience than by being told what to do. Parents should ask themselves: Do I want my teen to learn how to handle bad weather, darkness, rush-hour traffic or narrow rural roads without me in the car?”
If you have a teenager that’s about to start driving, check out our other posts on teen drivers and safety.
Related Posts
The State of Florida requires every new driver to complete a traffic law substance abuse education course before being eligible to take their Florida Learners Permit Test.So that it helps them to become safe drivers