Teen Driving

Parent Tips

• How to Talk to Your Teen About Safe Driving
• Is Your Teen Ready to Drive?
• Teaching Your Teen to Drive
• Helping Your Teen Become a Smart Driver
• Choosing and Making the Most of Your Teen’s Driver Education Program
• Discussing Teen Driving with Other Parents
• Bringing Safe Driving to Schools

How to Talk to Your Teen About Safe Driving

First and foremost, don't delay the conversation. Research shows that many parents delay talking about driving safety until their children are "permit age" (generally 15) much later than they talk to them about other issues like smoking, drugs, sex. Given the potential deadliness of unsafe driving, parents should initiate the dialog about safe driving sooner certainly by the junior high years and maintain an ongoing dialogue. Following are some tips for starting this discussion:

• Celebrate the accomplishment of getting a drivers license. Getting a license is a big step in the life of a teen; seize the opportunity to acknowledge this accomplishment and your teen’s growing independence, while pointing out the responsibility that comes with the privilege of driving.
  

• Don’t stop talking about driving once they have their licenses. Don’t succumb to the “well, you just have to let them go and hope you raised them right” philosophy of parenting once they are actually on the road. Find ways to keep the conversation active, especially during the first critical months after they begin to drive on their own.
  

• Make your talks a dialog about driving. Remember: teens are excited about driving itself – it’s a fun topic for them. So don’t turn your talks into lectures; instead, make them open dialogs that show you understand the positive side of getting behind the wheel, and let your teens share their views and experiences at the same time.
  

• Speak to their desire to be smart. As we have learned in our research, being a “safe driver” is not something teens aspire to become. Smart driving, on the other hand, combines skill and safety, and is something teens can attain.

• Be Parental. Express Your Authority. Your teens want to know your values and expect you to provide structure for them. They need you to be a parent, not another friend. Provide guidelines that you require they follow. And, consistently enforce your guidelines. If your teen violates your guidelines, deliver on consequences!  Though taking away the driving privilege for a period of time might not be convenient for you, it might end up saving your teen's life.
  

Is Your Teen Ready to Drive?

1. Does your teen show good judgment in general? Is your teen able to resist peer pressure when it comes to participating in risky or harmful behavior?
2. Is your teen willing to follow not only state driving laws, but also your rules?
3. Does your teen seem comfortable and self-assured when behind the wheel? Or does your teen seem excessively nervous or overly confident?
4. Does your teen understand the concept of safe driving? The Allstate Foundation’s research shows that teens differentiate between “good” and “safe” drivers. For example, teens consider “good” drivers to be those who can handle a car at high speeds (ultimately a reckless driver) while a “safe” driver follows all the rules.
   

Teaching Your Teen to Drive

Teaching your teen to drive can be a positive bonding experience if you’re mentally, emotionally and physically prepared. Consider these tips to make the experience less stressful and more rewarding for everyone involved:

Before You Hit the Road

1. Discuss the route she will take and the skills she needs to fine tune.
2. Use the vanity mirror on the passenger side as your rearview mirror.
3. Be calm and patient. Not all parents are cut out to be driving teachers. If you’re not comfortable, ask your spouse or someone else to take this on.
   

Behind the Wheel

1. Give simple directions well in advance of the maneuver.
2. Use a gentle tone of voice.
3. Encourage your teen to talk about what he sees and what he plans to do.
4. Watch for signs of stress or anxiety (e.g., white knuckles, tense arms, etc.).
5. Be generous with your praise.
6. Don’t distract your teen by talking too much.
7. If your teen makes a mistake, ask her to pull off the road and calmly discuss the error.

Back at Home

1. Evaluate the driving experience together.
2. Give your teen a chance to point out his mistakes.
3. Praise your teen for what she did correctly.
4. Ask your teen what she needs to do differently to improve.
   

Helping Your Teen Become a Smart Driver

As a parent, you ultimately want your child to be well-trained to tackle life's challenges. Learning to drive is part of that training and it’s important that parents play an active role in the process. The following is a variety of information that can help you:

• Talk to your teen early and often. Discuss the risks and responsibilities of driving with your child at a young age and keep talking to your teen before, during and after the licensing process. This discussion should have the same – or even higher priority level – as discussing sex and drugs.
• Don't rush the training process. Just because teens have a permit or license, doesn’t mean they are ready for every driving condition. By easing into the training process, such as practicing in parking lots and side streets instead of busy highways, you’ll help ensure you and your teen will be ready for any situation.
• Understand your state’s laws.  Every state has Graduated Driver Licensing to help new drivers get their initial on-the-road driving experience under lower-risk conditions, protecting them while they are learning.  Familiarize yourself and your teen with these requirements, and establish your own rules for when, where, how and with whom your teen may drive by creating a Parent-Teen Driving Agreement. Even after receiving their license, some teens are not prepared to drive on their own - only you can decide when your teen is ready to drive without adult supervision.
• Empower your teen. Being a passenger in another teen's car can put your teen at risk. Peer pressure among teens can be both positive and negative. Make sure your teen knows it's okay to say something if uncomfortable while riding with a friend and help her practice what to say in these situations. Although you can't be with your teen at all times, you can how important it is that your teen speaks up in dangerous situations.
• Practice what you preach. Be a positive role model when you're behind the wheel. Your teen is more likely to be a calm and courteous driver, wear a seat belt and follow the rules of the road if they see you do the same.

Choosing and Making the Most of Your Teen’s Driver Education Program

You’re likely to have a choice of driver education/training programs. Following are some guidelines to ensure your teen gets the most out of this experience:

• Seek out parents and teens who have recently participated in driver education programs, and ask about their experience and recommendations.
• Visit the facility and ask about what the program entails, details regarding on-road practice and conditions, the program’s accreditation status, instructor credentials, how much liability the school carries and parental involvement.
• When your teen is learning to drive, it’s important to maximize the quantity and quality of supervised driving experience. Ideally, this involves a partnership between parents and professional driver education instructors; therefore, making it important to choose a driver education program that shares this philosophy.
• Look for programs that maximize on-road driving practice and parent involvement.
• Be wary of programs that include training in skid control or other emergency driving maneuvers. Programs of this type have been found to increase rather than decrease crashes.
• Be mindful that a driver education program is merely a first step in the learning-to-drive process. It’s up to you to provide your teen with the bulk of supervised driving practice and instruction prior to licensure.
• Ask the instructor how you can best supplement the driver training your teen is getting in the course and ask if there are any particular driving habits your teen needs to improve.
• Talk to your teen about driving lessons and discuss further with an instructor if needed.
• Even after completing driver training, let your teen know if he does something unsafe. Remember that driver education is an ongoing process and teens still will be developing driving skills after they've completed the class.

Discussing Teen Driving with Other Parents

Engaging your teen in safe driving is the first step in protecting him from harm, and talking with your adult peers is another important step to raise awareness and drive change. The following are some ideas for discussing the issue with other parents:

• Talk to the parents of your teen’s friends about the rules they have for their teen driver and share your rules as well – an easy way to gather effective resources. It’s just as important to discuss teen driving rules with fellow parents as it is to discuss rules you have regarding teen parties, alcohol use and curfew.
• Convince parents in your community to commit to a common set of driving rules that they’ll enforce. It’s much easier to be an effective parent when you have the support of other parents in your community.
• Find out how other parents respond when their teen violates their family’s driving rules. Ask them how they’ve handled situations that you have found challenging. Parents often gain useful advice from each other.
• Discuss how best to coach teens on what to say when they’re passengers in a car that they think is being driven unsafely.
• Talk to other parents about how to respond if they discover that one of their teen’s friends who has been driving has also been drinking. Give each other the authority to take the teen’s car keys and call the teen’s parents, call a taxi or allow the teen to sleep over. Agree that you’ll never permit a teen to leave your house and drive if you suspect that he has been drinking.
• The next time your school organizes a meeting or back-to-school night for parents of teens, be sure the topic of teen driving is on the agenda.
• Organize a parent discussion at your teen’s school about your state’s Graduated Driver Licensing (GDL) requirements to help parents of teen drivers in your community learn the law. Consider inviting a representative from your local police to explain the regulations and how they’re enforced where you live.

Bringing Safe Driving to Schools

Schools provide many opportunities to reach teen drivers and their parents with messages about the importance of safe driving. The following are some ideas for creating a culture of safe and smart driving in schools.

• Encourage administrators to incorporate a safe driving clause in school “codes of conduct.”
• Ensure school directories that list parents who promise to maintain “safe houses” also include parents who promise to enforce Graduated Driver Licensing (GDL) laws.
• Ask schools and athletic departments to include a section pertaining to GDL laws and teen driving on their school physical forms.
• Encourage administrators to hold mandatory one-hour driving workshops for teens with parking permits (and their parents) to raise awareness about GDL laws and the fact that the hours before and after school are high-risk times for teen car crashes.
• Parent-Teen driving agreement 
• Safe teen driving presentation for parents (Microsoft Power Point)
• Suggest that administrators re-examine school start times to reduce drowsy driving.
• Look for opportunities to share GDL laws in school materials such as school district newsletters, school directories, event programs and school Web sites.