When your teen obtains a learner’s permit, you will be required to ride
in the car when he or she is driving. This is your chance to impart driving
wisdom directly, in real-time. But AAA Foundation research has suggested that teens don’t get enough practice managing a
variety of challenging road conditions, such as driving at rush hour, in
inclement weather, or at night. Getting this practice with a parent in the car
is much safer for a new driver than first experiencing such conditions later on
when driving independently.
When it comes
time for your teen to trade in a learner’s permit for a license, your presence
in the vehicle is no longer a legal requirement. But that doesn’t mean your
role as coach, partner, and supervisor of your teen’s driving has ended
(despite the fact that Foundation studies have shown that parental presence in the car plummets at
this point). Laws vary depending on what state you live in, but all states have some form of graduated driver licensing (GDL) provisions, which impose restrictions on novice teen
drivers for a period of time. These may include things like late-night driving
prohibitions, passenger limits, or cell phone bans.
Knowing your
state’s GDL laws is critical, but remember – these are simply the minimum legal requirements your teen must obey.
As a parent, you have the right to establish stronger rules if you see fit, and
to supervise your teen’s driving privileges even from outside the car. One way
we recommend managing this: sign a parent-teen driving agreement that spells
out when, why, where, and with whom your teen is allowed to drive, and stick to
the rules you and your teen generate together. For more information and ideas
about such agreements, visit www.teendriving.aaa.com.
Parent involvement in the learning-to-drive process is recognized as an important factor in keeping teens safe. Several states even require that parents attend special classes about the teen licensure and learning process, and ongoing Foundation research is investigating how to “train the trainers,” so to speak, as effectively as possible. Remember that driving is inherently risky for everyone, and even more so for teens. Nobody is in a better position to help them learn to manage and reduce those risks than you.
In the Washington DC area of the US, it seems that everything to control traffic has been tried. Signs of all type, traffic circles, speed tables, etc. to various affects on traffic, pedestrians, and businesses. Now the new trend is traffic cameras, and un-marked cars. However, it seems to me that the red queen effect is always the dominant stakeholder. (You have to run fast just to stay in the same place). People are smart, crafty, and resistant to control. The question, in my view, is there some fundamental error in the design of traffic control systems that engenders such solid resistance? As a driver I feel that the error may be the inaccuracy, general nature, or one size fits all circumstances of most traffic control systems. I mostly drive at night, on deserted streets, but I am still forced to behave as if it were rush hour. Yet when the roads are full and its pouring rain, I still feel forced by other drivers to maintain a reasonable speed. As automation finally reaches the drivers seat I hope that we will be able to move toward "honest" traffic control which is condition based.
ReplyDeleteUntil that Utopian future, of emotionless robot drivers, emerges the engineers at my company Gravitational Systems Engineering have devised several smart traffic control devices that are worth consideration. Our devices called speed sponges, appear as green speed bumps but they are completely soft and collapse when encountered at safe speeds. However, when one of these devices is triggered by a speeder, it remains firm and slows the vehicle. They come in both embedded and surface mounted models, but in each instance they can not only stop unsafe behavior based upon road conditions, but they also force drivers to think.
Gare Henderson,
Gravitational Systems Engineering, Inc.
GravitationalSystems.org
Virginia,USA