Adults often feel that teenagers are too young and inexperienced to operate a vehicle on the street. They might quote data and badger their 16-year-olds about the dangers of the road. Over the years, many states have urged lawmakers to raise the driving age to 17, and in some cases, 18. To be fair, most teenagers are inexperienced when it comes to driving. But there’s a good way to gain experience: driver’s education class.
Each day, teens across the country enroll in driver’s education courses offered in classrooms or online. These training programs prepare aspiring drivers to react to real-life situations on the road. Students learn a variety of skills such as turning, accelerating, braking, and steering in everyday conditions. And these are just the basics. The more time they spend behind the wheel, the more teens begin to master advanced skills: changing lanes, merging, yielding to opposing traffic, and understanding the “fast lane.”
Although useful, driver’s education courses are not nationally regulated. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration provides guidelines to every state, but they are not required to follow them. National Safety Council Vice President John Ulczycki said not all states require driver’s education at all, and the quality of each state’s program is vastly different. Some states allow drivers who take courses to be exempt from certain graduated licensing steps. In other words, one driver’s ed course may enable a 16-year-old to drive at night with three friends in the car when another might not allow nighttime driving or driving without an adult until age 18.
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Still, practicing road skills with supervision from an instructor can only help teen drivers improve. “Our driving instructor tries to get us as many hours behind the wheel as possible,” says Cameron Green, a 16-year-old student taking driver’s ed at his Jacksonville, Florida, high school. He says that the classes have given him some much-needed practice. “I have to be aware of my driving, as well as everyone else on the road,” says Green. The classes also teach teens how to handle other situations that they may encounter as drivers, including checking air pressure, checking oil, pumping gas, and jump-starting a car.
Florida, in particular, requires all new drivers to take a driver’s education course that teaches defensive driving and state traffic laws. Defensive driving means being best prepared to handle all possible situations on the road. Students need to know what to do in various weather conditions, like fog and heavy rain. They should be prepared for other drivers to make occasional mistakes, especially in difficult driving conditions. They also learn how to better watch for other drivers who may not be operating their vehicles safely and how to react calmly to the actions of those drivers. One basic concept of defensive driving is not to compete with aggressive drivers. However, defensive driver training is mostly theoretical, since students are not put in real situations.
Oregon is a shining example of driver’s education done correctly. Experts say that the state’s combination of classroom instruction, teacher-supervised drive time, and parent/guardian help is key. Teachers must be specifically certified for the course, and students learn to assess risk while driving in order to prevent problems. Oregon does have a graduated licensing program that also contributes to its safer roads. As in many states, Oregon teens can get learner’s permits at age 15. At 16, they can get provisional licenses allowing them to drive with adult passengers and immediate family between 5:00 a.m. and midnight, with exceptions for special circumstances. After six months, they may have three additional passengers.
Once they have held their provisional licenses for a year or turn 18, they may drive at night and have any number of passengers that fit safely in the vehicle. Experts say, however, that the state’s driver’s ed program is responsible for the most improvement in road safety. Troy E. Costales, an Oregon Transportation Department executive manager, said that “the kids who take driver education are outperforming kids who didn’t take it.” Officials report lower numbers of accidents and tickets since the course regulations were instated.
