Advice

The Best Practices When Teaching Your Teen to Drive

If a teenager is granted a study permit, he or she can start driving with an adult in the car to supervise and teach him or her. Most young people count the hours they have left in the day until they can take their driving license at 16, sit their driving test and demonstrate their driving skills. Teenagers are often urged to drive by their peers and under pressure from parents before they feel ready.

Parents are in a unique position to show their children the right driving skills and teach them the right driving decisions. In most cases, the best way for a teenager to learn to drive is in a driving school class. In many states, completing driving courses can reduce the cost of car insurance.

Remember that even if your teenager is old enough to get a license, it’s your decision if he or she is ready. Young drivers need as much driving experience as possible before they get their license. Unless you and your young driver feel comfortable in degraded conditions, they should not do so without supervision until the law permits.

One way to deal with this is to make a deal with your teenager to get a driver’s license if you don’t want him to drive in certain situations. If you think more time and practice is needed before your teenager gets a driver’s license, talk to him or her about these reasons. Your teenager may see a driver’s license as a step toward freedom, but you’re not sure he’s ready to take to the streets.

Young drivers have a higher fatal rate of accidents due to their immatureness, lack of skills and lack of experience. They accelerate, they make mistakes, and they are distracted by their friends “cars.

Research shows, in fact, that the risk of fatal accidents increases in direct proportion to the number of teenagers in the car. According to a study analyzed by NHTSA, a young driver is three times more likely to engage in one or more risky behaviours when travelling alone with multiple passengers compared to driving alone. Among the passengers in the study, young drivers were at least two and a half times more likely to behave riskily while driving with a teenager of the same age, compared to solo rides.

Getting Their License

As a defensive driver, Driver’s Ed lessons help you can avoid a crash and reduce your risk behind the wheel. For example, if a car speeding past you on the motorway and there is not much space between it and a slow moving lorry in the same lane, it is a safe bet that the driver will attempt to enter your lane in front of you. Anticipating the driver and making appropriate adjustments can help to reduce the risk.

You have to be careful and ready to take action, but you cannot leave your fate in the hands of the other driver. When your teenager drives a car for the first time, start in the safest and easiest place: an empty parking lot.

When you see your teenager begin to master this skill, take note and make the situation more complex next time. For example, stop and start when your teenager leaves a parking lot. Your teenager should also practice pressing the accelerator and brake while driving, turning and reversing.

Infographic created by Capital Auto Auction

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