Why don't they teach kids to actually drive?

[MarkC]

Yesterday after work it was raining, and had been all day. As I sat at the an intersection waiting to turn left, a young gil in a VW bug came from the street in front of me, rushing to make a left turn before the light. She must have decided she was going to fast, so she hit the brakes. Too hard, her wheels locked up and she started sliding. She couldn't seem to grasp the idea that even though her wheels were truned left, she was still mysteriously travelling in a fairly straight line. She rode like that right up onto the sidewalk on that corner and nearly hit a lady standing there.
All she had to do was take her foot off the brake pedal....

 

[ToyotaNSaturn]

I have 2 books that I read adnauseum when I got my license, the front wheel drive hand book and Bob Bondurant's guide to high performance driving. Bob's lessons are amazing as they are about smoothness and control.

My kids will not be allowed to get their drivers license until they prove to me, dear ol' dad, that they understand concepts such as drop-throttle over steer, why we shouldn't brake *during* a turn, the effects of too little air in the tires, the effects of too much air in the tires, how to control the car to avoid obstacles, etc.

I found those two books paid for themselves one day when during a moderate Chicago snow on a flat two-lane road. I was travelling about 25mph when a Dodge minivan turned right onto the road going from the other direction. Quite innocuous. Until the entire backend of his van flew into may lane...it was like he had the e-brake on...he spun out, but his tail end caused me to swerve off the roadway...man it happened so FAST. I was able to maintain control of my old '86 Prelude without slamming it into the road sign, then enter back onto the road.

There's a reason they call them a "Dodge".

I really can't credit myself for being smarter, I can only credit those books and how they prepared me for moments like that.

At least 2 kids will be trained to drive a car when they get their license. I just pray that they never have to be in harm's way of others who could care less about driving, or other people's lives.

 

[K-Man]

Driver's licenses have been far too easy to get for too long in the US. This has to change. Unfortunately, this seems unlikely to happen.

 

[GROUCHO MARX]

Anytime the roads get wet arounf here, one car accidents are commonplace.

The idea that water makes the roads slippery is hard to grasp.

 

[CBDFrontier06]

Driving on the interstate between dusk and sunrise in Wyoming can be taking your own life in your hands because of.....deer. You learn very quickly that just slamming the brakes and praying will only end in tears.

I was driving from my hometown in WY to Deadwood, South Dakota one night with a friend in my 91 Civic Si. We were about 100 yards behind a line of cars, all doing about 70 and I spotted a family of deer in the median. They stood still for all the cars ahead of me, but when it came time for me to pass them, they decided they really wanted to be on the other side of the highway. Instinct kicked in, I lifted throttle and touched the brakes, and memory told me that there was nobody in the left lane, so I jerked the wheel left and I missed the trailing deer's a** by about 3mm from what I could see out the windshield. After my buddy caught his breath, he was amazed that we didn't skid, roll or hit the median. I told him it was because I stayed off the brakes and "drove" instead of expecting my brakes to save the day. It also helped that Civics of that day were still pretty light on their feet.

I guess this is why ABS has become commonplace. Few people understand that a locked wheel won't steer.

 

[wantin150]

Abs has actually been shown to increase the number of accidents because people count on it to save their behind instead of using a little common sense.

All new drivers should be taught the concept of threshold breaking and be able to properly demonstrate their ability to perform it properly. They should also be taught that smoke and noise from extreme breaking is normal and one should not be scared of it. I wonder how many accidents have resulted from someone freaking out about the smoke and noise.

 

[CBDFrontier06]

After years of driving pre-ABS cars, the first time I got a little freaked out was in a car WITH abs. My roommate bought a 94 S-10 with all the toys, and ABS was new to us both back then, so we went out on an empty road and tried it out on a sharp right hand turn.

I could see how that hard vibration / pulsation in the pedal would cause someone to lift off the brake completely out of fear that something was wrong. If you're not expecting it, the first time you feel it and hear it, you're tempted to lift.

 

[surfstar]

Having a driver's license does not mean that you know how to drive.

 

[tom slick]

none of the license tests or license schools teach anything more then rules of the road and how to operate a car.

you have to take a separate private course to learn how to drive in an emergency. think about how many times in the last year you have practiced emergency maneuvers when driving. one of the reasons for many of the street motorcycle related deaths is people don't ride enough, even in several years, to react correctly to an emergency.

 

[Tempest]

You have to go through a back ground check and waiting period (some places) to buy a gun, but anyone can walk into a car dealer and by multi-thousand pound machines that statistically kill 5X times as many people a year.

Don't expect laws to make sense.

 

[H2GURU]

I have found this segment of the population UN-TEACHABLE as they seem to appear to know everything. There aren't enough hours in the day. With all the crosses along the side of roadways, you'd think they would get the message. I have been unsuccesful in this task and have thrown in the towel. They will drive great when you're sittin' there, but when you're outta sight there back on the phone, or texting, or I-PODING or some other foolishness. Four out of five days up here there is a lead story of a car hitting a HOUSE for crissakes?? I would raise the driving age to 18 if I were king!

 

[Tempest]

Most city kids have never been exposed to anything dangerous until they are handed the keys to a 3K Lbs. car and they are supposed to understand what it can do and have respect for it. I have been shooting since I was 6 and it taught me at a very early age how dangerous machines can be and the respect they require. That respect transferred well when I started to drive and it is still relevant today. Other kids without such experience were much more cavalier about their driving.

 

[Jethro]

It's why I don't like to be out late on a Friday or Saturday night. Just by looking into the other cars you can tell that you are sharing the road predominantly with 16 to 18 year olds.....on their cell phones, with 3 friends in the car, with the stereo blasting, driving too fast with their brights on....

 

[JHZR2]

Because people think that driving is a right, not a privilege. Then, people let their egos get in the way, thinking they are too good, too skilled, etc. to obey the law.

My father started techning me how to drive when I was about 11. This was in NJ, mind you, where a DL cannot be had until 17. When I was 16 (when you can get your permit), he took me out in the car on semi-private roads, to get me to do a few controlled things that taught me the respect for machinery, even if it is an underpowered econo car.

THe other thing that my parents did was always drive economy cars for economy sake. Between econo cars and manual transmissions, you have to be much more aware of physics.

The actual reason, IMO why drivers in this country are so poor is not their driving skill. It is their lack of math and science skills. Most people have no real clue about the way things work, interact, etc. They understand nothing about energy, friction, forces, etc., and so thye have no concept but to mash the go pedal and slam on the brakes. It is compounded with credit cards and reckless amounts of debt. There is no reason to track spending, so even if you only get 5 MPG in an econobox, so your fuel bills ae huge, it matters not, as thew bill wont actually be paid for 5+ years.

The entitlement and stupicity of our society is the fault. The fact that these kids share these traits only makes it more dangerous.

JMH

 

[Spitty]

Quote:

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Because people think that driving is a right, not a privilege. Then, people let their egos get in the way, thinking they are too good, too skilled, etc. to obey the law.
JMH

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It's not just obeying the law, if they never get to learn what a handful a car or truck can be if it is allowed to get out of hand, They don't learn to be cautious or fearful.

 

[rpn453]

Even here people do that. You'd think that, with snow and ice covered roads 5 months of the year, people would learn during their first winter that braking and steering are two separate things. Nope.

 

[artificialist]

I immediately became familiar with automotive physics thanks to games like Gran Turismo, so when I took driver's ed, I already understood things such as FWD handling quirks.

That in mind, I still crashed a few years after driver's ed because I was too confident.

 

[rjundi]

My drivers ed was in the mountains of NH. I was lucky take drivers ed at school in the winter and a teacher willing to take us out in incliment weather (snow/slush etc). She would not let us on the roads but instead had us drive in an empty unplowed school parking lot have us accelerate and then she would jam her brake pedal and jerk the wheel. I was able to learn how to steer into a skid with her and winter drive. She also taught us how to brake properly (self abs)

 

[Pablo]

And we wonder why our roads are littered with cars when it snows 1 mm???

 

[MarkC]

"Because people think that driving is a right, not a privilege"

I hear this a lot, but I'm kind of ambivalent about it.
As much as the various governments gouge our wallets for roads, licenses, vehicle tabs, etc. I don't really grasp the idea of calling it a privilege to drive.
I'm not really a person who thinks that all my rights are granted by the government.
But anyway....
Unfortunately in most of North America, it's almost a neccesity to drive if you want to get to your job, or doctor, or a store, or whatever.
I'd rather walk, but it would take all day to get anywhere.