Carpool  

         With rising fuel prices, carpooling is a great way to save on commuting costs and help protect the environment.  Tom Vanderbilt’s best selling novel “Traffic” sites that adult drivers are less likely to crash if there is a passenger in the car. Carpooling is a great way to meet someone from a different department or to build a stronger relationship with a colleague that extends beyond work.

Avoid Honking

         Although honking is a great way to alert another driver, no one enjoys either having to honk at the car ahead or being honked at. Studies show that traffic noise is linked to increases in blood pressure, heart attacks and other cardiovascular diseases.  Honking sounds much louder outside of the vehicle so try to reserve using the horn unless it is necessary to alert another car. 

Stay in “Slow” Lane

         Switching lanes, especially into a crowded lane, requires the mental alertness of several different parts of the brain. Such level of concentration and patience explains why over 50% of participants in a survey conducted by the Texas Transportation Institute reported that merging is the most stressful part of driving. 

Try to stay in the lane which is nearest to your exit, instead of having to worry about switching in and out of lanes, even if it appears to be faster to remain in the fastest moving lane as long as possible. In fact, the “faster” lane is not significantly faster in decreasing the time spent commuting; Vanderbilt’s novel sites an experiment conducted in Los Angeles, revealing that the marginal difference between staying in one lane and switching lanes to get further ahead faster is only 15 seconds.  Those 15 seconds saved are not worth the added stress. 

Listen to a funny show

         Economists from the University of Zurich found that commuting is more stressful when people are not in control of certain factors that occur during the drive to work.; so whether you’re stuck in traffic, or have to take a slower route due to construction,  turn on a comedic podcast. Research at the Humor Research Lab in at the University of Colorado, Boulder concludes that laughing raises the threshold level for physical discomfort. You can find comedic podcasts through the app store of your phone, iPod, or through radio station apps such as Stitcher Radio.  

A teen’s 16^th birthday marks an exciting growth in responsibility, autonomy and character development. They anxiously wait for the moment in which they can start the engine for the first time and hit the road with friends. Teens expect to drive wherever and whenever as soon as they earn their license.

Despite your teen’s eagerness to drive, consistent driving practice is important to develop your teen’s ability to make smart decisions and judgments rather than rely on trial and possibly error.

Here are a few tips for teaching your teen to drive that address how your teen can avoid making these mistakes.

1. Start with the basics and slowly progress to more difficult driving conditions

The vast majority of collisions amongst teens are a result of “lack of experience and improper perception of risk." Driving instructors recommend that new drivers ease into driving on actual roads.  Empty parking lots are a great place for your teen to test the car’s steering, handling and brakes. Parking lots are also useful to teach your teen certain concepts before applying them to the road. Once your teen is comfortable with the basics of driving, advance to a less crowded area with a low speed limit such as streets without an outlet. 

2.  Define a clear agenda and a goal for each driving session  

Giving your teen a clear and tangible goal to accomplish for each lesson is a great way to isolate and tackle more complicated aspects of driving such as awareness of the car’s blind spot, switching lanes and parallel parking. Parking lots are also a great place to simulate these scenarios without the fear of making a mistake. 

To demonstrate how the vehicle’s blindspot impacts the driver’s ability, stand behind while your teen observes you from that side mirror.   Walk towards the front of the car and have your teen tell you to stop walking when he or she can no longer see you. At that point, your teen should get out of the car and look at where you are in relation to the car. Afterwards, switch roles so that your teen can gain an understanding of spatial awareness in and outside of the vehicle.

3. Devise a Strategy to Prevent Distracted Driving

         Even if your teen has the knowledge and skills to drive safely, driving while distracted severely impairs these abilities.  Based on a Canadian Automobile Association time trial, replying to a single text message takes an average of 33.6 seconds. To put those seconds into perspective, this is the equivalent of losing sight of: 85 parked cars, 36 houses or 5 intersections in a residential road. For teens, devising a strategy is pertinent since texting is considered the standard form of communication amongst their peers. A recent study conducted by Hertz reveals that almost half of all teens view texting as the main distraction behind the wheel.

Developing a pre-drive routine for your teen before he or she drives will limit your teen’s temptation to use the phone while driving. Each time that your teen drives to a new location, walk through the process of not only inserting the address into a GPS system, but reading the directions before driving. Highlight important roads and highways that your teen should look out for while driving. In addition, set your teen up with either hands-free headsets or your car’s blue tooth system.

4. Do what you teach

         As a role model, demonstrating the driving techniques and behaviors as you drive will only help solidify the concepts that you and your teen practiced.  Adversely, driving unsafely will negate the safe driving techniques previously taught to your teen.

         As stressful as teaching your teen to drive may be at times, it is also one of the most memorable bonding experiences a parent can have with their child. So before you let your child hop in the front seat, take the time to go over the basics and remember, safety first.