Teen Driving Guides
Teen Guide Passenger Seat Lessons
Get Driver Know-How
Lesson Log
Track Your Progress As you complete each drive, check it off below. Do each lesson at least twice during the day and once at night.
Page
Lesson
Pre-Drive: Safety Walk-Around DAY
Drive 1: Seeing Safe Seconds DAY
33
NIGHT
Drive 8: Planning Drives DAY
29
NIGHT
Drive 7: Reading Other Drivers DAY
22
NIGHT
Drive 6: Special Zones DAY
18
NIGHT
Drive 5: Reading Signs DAY
14
NIGHT
Drive 4: Reading Roads DAY
11
NIGHT
Drive 3: Seeing Hidden Dangers DAY
6
NIGHT
Drive 2: Safe Seconds in Bad Weather DAY
4
NIGHT
NIGHT
40
Teen Driving Guides
Teen Guide The companion volume to the Parent Guide
Damerst™ Publishing LLC, Longwood, Florida. teendrivingguides.com
Teen Driving Guides: Parent Guide and Teen Guide
Published by Damerst™ Publishing LLC 210 Garden Lane, Longwood, FL 32750. Copyright 2011 by Damerst™ Publishing LLC All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior written permission of the publisher. Edited by Douglas H. Damerst First Edition 2011 Teen Driving Guides is a two-volume set consisting of the Teen Guide and the Parent Guide. Volumes are not sold separately. v. 1 Parent Guide. v. 2 Teen Guide. Library of Congress Control Number: 2011940503 ISBN 978-0-615-54526-4
Contact the publisher for bulk purchases or corporate premium sales. teendrivingguides.com
Teen Guide
Getting Started Lesson Dos and Don'ts
2
Placing the rearview mirror
3
Teen Lessons Pre-Drive: Safety Walk-Around
4
Drive 1: Seeing Safe Seconds
6
Drive 2: Safe Seconds in Bad Weather
11
Drive 3: Seeing Hidden Dangers
14
Drive 4: Reading Roads
18
Drive 5: Reading Signs
22
Drive 6: Special Zones
29
Drive 7: Reading Other Drivers
33
Drive 8: Planning Drives
40
Teen Guide
Getting Started
Lesson Dos and Don’ts After the Safety Walk-Around (first lesson), do the rest of the lessons sitting in the front passenger seat of the car. Each lesson has several numbered sections, and within the sections are learning tasks (with check marks). Be sure you do all sections and tasks. ✔ During the lessons, read the guide out loud (even the “Driver’s notes”) so your driver knows what you're doing and can help you learn. ✔ Don’t distract the driver by showing the guide or pointing to something outside the car. ✔ Always use the kit’s rearview mirror (next page). ✔ No phone calls, texting, music, eating or other distractions during lessons. It’s OK to use a Web-connected cell phone to scan 2-D barcodes in Drive 1 to watch the videos (a Web address for each video is also provided). To scan the barcode, download a 2-D barcode-scanning app, such as NeoReader.com. Test the app by scanning this barcode message. ✔ Do the Safety Walk-Around before every lesson. ✔ Do the Drive lessons in order (except Drive 2: "Safe Seconds in Bad Weather") and complete each lesson at least two times during the day and once at night. Check them off on page 1. Your driver decides when you’re ready for the next lesson. ✔ Drive 1: "Seeing Safe Seconds" is a very important lesson. Learn to count seconds and then do it during all the other lessons, even when you're driving.
Teen Guide
Getting Started
Placing the Rearview Mirror Put the kit’s rearview mirror on the windshield or visor near the driver’s mirror.
✔ Position the mirror high enough on the windshield to be out of the way when you're looking ahead. ✔ Adjust it so you can look in it by just glancing without moving your head. ✔ Adjust it so you can see the entire back window. (It won't show cars that are alongside the car.) ✔ Look in the mirror several times a minute to keep an eye on traffic behind the car, just like drivers do.
Teen Guide
PRE-DRIVE 1 Minute
Safety Walk-Around
Driver Instructions Leave the car parked and turned off until this task is complete. Repeat the Safety Walk-Around every lesson.
Teen Lessons To make sure the car is safe to drive before every drive, walk around it and look for trouble that means don’t go.
1
Clear the path. ✔ Look for children, pets, bottles or other objects behind and in front of the car.
2
Clean windows and lights. ✔ Clean dirt, ice or snow that limits vision through the windshield, rear window and in the side mirrors, or that darkens headlights, turn signals and brake lights.
3
Look for tire trouble. ✔ Look at all four tires and if one is flat, change to the spare. If one is low, drive slowly to a tire shop or change to the spare.
Low
OK
Teen Guide
PRE-DRIVE
Safety Walk-Around To spot a low tire, stand on the side of the car and compare front and rear tires. Is one rim (the non-rubber center) closer to the ground? From the back or front, compare tires to see if one bulges more than the other. A low tire might go flat soon or cause the car to turn toward the side of the road. ✔ Find the tools (jack and wrench) and spare tire for changing a flat. Is the spare tire inflated? Find the instructions for changing a flat in the owner's manual. You can even try to do it for practice.
4
Spot puddle trouble. ✔ Look under the car for puddles. Ignore the water puddle under the front of the car because air conditioners remove moisture from inside the car and drip it on the ground. Any other fluid (colored and slippery between your fingers) that creates a puddle—not just a spot—means trouble. NOTE: Fluid puddles in parking lots may have been left by other cars. ✔ To find out what’s making a puddle, rub some fluid between your fingers and dab some on white paper to see its color. Use this chart to find the trouble. Bright green or pink slippery water comes from the engine’s cooling system. Brown or black-brown oil comes from the engine. Red or red-brown slippery fluid comes from the automatic transmission (gear shifter). Gray fluid comes from either the steering (oily) or brakes (watery-thin with a strong chemical smell).
Teen Guide
DRIVE 1 1/2 to 1 Hour
Seeing Safe Seconds
Driver Instructions In light traffic on through-streets or highways, drive near the speed limit through a variety of speed zones. The lesson requires steady speeds (your cruise control can help.) For section 4, include some hills and follow other cars.
Teen Lessons Safe drivers learn to measure distances in seconds, not feet. They do this by counting seconds (one-thousandone, one-thousand-two, etc.) while driving. Look ahead, pick out a stationary object like a light pole, street sign or road marking, and count the seconds until it reaches the front of your car.
1
See the 4-second danger zone. Pass blue sign in 4 seconds
✔ Find objects that are 4 seconds ahead (video). Drivers must constantly watch this 4-second zone for danger that requires them to slam on the brakes to avoid a crash.
Teen Guide
Seeing Safe Seconds
DRIVE 1
Watch online video Scan this 2-D barcode or visit teendrivingguides.com/video10 Notice that as you go faster, 4 seconds stretches farther down the road, and as you go slower it's closer. Why 4 seconds? It takes 2 seconds for the driver's brain to spot trouble and move the foot to the brake pedal, and then it takes 2 seconds for the car to stop. ✔ Scan the 4-second zone to spot trouble up ahead (cars, bicyclists, people, etc.) Sweep your eyes (without head turns) from left, front, right and back again.
2
See the 8-second steering zone. Pass police car in 12 seconds
Pass tree shadow in 8 seconds
✔ Find objects that are 8 seconds away. Drivers must constantly watch about 8 seconds ahead to adjust speed and to steer around road and traffic conditions. Notice how 8 seconds of space may not be enough time to change lanes when something unusual happens in your lane, such as a car getting onto the road in front of you.
3
See the 12-second driving zone. ✔ Find objects that are at least 12 seconds away. Drivers need this much space to make driving decisions Teen Guide
DRIVE 3 1/2 to 1 Hour
Seeing Hidden Dangers
Driver Instructions Drive on busy city roads that have at least two throughlanes in each direction. Include roads lined with retail stores and street parking.
Teen Lessons During this lesson you’ll discover how much you miss seeing on busy roads. You’ll learn to spot danger in blind spots and to avoid distractions that "hide" danger.
1
What’s behind? There are blind spots on both sides of your car that side mirrors can't show you (blue area below), so this lesson helps you learn what you can and cannot see on the sides and behind.
✔ Turn around and look over your left shoulder at the roof frame on either side of the rear window. Watch cars behind and see what the roof hides. Does it hide a motorcycle, half a car or a whole car, half a truck or a whole truck? ✔ Look in your rearview mirror: It lets you face forward and see out the back window with just a glance of 14
Teen Guide
DRIVE 3
Seeing Hidden Dangers your eyes. But you don’t see as much as when you turn around to look. Use the mirror to watch cars behind your car. Follow cars in the mirror using just your eyes. Did you see them turn off or start to pass? ✔ Look at other cars' rear roofs and imagine the blind spots they create for their drivers. If they have big blind spots around the back window, spot things that are hidden from their drivers. When you're next to a car with a big blind spot, is your car mostly hidden from its driver? Look for truck drivers that cannot see behind, except what shows in their side mirrrors.
2
What’s ahead? There are danger spots ahead and on the sides of the road in the 4-second danger zone (see Drive 1). Here’s how to see the dangers. ✔ Keeping your head still, look ahead and scan from sidewalk to sidewalk only with your eyes.
To see around the front window’s posts or the driver’s rearview mirror, tilt your head a little. Teen Guide
15
DRIVE 4
3
Reading Roads Yellow marks warn of danger. ✔ Look for yellow painted marks on the road. Yellow paint tells rules too but also warns of danger, especially where there's oncoming traffic (video).
Left-hand lane lines: Yellow stripes (solid, dashed, and dotted) on the road are on the driver’s left to warn of oncoming traffic. Solid: Crossing is prohibited (as with a double white line) unless turning left, such as from a two-way left-turn lane (see below.) Dash: Crossing is allowed but only for safe passing or turning. Dot: Follow the dots through intersections (see illustration on prior page).
Watch online video Scan this 2-D barcode or visit teendrivingguides.com/video14 ✔ Look for two-way left-turn lanes. Yellow lines with white arrows create a turn lane that’s shared by drivers going in opposite directions who are turning left.
Teen Guide
21
DRIVE 15 DRIVE 1 Hour 1/2 to 1 Hour
Signs SeeingReading Safe Seconds
Driver Instructions Drive on major city roads, county and state routes, and interstate or similarly designed high-speed highways. Your teen reads and interprets roads signs out loud. Help interpret symbols on signs, and point out signs missed.
Teen Lessons Read or describe signs that are overhead or on the side of the road. You’ll probably miss some because they’re designed to be read quickly with a glance, not out loud.
1
White signs tell the rules. ✔ Look for speed-limit signs. The speed limit may change on a road if it goes through an area where speed needs to be slower or faster.
✔ Look for white signs that tell road rules.
✔ Look for white signs with red. Red (letters or a circle 22
Teen Guide
DRIVE DRIVE 15 1/2 to 1 Hour
SeeingReading Safe Seconds Signs with slash) means something is not permitted, such as no parking, no turning, no bicycling, etc. ✔ Look for white and green parking signs. Green lettering on white means parking is OK but with restrictions, such as time of day.
2
Red signs say, “No!” ✔ Look for the four red signs—Stop, Yield, Do Not Enter, and Wrong Way. Stop and yield mean drivers may not go farther unless the road is clear, but if the road is clear yield allows drivers to continue without stopping.
3
Yellow signs warn of danger. ✔ Look for these yellow (not orange) sign shapes next to the road. Diamond signs: Warn drivers about upcoming stops, curves, lane changes or likely hazards.
Teen Guide
23
DRIVE 7 1 Hour
Reading Other Drivers
Driver Instructions Drive on major city roads including a half-hour on interstate or other high-speed multilane highway. Find busy roads as well as near-empty roads so your teen sees a variety of traffic conditions and can watch drivers of cars, trucks and motorcycles. If there's a radio station giving traffic reports, listen to the reports for Lesson 1 below.
Teen Lessons Because you share the road with other drivers, your safety depends on their driving skills too. In this lesson you’ll learn to predict other drivers by watching them closely and you'll see how other drivers' behavior changes in different traffic conditions.
1
Who gets to go first? At an intersection with stop signs for all four directions (four-way stop), the driver who gets there first gets the right to go first. "Right of way" rules like this help drivers share the road safely. Usually signs or road markings tell drivers who has the right of way, but not always. ✔ Here are the right-of way rules (video 13). Look for drivers who do not give the right of way when they should. l At a stop sign intersection, give (yield) the right of way to any driver already in the intersection or who arrives before you do. l At crossroads that don't have stop signs, traffic lights or other controls, yield to any driver already in the intersection or who arrives before you do. Teen Guide
33
DRIVE 7
Reading Other Drivers l Roundabouts are like any other intersection. Yield to any driver already in the roundabout or who arrives before you do. l If two cars arrive at the intersection at the same time, the driver on the right gets the right of way and goes first. l At T-intersections (where one road ends) without signs or lights, drivers on the road that ends should give right of way to drivers on the through-street. l Drivers should always yield to people who are walking, jogging, skateboarding or roller blading.
Watch online video Scan this 2-D barcode or visit teendrivingguides.com/video13 l Drivers should yield to emergency vehicles with lights flashing, such as an ambulance or a police car, by moving right as far as possible and stopping. l Drivers entering the road from a driveway should yield to all traffic on the road.
2
Drivers on busy roads ✔ Watch traffic movement and speed (between traffic lights) and tell your driver which of the following descriptions—used by traffic reporters on the radio— best describes the conditions.
34
Teen Guide
DRIVE DRIVE 18 1/2 to 1 Hour
Planning Drives Seeing Safe Seconds Choose divided highways (see map legend) and roads without stops (controlled access highways) like interstates where ever possible. They're safer designs. Avoid roads that go through work zones, school zones, railroad crossings and areas where there are lots of people walking, like shopping districts or parks. ✔ Mark on the map or write a list of each road name/ number, estimate the mileage to the next turn and note whether the turn is right or left.
3
Plan an out-of-town route. ✔ With the driver's help, plan a drive to and from another town. Go through a rural area, if possible. In most cases, U.S. highways and state routes connect towns and are better roads. Avoid unpaved roads, if possible. ✔ Mark on the map or write a list of each road name/number, estimate the mileage to the next turn and note whether the turn is right or left.
42
Teen Guide
Teen Driving Guides Help parents do what they do best... Lovingly teach life-saving lessons to their children. Learning begins with the Teen Guide. Sitting in the passenger seat, your teen uses the Teen Guide to master essential knowledge and practice skills every safe driver needs before getting behind the wheel. Lessons are learned on the same roads and in the same traffic that your teen will be driving, which helps him or her recall knowledge and skills better when driving. The Parent Guide gives step-by-step, behind-thewheel lessons. Driving lessons start simple and slowly progress to more complex driving. You can just read the driving instructions out loud, if you like, and lessons end with a checklist to help you decide if your teen is ready for the next lesson. The guide’s lesson log helps you keep track of practice hours that may be required by the state prior to a driving test.
Edited by Douglas H. Damerst, former editor in chief of AAA National and director of AAA Colorado Driving School. The guides are written for easy understanding and feature 210 color illustrations and photographs. Guides are edited for use only in the United States.
Visit TeenDrivingGuides.com Teen Driving Guides, v.1 Parent Guide v.2 Teen Guide: $29.95 USD
Damerst™ Publishing LLC