I am in the possibly unenviable situation of taking my 16 year-old from 10 hours of drivers ed to a fully-fledged, safe member of the driving population. To make matters more challenging, the driving school has automatic cars, and both his father and I drive a manual. I get the honour of doing the teaching because I’m the more patient and less easily panicked of the two of us, and mostly I’m enjoying it.
Right now we’re working on hill starts but having a little trouble with not giving quite enough gas when the clutch reaches the bite point, leading to some interesting bunny-hops and a fair amount of stalling. Tonight was a better showing and I’m hopeful that we might actually progress to driving at normal times of day (like, when there are other vehicles on the road) soon.
So - two questions for the mavens of ST:
**What tips would you give for teaching a teenager to drive? **
What was the most useful thing you remember someone saying to you when you learnt to drive?
parking skills… http://i43.tinypic.com/2wmmmgg.jpg
teach him how to ease the clutch off gently using no gas to get the car rolling.
This. It is a great drill.
Another good one is with the car parked and in neutral, call out numbers they have to hit on the tach. At first they will be 2000 rpms off but pretty quick they will be able to move from, say, 1000 to 1400 then back to 1300, up to 1800 etc etc.
Now both feet are working and you are 90% of the way there.
Another great drill to get him to be able to recover from a skid (you should borrow an automatic for this) is to go to that empty, snow covered parking lot, tell him to close his eyes, turn the steering wheel all the way to lock one direction, tell him to open his eyes and you mash the accelerator. He’ll be Fernando Alonzo in no time!
Don’t ride the clutch. 'Tis better to stall once in a while than burn up thy clutch.
Teach him to look WAY ahead. Too many idiots on the road just looking for the tail lights directly in front of them…
ebrake should only be used to find the clutch/accelerator “balance point” for hill starts. The it is only a question of “playing” with either the clutch or the accelerator to move forward, slow down or stand still.
starting to get used to drive with an automatic is not such a bad actually since the teenager will not have to worry about switching gears. However, I believe it should be mandatory for folks to know how to drive properly a stick.
For me the most important things I have either learnt or “discovered” is always be aware of your surroundings. On a regular basis and obviously depending on the situation (i.e. number of lanes, time of day, etc.) I will always have a quick glance in my review mirror and one either sides to see what is “going on”. This obviously applied (as it was already mentioned) to always checking the dead spot (or whatever is called) when switching lanes or turning and looking over my shoulder when I back up.
As I try to always be aware of my surroundings I also try to be ready to “anticipate” (for example: hummm looks like the guy might switch lane, let;s slow down a bit for example).
The other aspect that really help when I was learning was to understand the “clutch/accelerator” balance and the relationship between the two. Once I understood that (and also listening to the engine when to switch gear) driving became a lot easier for me.
I am in the possibly unenviable situation of taking my 16 year-old from 10 hours of drivers ed to a fully-fledged, safe member of the driving population. To make matters more challenging, the driving school has automatic cars, and both his father and I drive a manual. I get the honour of doing the teaching because I’m the more patient and less easily panicked of the two of us, and mostly I’m enjoying it.
Right now we’re working on hill starts but having a little trouble with not giving quite enough gas when the clutch reaches the bite point, leading to some interesting bunny-hops and a fair amount of stalling. Tonight was a better showing and I’m hopeful that we might actually progress to driving at normal times of day (like, when there are other vehicles on the road) soon.
So - two questions for the mavens of ST:
What tips would you give for teaching a teenager to drive?
What was the most useful thing you remember someone saying to you when you learnt to drive?
Ive been going through the same thing. My son turned 16 6 weeks ago and couldn’t wait to get his license. Good kid typical attitude, Im kinda necessary but getting dumber as i age. He is cool and getting smarter every day. I kept saying I wasnt too impressed with his driving. It was similar to his approach with everything just cruised through not taking things to seriously.
We started automatic and then he wanted to learn the manual tranny jeep we have. I started him in the dirt, it actually eliminates the bunny hops and the gravel kind of spins out rather than wearing down the tires squeeling on the pavement.
He just didn’t seem to pay much attention and no matter what i said it just wasn’t sinking in. He was driving my auto transmission jeep and 3 weeks after starting to drive he backed into a treeon the side of the driveway. It cost him about $900 to fix right rear light fender and body. Now I have his attention and he is more cautious.
He just wouldn’t listen and had to learn on his own. When it emptied his bank account from his summer job, he got the message.
But I learned everything that will actually keep me alive in a car screwing around in snow covered parking lots . . . . If you have not been sideways in a car on purpose, good like handling it when it happens by accident.
Too many kids (and adults) die in situations where they could have maintained control if they had goofed off in snow covered parking lots in their teen years.
