Driver's Ed

[cwo_ghwebb]

Washington DC Area Car Control Clinics

Heres a Motor Trend article discussing teen driver education.

Teen Driver Education - The Young and The Reckless - Motor Trend

This is the basic sort of thing, and a great place to start. Like any skill set, practice makes perfect, but its not easy to practice these skills, nor cheap. Only in the last few years have I begun to know how much I myself didn't know.

About 7 years ago, I attended a consumer education event held by Cadillac (free) to promote the new direction they were going in. It was a comparison event, you got to do autocross style courses with the new Caddys next to thier perceived competitors, like Jag and Mercedes and such.

Then it was a Mazda event ($35), where you got to do various car control events, cornering, braking, etc, and at the end, you ran a lap on an autocross course which time was compared to those of that event, and others around the country the winners went to a national drive off to win a new Mazda.

Since then, Ive attended three SRT Track Experience events, and learned more at each one. Not strictly driving schools, but educational nonetheless.

Great links. The basics aren't hard to teach, but seldom practiced when your child grows up in the back seat. Cripe, I get critiqued every time I take my daughter someplace. hehe

I think the course at CSM was great. What I would like now is more experience actually reacting to crap that happens on the road every day that drivers ed doesn't teach you, like the butthead who cuts you off leaving you no place to go if you haven't planned ahead. It's really hard to teach a child patience, must just come with age.

 

[glhs837]

The only solution to that, and its only a halfway thing, as you said, practice is king. Make it a game, if your kids old enough to ride shotgun. "Pick the Idiot". See who can spot the bad drivers first, for points. No money, just pride of the win

Show them how bad drivers usually have a "tell", be it overuse of brake pedal, poor lane discipline, sudden darting movement patterns. How a sudden sideways head movement passes for a lane clearance check, which usually misses a blind spot, where you might be.

Motorcyclists usually have an edge on this game, as its immediate life or death for them.

 

[magicmike]

Advanced driving

For anyone that is interested, CSM will be hosting the New Driver Car Control clinic in Sept and Nov. at the industrial training center on Radio Station Road in La Plata. They will take 48 new drivers with their parents per weekend. The classes will fill fast. 1.5 hours are spent in the classroom and 4 hours spent on a driving course driven by the young driver. The course is designed to teach advanced driving skills, decision making and collision avoidance. It is highly recomended for students after Driver Education. Also another class to enhance and help improve new drivers is Alive at 25 at CSM in Oct. and Nov. at all 3 campus locations. It is a behavior modification class designed to help new drivers with their mental ability when it comes to driving. These classes are being offered to help improve driving amongst teens and reduce teen crashes and injuries. Anyone who is concerned about their young driver should pursue these resources. We only go around once and it is very scary out there.

 

[glhs837]

https://www7.ssldomain.com/Carcontrol/showclinic.aspx?ClassroomEventId=627

Direct link to registration page for the above listed class.

Saturday, September 20 8:00AM -- 12:15PM Register Now 8
Saturday, September 20 1:00PM -- 5:15PM Register Now 10
Sunday, September 21 8:00AM -- 12:15PM Register Now 10
Sunday, September 21 1:00PM -- 5:15PM Register Now 10

Bolded is whats available right now (11:14pm, Tues) for the above mentioned course.

Please, if you have a teen driver, please, please, get them into this or something similar. My Navy training prepared me for stressful situations, and taught me how to get through emergencies.

Training and practice. If you have to figure it out as it unfolds, its too late, it (the basic tools needed to survive) has to be there beforehand, this sort of training can save a life.

In my Navy case, it was inflight firefighting, parchute donning, water survival skills. In driving, its looking ahead, planning ahead, and expecting the worst. All the reflexes in the world cant save you if you dont use them to take the correct action.

 

[theArtistFormerlyKnownAs]

One of the cool things about the CSM course is that they take the students over to the CDL course and put them in the drivers seat of a big rig, just to show them how little those drivers can actually see behind them. I was pretty impressed.

This must either be new or at a different campus...I took L-town CSM driver's ed and we never did that

I would have appreciated it thought :yay;

 

[karmama]

The young girl I work with used Drive Safe. She got ready to do the driving portion and was unable to contact the company. She has been told that Drive Safe is no longer in town. She did mention a law suit against the company. Of course, she did not keep the paid receipt for $300.....

 

[sinwagon]

The young girl I work with used Drive Safe. She got ready to do the driving portion and was unable to contact the company. She has been told that Drive Safe is no longer in town. She did mention a law suit against the company. Of course, she did not keep the paid receipt for $300.....

I have contact info at work for the person at the DMV who you are supposed to contact. I only paid the $150 for my son for the classroom portion due to issues with this school in the past so I did not lose the $150 required for the driving portion.

I'm sure the girl completed the class the same day as my son which was June 4th. If that is the case, the school did file transcripts with the MVA for those students and they have it on file. I will give you the ladies email address when I get to work tomorrow of who to contact. I already received a reply email stating that I will be getting a letter showing he completed the classroom portion. Atleast she will not have to do that part again.

Also, how did she pay? If they gave her a hand written receipt, their records should show this and I believe they are trying to confiscate all his documents.

 

[karmama]

Thanks for the info. I will pass it along to my co-worker.

 

[cwo_ghwebb]

This must either be new or at a different campus...I took L-town CSM driver's ed and we never did that

I would have appreciated it thought :yay;

La Plata campus, might be new as this is our first child that took the course there.

 

[shines]

correction

Not pinging on them specifically, but I've been to MVA in Waldorf a few times. Best Driving uses tiny cars with it totally full. They pull up to MVA with a full car and usually Hispanics. They even bring an interpreter. They take the test in that little car.
this is a quote from another post, but it isn't true. I give drivers license tests at the mva in waldorf. i do not and will not recommend any one company but this simply isnt true. i just dont like to see people or companies attacked for fake reasons. but it is true that every drivers ed company uses small cars

 

[gogetkenny]

get your money back

if you need information about the owner of drive-safe there is some out there

 

[gogetkenny]

there may be a way to contact the person that owns drive-safe if you want to get some retribution

 

[mqwdiver]

Driving Schools in Calvert

I would like to find a driving school for my daughter. We live in Dunkirk. Anyone have any opinion on Arrive Alive? I am aware that there is a new school in Huntingtown, though I do not recall the name.

I would appreciate any input!

mqwdiver

 

[lak]

I would like to find a driving school for my daughter. We live in Dunkirk. Anyone have any opinion on Arrive Alive? I am aware that there is a new school in Huntingtown, though I do not recall the name.

I would appreciate any input!

mqwdiver

Hi, I actually just printed the drivers ed schedule for Northern HS. Is your daughter in school? Drivers ed through the county/CSM is SOOOO convenient, they stay after school from 2:30 to 5:30, three days a week for I think it's three weeks. The first class is at CSM, and parents MUST attend with the new driver. For the 10 hours or so of actual driving, the instructor comes to your house to pick up your child. What service! BTW, a new law or new requirement (??) is you must have your learners permit before you can take drivers ed. I've heard too many horror stories with private companies, taking your money and leaving in the middle of the night... CSM is not going anywhere. The cost is $310ish, don't know how this compares with private companies. Go online to csmd.edu and search for drivers ed. All the info you ever wanted to know. Good luck!

 

[mqwdiver]

Lak,
I appreciate the response, and will check out the website. My daughter attends Northern (Honors), and received her Learner''s Permit two weeks ago.

Thanks again!

 

[lmwelch]

I have a teenager that is ready for driver's ed. Can you give me advice on the driving schools in the area? I have heard that CSM is a good place for them to go, but wanted other opinions.

BTW we are in St. Mary's

I can't speak for CSM in St. Mary's but my son took driver's ed. at the LaPlata CSM campus (about a year ago) and I was very pleased with them. The St. Mary's CSM campus is probably good too. Good luck --- watching my "baby" drive off in a car alone is the hardest thing I've had to do so far!

 

[Jbeckman]

Drivers Ed SoMD


Driver's Ed of Southern Maryland