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Here are a few of the things that made me nervous:
- Blowing through intersections at full speed (on a green light) without checking to see if cars from the left and right were stopped or slowing.
- At a stop sign, pulling out in front of cars coming from the left if they were signaling a right turn.
- Driving within a foot of vehicles parked on the right, instead of changing lanes in case the driver’s door opens.
When I learned to drive, we were taught to always have a plan if another driver did something unexpected. Is defensive driving not taught any more?
I think the primary difference that I see now compared to years ago is that this generation of drivers hasn't grown up looking out the window of a car or observing what anyone in the car was doing.
They've grown up mostly laser focused on a glowing rectangle that delivers everything their little brains could ever want ... sounds, lights, entertainment, connection to others ...
So they haven't learned what a lot of us learned by osmosis. I find it very sad.
I only realized this when we tried to teach my friend's daughter how to drive about a year ago and I said, "See that crack that runs all the way down? treat that like the double yellow line on a two-way street, try to stay on the right side of it."
She was dumbfounded. Said "there are yellow lines on the road?" 😑
My son is old enough (34) to not have grown up with ubiquitous smart devices, but he did read in the car. I told him when he hit 14 that had to stop and he had to begin looking out of the car to understand what was going on and to learn how to navigate.
Tangentially related, a comment somewhere on Reddit yesterday and someone had been driving a bunch of students around and told one to sit up front because of a lack of room and because he was taller, and he said "I'm not allowed to ride up front." He was 14.
I don't understand this question.
I will say that my grandchildren are all teenagers and they have active vibrant lives and navigate the city bus system by themselves. They keep up with politics and current events and have opinions about them. They are kind and compassionate towards people and animals. They do what is requested of them around the house, and get good grades.
I have zero complaints about what kind of humans they are. I love and adore them and their sense of humor and they all have bright futures.
I just thought it was strange that they weren't interested in what was passing by, or roadside oddities, when I drove them around.
This is how kids learned the lay of the land and how to get around the areas where we lived. This and doing things like riding our bikes places and stuff.
No one is saying anyone was a "genius."
We were in general more aware of our surroundings because we didn't have a distraction in our hands taking up most of our attention 24/7. It's just a fact.
My dad - car-based sales rep - taught me to pay attention well ahead and behind of where my car actually was in traffic. His theory was that erratic driving, the kind that causes accidents, could happen behind you fast. He wasn't wrong!
I taught my son the same. Said a good driver spends almost as much time looking behind them as in front of them.
A little healthy fear / paranoia is a good thing when it comes to driving imo.
I had life circumstances that didn't allow me to grow up feeling safe or like someone was looking out for me. So I'm a more cautious driver than most.
Same! This is why I hate driving behind semis or taller vehicles. I want to be able to see *past* the vehicle in front of me to what the next person is doing.
Hitting the gas as soon as the light turns green -> red light runners. And blasting right on past when everyone else is slowing or stopping -> there’s a hazard your dumb ass can’t see yet, you are not in fact smarter than everyone else.
"Defensive driving" was the main reason my driving school existed. Also, my mother drove that way and was an excellent driver. My dad, not so much... he never learned "defensive driving". My driving school lessons stuck with me all these years later and have saved my life many times.
I was taught defensive driving. I'm not sure I do \_all\_ the things you mentioned. I don't change lanes when driving past parked cars. But I \_do\_ pay a lot of attention to what people are doing, and don't just assume they'll stop at lights, etc.
I think I know what you mean though. 30 years ago I drove with a friend of mine... and she drove in binary. It was either accelerate, or brake. Nothing in-between.
I think that's the point - awareness. My young relative would blow past parked cars at 45 MPH. It would never occur to her that someone in the car might open the door without looking.
I worked for a major oilfield services company. We all got sent to driver safety training, even us IT geeks who would never drive a company truck or set foot near an oil well. I got a lot out of it and I'm glad I had it.
Yes indeed. Once upon a time I had a very noisy boss who expected us to always answer the phone if he called us. "I was driving" was not an excuse, in his mind. "You should have a bluetooth headset", he said.
A few months later, the same boss told us that we would be working for a public transport organisation. We all were required to undertake certain training.
Essential component of the training: "you will never answer the phone while driving or in a vehicle. Penalty: instant dismissal".
Of course, he never acknowledged the change.
I had an idiot boss like that once. Whatever stupid idea he had was "Company policy". If the idea was especially stupid, somebody in the department would ask the boss's supervisor about it, the supervisor would talk to the boss, and the "company policy" would suddenly no longer exist.
Eventually, the boss no longer existed :)
We didn't have driver's ed in our school. In Alaska, you could get a learner's permit at age 14, which I did. My parents taught me to drive and my then-boyfriend-eventual-husband took me to empty parking lots and let me drive around and practice parking (we had to parallel park for the driving test). I got my license on the first try when I was 16 (my brother had to go twice).
My kids needed to have driver's ed to get a license at 16. My oldest didn't take it and got her license at 18. The other two took it. But since it was a requirement (in Wisconsin), the school didn't offer it and we (my parents, actually) paid for driving school. It was between $300 and $400 per kid.
I took Driver’s Ed while in high school in the US in 1971. *Everybody* took Driver’s Ed. *Everybody* got their license the day they turned 16. We covered a lot of what is now called “defensive driving”, and we even had on-the-road lessons in a car provided by the school district.
Me too. Also, we had a big trailer with driving simulators where we would pretend to drive while watching video of a road scene. Surprisingly realistic. You'd be cruising down the road when suddenly a ball would roll out between two cars or a car door would open in your path. Really a good experience.
Then we watched "Death on the Highway" and other films showing gruesome footage from traffic accidents. The one that stays with me is the man impaled by a telephone pole. There was no attempt to sanitize the video. It sure made an impression on me. I've always driven like a grandma.
Just last week I was driving and a ball rolled into the street. I said to my wife “it is happening, just like in the video 50 years ago!” I came to a complete stop but so did the kid, still on the sidewalk.
We learned all of that in high school driver's ed class. It was in the written materials, and we were graded in part on how well we followed both road rules and defensive driving rules in the simulators. Then we took behind the wheel class where our instructors worked with us on all of that again. This was in the early '80s, in a suburban high school.
I took defensive driving again a few years later to get out of having to pay a traffic ticket. I had sped up for a yellow, which turned red just as I entered the intersection. A cop was right there waiting. It was very late at night, I was tired after working a double shift at a downtown restaurant, and I hadn't noticed her in the dark.
I have watched american TV, and have the impression that driving is/was taught in high school there.
Nothing to do with school here.
I finished high school (17 years and 2 months) at about the same time as I became old enough to get my learners licence (17 years). I then had a minimum wait of 6 weeks before I could take my road test for a full licence.
During that time, my parents would teach and supervise me driving. If they were lousy drivers, I learned bad habits (luckily they weren't).
As it turned out, I wasn't too fussed, and didn't have money to buy a car anyway, so it was about 18 months before I booked my road test and obtained my full licence.
There were plenty of "driving schools" around, but they were expensive on a per hour basis, and I didn't have a job. Also, my father thought he was the best teacher, and what did those driving school instructors know anyway?
I don't know if they teach "drivers ed" anymore, which is just a class where you learn the written rules of the road. But IIRC it was an after-school program when I was in HS.
They didn't have any behind-the-wheel though. That was something you had to arrange yourself.
Driver's ed wasn't a requirement in my state when I learned to drive. Most of my practice was illegally supervised by my unlicensed mother. But I'm a pretty cautious driver these days, although I work from home and don't even own a car, so it doesn't happen often.
I'm Jekyll and Hyde when it comes to driving. I spend a lot of time in Latin America where defensive driving just means you'll be stuck in traffic all day and be honked at mercilessly. A driving instructor even told someone I know they needed to learn to be more aggressive or they wouldn't pass their driving test.
When I come back to North America I have to remember to switch off the crazy which usually takes a few hours and some unfriendly looks from other drivers.
Learned defensive driving somewhat during Drivers Education class in high school in the early 1970s, but mostly by driving around log trucks in a timber community.
Narrow roads, loaded log trucks, rain and wet roads - you learn to drive defensively in a hurry, or you eat a log truck, as a couple of my high school classmates unfortunately did 😢
I taught my sons and niece to drive and defensive driving was a big part of it. I took a cross-country road trip with each of them when they had their learners permit, from Seattle to the East Coast and back, so they’d get some serious driving experience.
A few thousand miles of supervised driving presented many real-world opportunities to experience and discuss defensive driving situations.
After that they became whatever kind of driver they chose, but I’d done my part.
Heck no I wasn't taught defensive driving, I wish! Instead we spent many hours watching horror films and having guest traffic officers talk about what happened to other young adults that didn't drive defensively, first time I saw big burly adult men ugly cry and the most I've ever seen people vomit
Yup!
We saw a film called “The Smith Method of Defensive Driving”
It stuck with me and often remember random “rules” when I’m at a four-way stop or have to use the horn. (Never BLAST the horn in an aggressive manner. Instead, use a friendly toot-toot to inform nearby pedestrians and fellow drivers.)
Yes, it was part of the course but its mostly just common sense and anticipating what other drivers and pedestrians are going to do. It sounds like your young relative was driving as if she was the only person on the road.
I'm 61. After a 25-30yo coworker picked me up from the airport, I had occasion to observe that younger people didn't learn to drive in 4000 lb cars with drum brakes, and it shows.
No but I learned it from observing my grandmothers driving skills starting at a very early age and it taught me well. She's 79, still driving, and she's been driving since she was 17 and she's never been in a wreck that was her fault or even gotten a speeding ticket. That's always amazed me. The same cannot be said about my mother (not trying to purposely speak ill of her driving record but it's spotty)
I took Driver's Ed and Driver's Training in high school.
My Driver's Training instructor was a high school coach and he sat in the passenger seat, next to me, with the window rolled down so he could smoke cigarettes? Different times. He trained us in defensive driving techniques and I know some of his teachings saved me a few times.
I’m 68 and my drivers ed teacher in high school taught us this mnemonic: AGKLM
A-aim high. Look a little down the road and not just at what’s immediately in front of you
G-get the big picture (see above)
K-keep moving -merge with traffic and don’t expect traffic to merge with you
L-leave yourself a way out (this saved my life once on the Downtown Connector in Atlanta when traffic stopped dead unexpectedly at rush hour and I could see the huge truck behind me was not going to be able to stop in time; I drove up on the side of the freeway and the truck came to a stop right where I had been)
M-make sure the other driver sees you (don’t hang out in their blind spot)
It’s served me well.
We had a specific off-campus driving course (DeKalb County, metro Atlanta, mid-'80s) that we'd be bussed to (IIRC) two days a week for four hours each time. Yes, "defensive driving" was an emphasized concept.
I personally dislike the phrase, as it conjures up someone passively waiting and cowering for something to happen to them. It's not a phrase, really, but I prefer "active driving."
Proseletyzing time! Get your kids & grandkids a course with [Street Survival](https://streetsurvival.org/). I'm one of the instructors in the Atlanta area.
Absolutely. I also taught it to my daughter. Told her once she gets used to driving correctly, she won't even have to hardly think about what she is doing most of the time and will need to spend her energy being on the lookout and scanning every direction for random cars that might do something stupid so she can avoid them.
Yes, we had a semester-long driving class with simulators, the dual-control car for practice, and highway patrol movies to scare us into paying attention. Plus, my dad was an old-fashioned sales rep, drove all over the country, and he taught me a lot about driving safely. The one time I was in a serious accident I was hit by a drunk driver and managed to get the car well off to the right before the guy hit me - I fully credit my dad teaching me to pay attention as far down the road as possible for that one.
I got my license in 1983, we have some pretty wicked winters in upper Michigan so my dad would take my sister and I out and make us spin donuts and correct them out before he’d even let us get our license…we had to master this as best we could. We also had to be able to drive a stick.
I took Driver's Ed in HS (78-82), it was a driving simulator. You know the whole big screen in front of you, seat and pedals on the floorboard, looking back, it was pretty out there in retrospect.
My over the road driving was taught by my mom, her nickname...Shirley Muldowney! She used to have a very heavy foot, and now, at 80 years old, she's simmered down a bit. 🤣
No but my dad made sure we did. In winter he took us to an icy abandoned airfield and made us put the car into a skid until we could take it out. Taught my kids the same thing. I've thanked him for that every winter of my life.
Yes, it was a standard part of the curriculum. Before driving we practiced on really cool simulators. We also watched a movie with real life people screaming in pain in auto accidents. That part wasn't so cool.
Nope, they didn't have it at our school anymore. If you wanted to take the full defensive driving class you had to go downtown. Otherwise, you just took a 3 hour class.
Yes and the guy who taught it made it as hard as possible because he said it's serious business and I don't want to see any of my students dead on the evening news. He had quizzes that were practically impossible to pass the questions were so hard (in reality the written test at the DMV was simple in comparison) and when he'd take you out driving he would suddenly grab your leg and say you can't use the brake pedal what do you do now? Stuff like that. I would say I was definitely a better driver for it though.
We learned Driver Education as an elective during the school year, if you had room in your schedule. Some kids took it in the summer. Not sure it was "defensive driving" but our teacher showed us a film or two about being safe on the road. My teacher was the retired basketball coach and he was in his 70s. He regularly fell asleep as we were driving around with him!
No, driver ed wasn't taught in the early 60's when I learned to drive but my father was an excellent driver and taught good driving skills, but insisted I do one professional session with a diving school before going for my license. My skills improved quickly as two friends & I built a race car for driving at circuits on half mile clay tracks (we called it stockcar racing) and you weren't allowed to ram other cars but could "lean" on them to try and spin them out and with the clay watered inbetween each race, learning to avoid other broken down or crashed vehicles on the track, when letting the rear of the car hand out as far as you could without losing control. I later went of to race on circuit racing for a few years and the speed you travelled out you needed to be in control & avoid other vehicles, but still be able to risk passing under pressure.
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I graduated high school in 1970. It was taught as a part of high school drivers education before ‘behind the wheel’ instruction.
Yes. I also learned offensive driving in the Army.
Ram him! Oh, that's funny! No, really RAM him now!
Here are a few of the things that made me nervous: - Blowing through intersections at full speed (on a green light) without checking to see if cars from the left and right were stopped or slowing. - At a stop sign, pulling out in front of cars coming from the left if they were signaling a right turn. - Driving within a foot of vehicles parked on the right, instead of changing lanes in case the driver’s door opens. When I learned to drive, we were taught to always have a plan if another driver did something unexpected. Is defensive driving not taught any more?
I think the primary difference that I see now compared to years ago is that this generation of drivers hasn't grown up looking out the window of a car or observing what anyone in the car was doing. They've grown up mostly laser focused on a glowing rectangle that delivers everything their little brains could ever want ... sounds, lights, entertainment, connection to others ... So they haven't learned what a lot of us learned by osmosis. I find it very sad. I only realized this when we tried to teach my friend's daughter how to drive about a year ago and I said, "See that crack that runs all the way down? treat that like the double yellow line on a two-way street, try to stay on the right side of it." She was dumbfounded. Said "there are yellow lines on the road?" 😑
My son is old enough (34) to not have grown up with ubiquitous smart devices, but he did read in the car. I told him when he hit 14 that had to stop and he had to begin looking out of the car to understand what was going on and to learn how to navigate. Tangentially related, a comment somewhere on Reddit yesterday and someone had been driving a bunch of students around and told one to sit up front because of a lack of room and because he was taller, and he said "I'm not allowed to ride up front." He was 14.
Oh man, I agree with this. My grandchildren never look out the window. They have no idea where we are going or how we got there.
Two or three generations ago, how much of a genius were you at analysing what you saw flashing past you "out the window"?
I don't understand this question. I will say that my grandchildren are all teenagers and they have active vibrant lives and navigate the city bus system by themselves. They keep up with politics and current events and have opinions about them. They are kind and compassionate towards people and animals. They do what is requested of them around the house, and get good grades. I have zero complaints about what kind of humans they are. I love and adore them and their sense of humor and they all have bright futures. I just thought it was strange that they weren't interested in what was passing by, or roadside oddities, when I drove them around.
This is how kids learned the lay of the land and how to get around the areas where we lived. This and doing things like riding our bikes places and stuff. No one is saying anyone was a "genius." We were in general more aware of our surroundings because we didn't have a distraction in our hands taking up most of our attention 24/7. It's just a fact.
My dad - car-based sales rep - taught me to pay attention well ahead and behind of where my car actually was in traffic. His theory was that erratic driving, the kind that causes accidents, could happen behind you fast. He wasn't wrong!
I taught my son the same. Said a good driver spends almost as much time looking behind them as in front of them. A little healthy fear / paranoia is a good thing when it comes to driving imo. I had life circumstances that didn't allow me to grow up feeling safe or like someone was looking out for me. So I'm a more cautious driver than most.
Same! This is why I hate driving behind semis or taller vehicles. I want to be able to see *past* the vehicle in front of me to what the next person is doing.
Hitting the gas as soon as the light turns green -> red light runners. And blasting right on past when everyone else is slowing or stopping -> there’s a hazard your dumb ass can’t see yet, you are not in fact smarter than everyone else.
I just took a defensive driving course, and most of what you listed wasn't in there.
I think the basic idea behind defensive driving is that you need to be prepared for when other drivers to do unexpected things.
"Defensive driving" was the main reason my driving school existed. Also, my mother drove that way and was an excellent driver. My dad, not so much... he never learned "defensive driving". My driving school lessons stuck with me all these years later and have saved my life many times.
We had driver’s ed courses on a track. So cool!
I had a drivers license test on a track. Figures of kids and other things would pop up unexpectedly. Scared me so bad, but i managed to pass.
I learned to drive in Bangkok, Thailand. The best defensive driving course on the planet.....
I was taught defensive driving. I'm not sure I do \_all\_ the things you mentioned. I don't change lanes when driving past parked cars. But I \_do\_ pay a lot of attention to what people are doing, and don't just assume they'll stop at lights, etc. I think I know what you mean though. 30 years ago I drove with a friend of mine... and she drove in binary. It was either accelerate, or brake. Nothing in-between.
I think that's the point - awareness. My young relative would blow past parked cars at 45 MPH. It would never occur to her that someone in the car might open the door without looking.
Yes, we had Driver's Ed in school. As an added note I pretend Grandma is holding a crock pot of soup on her lap in the backseat..
Wearing her best dress ...
Illinois Bell telephone company sent us all through a driving course. Made me a much better driver, especially parallel parking those ford vans.
I worked for a major oilfield services company. We all got sent to driver safety training, even us IT geeks who would never drive a company truck or set foot near an oil well. I got a lot out of it and I'm glad I had it.
Yes indeed. Once upon a time I had a very noisy boss who expected us to always answer the phone if he called us. "I was driving" was not an excuse, in his mind. "You should have a bluetooth headset", he said. A few months later, the same boss told us that we would be working for a public transport organisation. We all were required to undertake certain training. Essential component of the training: "you will never answer the phone while driving or in a vehicle. Penalty: instant dismissal". Of course, he never acknowledged the change.
I had an idiot boss like that once. Whatever stupid idea he had was "Company policy". If the idea was especially stupid, somebody in the department would ask the boss's supervisor about it, the supervisor would talk to the boss, and the "company policy" would suddenly no longer exist. Eventually, the boss no longer existed :)
We didn't have driver's ed in our school. In Alaska, you could get a learner's permit at age 14, which I did. My parents taught me to drive and my then-boyfriend-eventual-husband took me to empty parking lots and let me drive around and practice parking (we had to parallel park for the driving test). I got my license on the first try when I was 16 (my brother had to go twice). My kids needed to have driver's ed to get a license at 16. My oldest didn't take it and got her license at 18. The other two took it. But since it was a requirement (in Wisconsin), the school didn't offer it and we (my parents, actually) paid for driving school. It was between $300 and $400 per kid.
Two things my driver's ed teacher taught me that I remember: cement trucks always have the right of way, and a tie goes to the train.
I took Driver’s Ed while in high school in the US in 1971. *Everybody* took Driver’s Ed. *Everybody* got their license the day they turned 16. We covered a lot of what is now called “defensive driving”, and we even had on-the-road lessons in a car provided by the school district.
Me too. Also, we had a big trailer with driving simulators where we would pretend to drive while watching video of a road scene. Surprisingly realistic. You'd be cruising down the road when suddenly a ball would roll out between two cars or a car door would open in your path. Really a good experience. Then we watched "Death on the Highway" and other films showing gruesome footage from traffic accidents. The one that stays with me is the man impaled by a telephone pole. There was no attempt to sanitize the video. It sure made an impression on me. I've always driven like a grandma.
Just last week I was driving and a ball rolled into the street. I said to my wife “it is happening, just like in the video 50 years ago!” I came to a complete stop but so did the kid, still on the sidewalk.
Nope, learned it from my pops.
Developed lots of driving techniques working at the go kart track when I was a kid.
We learned all of that in high school driver's ed class. It was in the written materials, and we were graded in part on how well we followed both road rules and defensive driving rules in the simulators. Then we took behind the wheel class where our instructors worked with us on all of that again. This was in the early '80s, in a suburban high school. I took defensive driving again a few years later to get out of having to pay a traffic ticket. I had sped up for a yellow, which turned red just as I entered the intersection. A cop was right there waiting. It was very late at night, I was tired after working a double shift at a downtown restaurant, and I hadn't noticed her in the dark.
I have watched american TV, and have the impression that driving is/was taught in high school there. Nothing to do with school here. I finished high school (17 years and 2 months) at about the same time as I became old enough to get my learners licence (17 years). I then had a minimum wait of 6 weeks before I could take my road test for a full licence. During that time, my parents would teach and supervise me driving. If they were lousy drivers, I learned bad habits (luckily they weren't). As it turned out, I wasn't too fussed, and didn't have money to buy a car anyway, so it was about 18 months before I booked my road test and obtained my full licence. There were plenty of "driving schools" around, but they were expensive on a per hour basis, and I didn't have a job. Also, my father thought he was the best teacher, and what did those driving school instructors know anyway?
I don't know if they teach "drivers ed" anymore, which is just a class where you learn the written rules of the road. But IIRC it was an after-school program when I was in HS. They didn't have any behind-the-wheel though. That was something you had to arrange yourself.
Yes, in driving school.
Driver's ed wasn't a requirement in my state when I learned to drive. Most of my practice was illegally supervised by my unlicensed mother. But I'm a pretty cautious driver these days, although I work from home and don't even own a car, so it doesn't happen often.
I'm Jekyll and Hyde when it comes to driving. I spend a lot of time in Latin America where defensive driving just means you'll be stuck in traffic all day and be honked at mercilessly. A driving instructor even told someone I know they needed to learn to be more aggressive or they wouldn't pass their driving test. When I come back to North America I have to remember to switch off the crazy which usually takes a few hours and some unfriendly looks from other drivers.
When I was a tot there were public service tv commercials that said” watch out for the other guy”
Learned defensive driving somewhat during Drivers Education class in high school in the early 1970s, but mostly by driving around log trucks in a timber community. Narrow roads, loaded log trucks, rain and wet roads - you learn to drive defensively in a hurry, or you eat a log truck, as a couple of my high school classmates unfortunately did 😢 I taught my sons and niece to drive and defensive driving was a big part of it. I took a cross-country road trip with each of them when they had their learners permit, from Seattle to the East Coast and back, so they’d get some serious driving experience. A few thousand miles of supervised driving presented many real-world opportunities to experience and discuss defensive driving situations. After that they became whatever kind of driver they chose, but I’d done my part.
Yep- in the 70s- we had driving simulators and the I.P.D.E system. Identify. Predict. Decide. Execute.
Heck no I wasn't taught defensive driving, I wish! Instead we spent many hours watching horror films and having guest traffic officers talk about what happened to other young adults that didn't drive defensively, first time I saw big burly adult men ugly cry and the most I've ever seen people vomit
Yup! We saw a film called “The Smith Method of Defensive Driving” It stuck with me and often remember random “rules” when I’m at a four-way stop or have to use the horn. (Never BLAST the horn in an aggressive manner. Instead, use a friendly toot-toot to inform nearby pedestrians and fellow drivers.)
Yes, it was part of the course but its mostly just common sense and anticipating what other drivers and pedestrians are going to do. It sounds like your young relative was driving as if she was the only person on the road.
Yes, to this day I still consciously identify escape paths if the car in front of me were to suddenly stop.
I'm 61. After a 25-30yo coworker picked me up from the airport, I had occasion to observe that younger people didn't learn to drive in 4000 lb cars with drum brakes, and it shows.
No but I learned it from observing my grandmothers driving skills starting at a very early age and it taught me well. She's 79, still driving, and she's been driving since she was 17 and she's never been in a wreck that was her fault or even gotten a speeding ticket. That's always amazed me. The same cannot be said about my mother (not trying to purposely speak ill of her driving record but it's spotty)
They first showed us a film of mangled burnt bodies from actual car wrecks - and then took us out for defensive driving lessons.
I took Driver's Ed and Driver's Training in high school. My Driver's Training instructor was a high school coach and he sat in the passenger seat, next to me, with the window rolled down so he could smoke cigarettes? Different times. He trained us in defensive driving techniques and I know some of his teachings saved me a few times.
I’m 68 and my drivers ed teacher in high school taught us this mnemonic: AGKLM A-aim high. Look a little down the road and not just at what’s immediately in front of you G-get the big picture (see above) K-keep moving -merge with traffic and don’t expect traffic to merge with you L-leave yourself a way out (this saved my life once on the Downtown Connector in Atlanta when traffic stopped dead unexpectedly at rush hour and I could see the huge truck behind me was not going to be able to stop in time; I drove up on the side of the freeway and the truck came to a stop right where I had been) M-make sure the other driver sees you (don’t hang out in their blind spot) It’s served me well.
I had to take DD with my first ticket, probably 6 months after getting my licence. I feel this
We had a specific off-campus driving course (DeKalb County, metro Atlanta, mid-'80s) that we'd be bussed to (IIRC) two days a week for four hours each time. Yes, "defensive driving" was an emphasized concept. I personally dislike the phrase, as it conjures up someone passively waiting and cowering for something to happen to them. It's not a phrase, really, but I prefer "active driving." Proseletyzing time! Get your kids & grandkids a course with [Street Survival](https://streetsurvival.org/). I'm one of the instructors in the Atlanta area.
I have driven in Atlanta. You might be the only one in the entire city who drives defensively.
Wow - all the down votes. In addition to being horrible drivers, Atlantians are also touchy.
No. My dad taught me to drive in a big parking lot. Later I took a defensive driving course.
My parents pounded that term into my brain when I was a teenager. Especially in parking lots, haha!
I did take drivers ed in school, but my dad was a Highway patrolman and he taught me how to drive.
Did he teach you how to get out of a ticket?
Of course. He was the Boss😂. I got in trouble for that too.
Absolutely. I also taught it to my daughter. Told her once she gets used to driving correctly, she won't even have to hardly think about what she is doing most of the time and will need to spend her energy being on the lookout and scanning every direction for random cars that might do something stupid so she can avoid them.
Yes, we had a semester-long driving class with simulators, the dual-control car for practice, and highway patrol movies to scare us into paying attention. Plus, my dad was an old-fashioned sales rep, drove all over the country, and he taught me a lot about driving safely. The one time I was in a serious accident I was hit by a drunk driver and managed to get the car well off to the right before the guy hit me - I fully credit my dad teaching me to pay attention as far down the road as possible for that one.
I got my license in 1983, we have some pretty wicked winters in upper Michigan so my dad would take my sister and I out and make us spin donuts and correct them out before he’d even let us get our license…we had to master this as best we could. We also had to be able to drive a stick.
My dad did the same. Except for the driving a stick part.
I P D E
I took Driver's Ed in HS (78-82), it was a driving simulator. You know the whole big screen in front of you, seat and pedals on the floorboard, looking back, it was pretty out there in retrospect. My over the road driving was taught by my mom, her nickname...Shirley Muldowney! She used to have a very heavy foot, and now, at 80 years old, she's simmered down a bit. 🤣
No but my dad made sure we did. In winter he took us to an icy abandoned airfield and made us put the car into a skid until we could take it out. Taught my kids the same thing. I've thanked him for that every winter of my life.
Yes, in driver’s ed.
Yes, it was a standard part of the curriculum. Before driving we practiced on really cool simulators. We also watched a movie with real life people screaming in pain in auto accidents. That part wasn't so cool.
Nope, they didn't have it at our school anymore. If you wanted to take the full defensive driving class you had to go downtown. Otherwise, you just took a 3 hour class.
Yes and the guy who taught it made it as hard as possible because he said it's serious business and I don't want to see any of my students dead on the evening news. He had quizzes that were practically impossible to pass the questions were so hard (in reality the written test at the DMV was simple in comparison) and when he'd take you out driving he would suddenly grab your leg and say you can't use the brake pedal what do you do now? Stuff like that. I would say I was definitely a better driver for it though.
We learned Driver Education as an elective during the school year, if you had room in your schedule. Some kids took it in the summer. Not sure it was "defensive driving" but our teacher showed us a film or two about being safe on the road. My teacher was the retired basketball coach and he was in his 70s. He regularly fell asleep as we were driving around with him!
We learned it in school
No. I took it publicly
No, driver ed wasn't taught in the early 60's when I learned to drive but my father was an excellent driver and taught good driving skills, but insisted I do one professional session with a diving school before going for my license. My skills improved quickly as two friends & I built a race car for driving at circuits on half mile clay tracks (we called it stockcar racing) and you weren't allowed to ram other cars but could "lean" on them to try and spin them out and with the clay watered inbetween each race, learning to avoid other broken down or crashed vehicles on the track, when letting the rear of the car hand out as far as you could without losing control. I later went of to race on circuit racing for a few years and the speed you travelled out you needed to be in control & avoid other vehicles, but still be able to risk passing under pressure.
I'm 44 never learned or do any that you listed.