15 Blogs with Best Tips for Your New Teenage Driver

Thinking about teaching your teen to drive might be giving you anxiety attacks, but with some careful planning and preparation it doesn’t have to. To help make the process a smoother one, it’s a good idea to start talking to your child about driving well before he’s ready to get behind the wheel. Your child is taking cues from you, so you need to model responsible driving skills, too. No matter how experienced of a driver you are, you’ll want to brush up on safe driving rules and laws before you start teaching your teen, as well as prepare some basic lessons for him once it’s time for him to start learning to drive. To learn more tips on how to teach your teen to drive, read these 15 blog articles.

Set a Good Example
Everyone is susceptible to road rage on occasion, and you’ve likely pushed the speed limit once or twice in your life. Think about your driving habits before you start teaching your teen to drive and fix any bad habits now, because your child is watching and learning driving habits years before he gets his learner’s permit. It’s never too early to start talking about defensive driving tips with your teen, and these five blog entries are full of tips to help you exhibit and teach good driving skills for your child.

• ICBC’s Tips for Teaching Your Teen to Drive Your kids are constantly watching you, so it’s important to remain a focused driver, not a distracted one.
• Five Tips for Teaching Your Teen to Drive Good driving is always important, but this is especially true whenever your teen is in the car.
• How to Teach Your Teen Good Driving Safety Your teen will pick up on your habits, so watch the speed limit and quench any road rage you may have.
• How to Teach Your Teenager to Drive Safely To teach your teen to drive safely, you should model the type of driver you want him to be.
• How to Encourage Safe Driving Practices in Your Teen Your teens are absorbing all of your driving habits, so start early by modeling responsible driving.

Know the Rules
Try to think back to when you took the driver’s test to get your own learner’s permit.  Do you remember the questions on the test?  If it’s been 20 years or so since you took the test, you probably need a refresher. After all, a lot of things can change in 20 years! Check out these five blog posts to learn why knowing the rules is necessary before starting driving lessons with your child.

• Tips for Teaching Your Teen to Drive It’s probably been a while since you studied all of the rules of the road, so brush up on your road rules before you begin driver’s ed with your teen.
• Tips on Teaching Your Teen to Drive This blogger recommends taking a rules refresher so that you know all of the rules before trying to teach them to your teen.
• Tips & Strategies for Teaching Your Teen to Drive Look online for a book that covers the rules of the road and brush up on the laws before you start teaching your teen driver.
• Teaching Your Teenager How to Drive As the teacher you need to read up on what the requirements are for your teenager to get her license.
• Family Solutions: Tips for Teaching Your Teen to Drive You can help your child study for the driver’s test by quizzing her on the rules of the road.

Plan Out Your Lessons
Before you get into the car with your teen it’s a good idea to plan out what you’re going to teach him. Start slowly by making sure that he knows how to adjust and work everything in the car.  Driving down the road in a sudden rain shower is no place to realize that he doesn’t know how to turn on the windshield wipers. These five blog postings will give you more tips on how you can break up your lessons.

• Tips for Teaching Your Teen to Drive Teaching on the fly will probably get the job done, but your lesson time might be better spent if you’ve planned out what you’re covering that day.
• Teaching Your Teen How to Drive Keep your lessons short and teach only one or two skills per lesson so that your teen can learn them without being overwhelmed.
• How to Help Your Teen Learn to Drive To ensure your teen understands and remembers each step make sure that you break up each lesson into smaller lessons.
• News: Top Tips for Teaching Teens to Drive You’ll find a list of skills on this post that you can break up into separate lessons to teach your teen.
• 5 Tips for Maintaining Your Sanity While Teaching Your Teen to Drive To avoid your teen becoming overwhelmed and nervous, don’t try to teach your teen everything at once.

Drive 4 Pledges Day September 19th

A movement is accomplished through the voices and actions of many. That is why four national wireless service providers, spearheading the It Can Wait campaign, are urging people to share their commitment to never text and drive with others on Drive 4 Pledges Day, September 19.

Individuals can now sign up at ItCanWait.com to get resources that will help them share their commitment on social media and personalize the movement on the streets of their communities on key activation days. Aspiring to create a social stigma around this dangerous habit of texting while driving, Drive 4 Pledges Day will focus on getting individuals involved in taking the pledge to never text and drive while encouraging others in their community to do the same. These individuals will join AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile US, Inc., Verizon and more than 200 other organizations by sharing their commitment not to text and drive while increasing awareness of the dangers.

On September 19, Drive 4 Pledges Day, supporters of the movement are called to help spread the word to their families, friends and communities. Advocates will be encouraged to do things like change their social profile photos and banner to It Can Wait graphics, and share their personal pledge stories using the hashtag #ItCanWait. Offline activations will include hosting pledge drives and distributing posters in their schools, workplaces and neighborhoods. All materials such as social graphics and posters will be available for download from ItCanWait.com.

Distracted Driving: Txting - It can wait....

Distracted driving kills.  Whether it is drinking and driving or texting and driving, if you are not driving and paying attention to the road and your car, you are not only endangering yourself, you are a danger to others on the road.

AT&T has been committed to bring awareness and helping prevent distracted driving.

Below is a link to a video that AT&T shot last week during a teen safety fair in Washington D.C., sponsored by a DC TV station and the National Organizations for Youth Safety (NOYS) — a network of national associations and federal agencies focused on youth safety and health. (You may recall, last May AT&T announced a $1 million commitment in the fight against texting and driving. That commitment involves a contribution to NOYS to develop and train student ambassadors on anti-texting-while-driving education. The students then host summits on the topic within their schools and hometowns throughout the school year.)

As part of the D.C. teen safety fair, AT&T had a TWD Simulator on site to give teens a first-hand experience at just how much of a distraction texting and driving can be.  As you’ll see from the video, the simulator is a full-sized car. Kids get in the simulator, put on goggles and start driving, using a heads-up street display in their goggles. They then send a text message and the inevitable result is the kid crashes into a car or a pedestrian.

Link to TWD Simulator:  http://silo.mediasilo.com/weblink/FBF9900EF2686B78BA344B8D06D55ECC/22455/

Background on our “Txting While Driving … It Can Wait” campaign:

While distracted driving is an issue for all motorists, teenagers are particularly at risk.  Traffic crashes are the leading cause of death for teens, and the proliferation of distracted driving among teens is a huge challenge.
That’s why AT&T”s “Txting…It Can Wait” public awareness campaign is especially focused on educating teens about the risks of texting while driving and spreading the message that text messages can wait.  Not even red lights, professionals say, signal a “safe” time to text.

As part of its campaign, AT&T has developed a powerful documentary called “The Last Text” that examines the real world consequences of texting and driving.  Each of the eight individuals in the video — whose lives have been impacted tragically by texting while driving — volunteered their stories to help educate Americans — particularly youth — on the risks of texting behind the wheel.  The documentary can be viewed online on the AT&T “It Can Wait” website and on the AT&T YouTube page.

Texting is so dangerous because it takes a driver’s eyes off the road for an average of 5 seconds.  At 55 mph, that’s like driving the length of a football field completely blind.  Studies show a driver’s reaction time is doubled when reading or sending a text, and that motorists sending a text while driving are 23 more times likely to be in a crash.

Distracted Driving - Impaired Driving: Teen Driving is a Serious Responsibility

Impaired driving continues to be one of the deadliest crimes in America. This site is designed to provide you with information and resources to fight drunk and drugged driving in your community.

The Impaired Driving Division at National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) seeks to work cooperatively to save lives, prevent injuries, and reduce traffic-related healthcare and economic costs resulting from impaired driving (alcohol and other drugs). NHTSA collaborates with many criminal justice and community organizations to sponsor impaired driving campaigns such as You Drink & Drive. You Lose., Friends Don't Let Friends Drive Drunk and Zero Tolerance Means Zero Chances.

Learn more visit http://www.stopimpaireddriving.org/ and be an educated driver.

TextZapper: Because safety matters

Many people understand that driving distractions are the number one cause for teen auto accidents.  No matter how many time we talk to our teens about driving and texting, we still hear about horrific accidents - and some that are ending lives.

Oprah promotes The No Phone Zone and received many signatures from celebrities and all walks of life to take the pledge not to text and drive, including talking and driving.  The cell phones should simply be turned off or placed in the glove box where they won't distract the driver - of any age!

However teens being teens, never believe that these accidents can happen to them.  The joy of believing that bad things just happen to other people come with being youthful and immature (respectfully).

Some facts about distracted driving and teens:


• Currently 30 states have anti-texting laws.
• The #1 cause of teen deaths is car accidents.
• Over 5000 teens ages 16-20 die due to fatal injuries caused by car accidents each year.
• 16-19 year olds have the highest risk of being in an accident.
• Approximately 400,000 drivers ages 16-20 will be seriously injured in accidents, annually.
• 16-19 year olds are 4 times more likely than other drivers to be involved in a car crash.
• Teens are 10% of the US population, but account for 14% of all fatal car accidents.
• 60% of 16-18 year old drivers will be in a police-reported collision.
• Teen drivers ages 16-19 are 4 times more likely than older drivers to crash.
• There is an 89.2% chance of having a crash within the first 3 years of driving.
• There is a 52.5% chance of your teen having 2 crashes within the first 3 years of driving.
• Over 50% of all teen deaths from car accidents occur between 3pm and midnight, and 54% occur on weekends.

New to the market is TextZapper.

TextZapper provides a quick and easy solution to stop texting and emailing while driving, now protecting us all in a way never before possible.

Unfortunately TextZapper is currently only available on SmartPhones and hopefully will be expanded to others or possibly others have a similar product (please share in comments below).  There is a small monthly fee of $4.99 for TextZapper.  One benefit is parents can have peace of mind that the distraction of texting while driving is eliminated.


Learn more at www.zapmytext.com.

Whether you employ TextZapper or another type of service, never stop talking to your teens about the dangers of texting and driving.  It can be deadly.

Don't forget about distracted bicycling!  Too many teens are texting and pedaling, which is extremely dangerous too.  Read more.

Although Florida has a texting and driving bill that passed the Senate Committee, currently there is not legislation in place. For the Florida law update, click here.

Be an educated parent, you will have safer teens.

Read more.