AAA South Jersey May/June 2012 : Page 16
Becoming Your Teen’s “BDF” Today’s teens are great social networkers. According to a recent Nielsen report, the average teen texts his or her friends more than 100 times each day – a figure researchers say works out to one message every 8½ minutes during waking hours. With all that texting to their best friends, it’s tough to get teens to focus on driving practice. The AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety reports that teens get only about an hour and a half of practice each week during the supervised driving period of their licensing process. Most parents said busy schedules and teen disinterest in practice limit their on‐street experience. Gaining on‐road experience with a parent “riding shotgun” is a critical part of training according to J. Peter Kissinger, President and CEO of the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety. “Young drivers need risk management experience and lots of practice,” he said. “The best way to learn how to manage a variety of conditions and experiences is with a parent or guardian guiding them.” Parents can help their teen drivers gain crucial risk management experience by becoming their “BDF” – best driving friend – and getting them out on the road as often as possible. Step one is simple: Turn off the phones and put them away when driving. Teens text so much they may think they can multitask while driving, but the fact is, driving is a complex activity that demands every driver’s full mental and physical attention. Texting while driving kills. BDFs can’t communicate that message strongly enough. Next, get your teens out for practice in a variety of conditions and roadways. A recent AAA Foundation study showed that teens experienced supervised practice sessions in the rain only 3 percent of the time, in heavy traffic 2 percent of the time, and at night 16 percent of the time. Continued on page 27 """�f;DPNt4+'JSTUt t May/June
Becoming Your Teen’s “BDF”
Today's teens are great social networkers. According to a recent Nielsen report, the average teen texts his or her friends more than 100 times each day . A figure researchers say works out to one message every 8. Minutes during waking hours.<br /> <br /> With all that texting to their best friends, it's tough to get teens to focus on driving practice. The AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety reports that teens get only about an hour and a half of practice each week during the supervised driving period of their licensing process. Most parents said busy schedules and teen disinterest in practice limit their on-street experience.<br /> <br /> Gaining on-road experience with a parent "riding shotgun" is a critical part of training according to J. Peter Kissinger, President and CEO of the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety. "Young drivers need risk management experience and lots of practice," he said. "The best way to learn how to manage a variety of conditions and experiences is with a parent or guardian guiding them." <br /> <br /> Parents can help their teen drivers gain crucial risk management experience by becoming their "BDF" . Best driving friend . And getting them out on the road as often as possible.<br /> <br /> Step one is simple: Turn off the phones and put them away when driving. Teens text so much they may think they can multitask while driving, but the fact is, driving is a complex activity that demands every driver's full mental and physical attention. Texting while driving kills. BDFs can't communicate that message strongly enough.<br /> <br /> Next, get your teens out for practice in a variety of conditions and roadways. A recent AAA Foundation study showed that teens experienced supervised practice sessions in the rain only 3 percent of the time, in heavy traffic 2 percent of the time, and at night 16 percent of the time.<br /> <br /> "Only a quarter of parents surveyed in our study reported planning to practice with teens under challenging road conditions," Kissinger said. "But, teens need that experience. It makes sense for young drivers to face these challenges during supervised practice when parents can coach them on how to handle risks."<br /> <br /> How parents coach and advise teens is an important consideration, too. Teen drivers can be nervous when they first get behind the wheel, which can make them hypersensitive to parental feedback. For example, the AAA Foundations naturalistic study, which recorded in-car video of parents and teens during supervised driving, featured many instances of teens asking their parents to "stop yelling," even when the parents voice was barely raised, if at all. Offering advice in a way that shows you're sharing your experience, rather than commanding your teen, can help. Teens are more receptive to feedback like, "I approach this intersection cautiously, because a lot of people ignore the stop sign," than to orders like, "Slow down when you get to the corner."<br /> <br /> The AAA Foundation's study also showed that parents tend to focus more on advising teens about how to operate the car than sharing "higher level" insights about driving. Instead of instructing teens to "hit the brakes," try offering an observation like, "When I see a ball roll into the street, I always slow down, in case a kid comes running after it."<br /> <br /> Even with practice, though, many parents feel their kids aren't entirely ready to go solo at the end of their supervised driving period. Nearly half of all parents in the study reported at least one condition where they felt their teen wasn't ready to drive unsupervised.<br /> <br /> Kissinger urged parents to keep up the supervised practice, even after the official supervised driving period ends. "Teens still have a lot to learn during the first year after they get their license," he said. "Continuing to supervise and practice with a young driver is a great way to get them off to a safe start."<br /> <br /> Becoming your teen's "BDF" is the best way to make that happen.<br /> <br /> For more information about how you can help your teen become a safe driver, visit www.aaafoundation.org.
