Driver Training, Continued.(Column)

Byline: Steve Thompson

Previously, I asked AutoWeek readers for their ideas about how to improve driver training. I've included some highlights from the responses in earlier columns, but more than a few readers challenged me to put my own suggestions on the table. It's only fair, so here they are in our new column format:

At the beginning of my editorial life, 33 years ago, I had strong ideas about initial and recurrent training due to my own experiences as a racer and as a driving instructor. But over time, I also began to realize that much of what I believed was due to my experiences as a kid. My father began teaching me how to survive on the road long before I could legally drive.

Starting when I was about eight years old, he would drive to a dirt road, then perch me on his lap, with me steering while he worked the foot controls. In these sessions, he taught me not just to control the vehicle, but to think about what I was doing, so that I'd always have a way out of trouble when things went to hell. I didn't realize until some years ago that he was also teaching me by example from the time I was an on-board infant; he always drove with great situational awareness, and never put us or anyone else in danger.

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