4 wheeler driving lesson

Stage 1: Start Here

Locations: Empty Parking Lot

Length of Lessons: 30-45 minutes

Length of Stage: As long as it takes! See the Stage 1: Checklist article for help on determining when your teen is ready to move on to more tasks. However, most students become proficient in the Stage 1 tasks within 2-4 weeks of practice.

Your first behind-the-wheel lessons should be short and repetitive.

Think about all of the tasks you perform automatically when you get behind the wheel: putting on your seatbelt, checking your surroundings, removing the parking brake (yes, you should always set your parking brake when you park your car), adjusting your seat, checking your sideview and rearview mirrors. And this is before you even turn the ignition.

You do these quickly and without much thought. However, these are not automatic to a new driver. The only way to make this automatic is to create the habit by methodically performing them during each lesson.

Begin each lesson by reviewing important pre-drive tasks

By the time your teen has completed the necessary work prior to their first behind-the-wheel lesson, they’re going to be itching to start the car and begin driving around the parking lot.

You know your teen better than we do. So, perhaps for their very first lesson, you may want to skip some of these pre-drive tasks and let them work out some of their excited energy.

Allowing them to drive slowly around an empty parking lot will burn off some of their adrenaline and make it easier for them to focus on the pre-drive tasks. It’s going to be difficult to get your teen to listen to 15-20 minutes of pre-drive instruction if they’ve never pressed the accelerator.

We’re not condoning that you skip this information, rather suggesting you may have an easier time teaching them this information after you’ve given them a little taste of driving.

For the first few weeks, it’s important to perform the following tasks prior to entering the car:

• Check the area around the outside of the car for broken glass and other hazards. Try the chalk lesson for an eye-opening view of how much area directly around your car is obscured when sitting in the driver’s seat.
• Quickly check tires for proper inflation.
• Review important under-the-hood elements. While you don’t need to pop the hood every time you drive, you should familiarize your teen with the basic elements that make your car go.

You should also perform the following adjustments after entering the car (but prior to starting the car):

• Seat and steering wheel adjustments. Your teens arms should not be fully extended when gripping the wheel. They need to be slightly relaxed. When gripping the wheel at 10 and 2, their arms should be parallel with the ground. You don’t want them reaching up or down. Make sure their legs are not fully outstretched. There should be a slight bend in their knees.
• Learn the BGE mirror setting. The BGE mirror setting stands for ‘Blindspot and Glare Elimination’ and it’s the best way to configure your side view mirrors. Because this setting was introduced in 1995, many of today’s drivers are not aware that their mirrors should be set in this way. We suggest that you review our BGE articleand test the setting yourself. You’ll find that it eliminates your blindspots completely. It takes a driver who is accustomed to traditional mirror settings approximately 1-2 weeks of driving to become comfortable with the BGE setting. We completely endorse the BGE setting and suggest you teach this mirror setting to your teens.

Starting the car

• Learning warning lights and symbols. It’s important that your teen begins to learn what all of the lights on the dashboard mean. Obviously, you can teach this information over a period of a few weeks. However, make sure they know what they all mean before your first road/street lesson.
• Starting procedure:
  • Put your foot on the brake.
  • Remove the parking brake.
  • Turn the key (but not too far or the engine will grind).
• Identify “operating control devices”: This is a fancy way to say “things that do stuff”. For instance: the turn signal, gear shift, steering wheel, and lights are operating control devices. Obviously, your teen does not need to memorize all of these functions for driving around the parking lot. But, again, they must be experts in using these devices prior to your first road lesson.

Driving around an empty parking lot

Throughout your first week of behind-the-wheel practice, you should remain in an empty parking lot.

Simply drive at 10-15 mph around the parking lot. Give them clear instructions of what you’d like them to do.

For instance: “Drive until we’re even with that tree and then start slowing down and try to come to a stop even with the end of that building.”

Once they get the hang of this, start incorporating more tasks. For instance, ask them to turn on their turn signal while driving in a straight line. Ask them to turn on their windshield wipers. Try to get them comfortable using these other control devices in a safe, collision-free environment.

You should work on the following skills in the parking lot:

• Slowing moving forward
• Stopping smoothly
• Making right and left turns
• Driving in reverse at slow speeds

10 Things That Will Make Other Drivers Happy

These 10 simple steps will not only keep the drivers around you happy, they’ll also help you stay safe.

1. Not tailgating. Always keep at least one car length per ten miles per hour from the car in front of you. This rule is not only a courteous one, but a safe one as well.

2. Be mindful of your lights. When on small rural streets with few streetlights, remember to turn off your high beams whenever a car approaches from the oncoming lane. Leaving your brights on can partially blind the driver and cause an accident.

3. Help other cars merge. Cars attempting to merge onto a highway are required to yield to the cars already on the highway, but that doesn’t mean you should make things difficult for them if you have the room to get over safely.

4. Keep the left lane clear. The farthest left lane of the highway is intended for passing only. Unless there’s an emergency, do not drive in this lane for extended periods of time. Try not to stay in this lane any longer than necessary so as to not annoy other drivers who wish to use it for passing.

5. Come to a complete stop. If approaching a stop sign, the law says to stop for 3 seconds before proceeding. The “rolling stop” is illegal and annoying to other drivers and pedestrians.

6. Keep your music at a normal level. Don’t be that driver who has their stereo turned up so loud that five cars behind you can hear it. This can cause a distraction and possibly an accident, not to mention that it’s incredibly annoying. If it’s a beautiful day and your windows are down, other drivers will appreciate being able to hear themselves think.

7. Be a good parking neighbor. Your car only requires one parking spot, so please use just one. If parking on a street curb, please pull up as close to the car in front of you without boxing them in. When parking in a parking lot, check to make sure you are parked between the two white lines indicating your individual spot. Make sure that the cars on either side of yours have ample room for the driver and passenger to get into their cars.

8. Keep your car maintained. No one likes to be stuck behind a car expelling a dark smelly cloud of exhaust fumes from its tailpipe. It’s disgusting and illegal. If your car begins to have this problem, get it repaired ASAP. No one wants to breath that in, including you.

9. Strap that mattress down. If you are carrying anything with flight potential in your truck bed, strap it down securely before driving. A 2004 report by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Study found that more than 25,000 accidents a year are caused by litter that is dumped by motorists or falls out of vehicles. If your king-sized mattress is larger than your car, go rent a U-Haul. No one likes to drive behind the 2-door sedan whose driver has an arm out the window trying to hold that Sealy down.

10. Don’t block the intersection. One of the biggest pet peeves for drivers is not being able to go at a green light because the cross traffic is blocking the intersection. If traffic is jammed and your light is green, don’t proceed unless you can make it completely through the intersection.