Has anyone ever learned anything from a defensive driving course?

I have never taken one.

With that said, I think I could probably learn a thing or two. I think it would be beneficial for drivers to take in ever 3 years.

 

I don't think you can truly be HIGHLY effective at defensive driving until you have the perspective or a highly offensive, aggressive, method of driving.

If you can, take your car to an autocross, or open track day, and go balls to the wall if you can, I think you'll learn more in one of those days than an entire month of defensive driving classes...

 

They offer them here for those want to pay less of a fine for thier speeding or accident tickets.
They used to only offer them 4 times in a life time, but I think that has changed..

I have to take E.V.O.C. (40 hr Emergency Vehicle Operator Course)(you have to pass to drive) every other year wich teaches proactive driving. I wiped out alot of cones the first two days.. Driving a E-250, they just dont handle like a impala or a crown vic...(but I learned alot) Another neat trick is shuffle steering it slows your hands down and provides smooth steering instead of jerking movements.... Its a real B*tch going into a side in a E-250 on the skid pan you think its gonna flip any moment but it doesn't using the shuffle method.. :blink:


I did meet a younger 30ish instructer and dated for a while from a class I took many years ago but thats the past...

 

Are you talking about a Skip Barber/Bob Bondurant type course where accident avoidance and wet driving skid control is taught and practiced? What exactly did you do during your course?

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(jared2 @ May 8 2006, 11:15 AM) [snapback]251485[/snapback]</div>

I've learned a few things, like (at least in IL) you do not have to stop for a school bus stopped with its stop sign out, if you're on the other side of multi-lane highway. I thought you didn't have to stop only if there was a dividing median, but apparently a double-yellow line is enough. Obviously you do need to stop if you're on a two-lane road, or following the school bus.
Also, and this shouldn't have been a surprise to me, but it's for your own safety that you have other passengers buckle up, particularly in the back seat, or they could fly forward and hit you, often skull-to-skull, in a collision. So even a driver wearing a seatbelt can be killed by a passenger not wearing one.
I'd still prefer an advanced road-driving class, I think that would be much more useful. And a driving test on every renewal for senior citizens and random others as well. In America we have the focus of making everything on the road fool-proof, other places keep the fools off the road to begin with.

nerfer

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(jared2 @ May 8 2006, 01:42 PM) [snapback]251562[/snapback]</div>

Yeah, and the pavement quality generally sucks balls too.

 

Be careful, because the rules differ by state. Here's the rule for stopping for school vehicles in New Jersey.

Stopping for School Buses
Do not pass or closely approach a school bus with fl ashing red lights.
State law requires that motorists stop at least 25 feet away if traveling
on a two-lane road, or on a multi-lane highway where lanes
are only separated by lines, or on a privately maintained road.
Slow down to 10 mph if traveling on a dual highway, if on the opposite
side of a safety island or a raised median.
School buses are equipped with yellow, amber or red fl ashing lights.
Yellow or amber lights alight before the bus stops, and red lights go
on when it has stopped. Do not depend on these lights if traveling
behind a school bus. These lights could be malfunctioning.
When the bus stops, motorists traveling behind or approaching
the bus must stop at least 25 feet from the school bus. Watch for
children, and then proceed slowly, at 10 mph.
If a school bus has stopped directly in front of a school to pick up or
let off children, pass from either direction at no more than 10 mph.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(jared2 @ May 8 2006, 12:15 PM) [snapback]251485[/snapback]</div>

My class was doomed from the start because it was the first springlike day after winter. No one wanted to be there including the instructor. The only reason I was there was because I had just purchased my Prius and I wanted the insurance discount. All I could think about was getting out of the class so that I could take the car for a spin.

The only things that I learned were some really obscure legal things that didn't have a whole lot to do with defensive driving.

 

Yes, as part of a POST (Peace Officer Standards and Training) curricula (13 weeks) and with the National Park Service (12 years). I drive proactively based upon this training.

 

I taught defensive driving for two years for Salt Lake County employees as well as to those who got tickets.

The printed curriculum was pretty boring, so my co-instructor and I were always thinking of ways to dramatize some points, as well as other ways to help keep people awake.

Asking students to describe THEIR favorite "driving gripes" can almost always serve as a more interesting starting point to reach something in the curriculum than just wading through the printed matter.

Looking back at my own teaching after 20 years, two things stand out as "red flags" to this day when I drive: the dangers of following too close and the fact that about half of all urban accidents occur in left-hand-turn situations. When all is said and done, helping to create a "red flag" in someone's mind is the best you can hope for in one of those classes.

Even now, especially on freeways, when another driver changes lanes by cutting in front of me, reducing my "safety following zone" by 50-75%, it triggers an automatic response in me to try to reclaim that following space as soon as possible, even if that means changing lanes myself (in back of someone, not in front). Who hasn't had close calls because they were barely able to stop in time (or had to pull off to the right because they COULDN'T stop in time) when following? ALL rear-end collisions could be avoided if people drove smarter.

And whenever I get in a left-turn situation---my turn or that of some other driver in one of the three other intersection locations---I really check out the other drivers (as well as those alongside them, or fast approaching).

We had some simple exercises to demonstrate to students how much slower their reaction times were than what they thought they were.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Somechic @ May 8 2006, 04:12 PM) [snapback]251659[/snapback]</div>

In Florida when approching a police or emergency vehicle with its lights no that is stopped on the raodside or right/left emergncy lane. Drivers are supposed to slow down and shift into the other lane on a multi-lane roadway or if on a 2 lane road they are supposed to pass at 20 mph less than the posted speed limit.

Do not pass or closely approach a school bus with flashing red lights.
State law requires that motorists stop at least 25 feet away if traveling
on a two-lane road, or on a multi-lane highway where lanes
are only separated by lines on the same side as the bus,
if traveling on a dual highway, if on the opposite
side of a safety island or a raised median you are free to drive at a decreased speed.
School buses are equipped with yellow, amber or red flashing lights.
Yellow or amber lights light-up to warn the drivers that the bus is slowing to a stop and red lights go
on when it has stopped. and all traffice behind the bus must stop.

 

As soon as my daughter decides to get her license (she's turning 16) I'm going to enroll her in a driving course next time we're in California.

Kids should be required to take the Skip/Bob driving courses.

The best performance mod anyone can make is to use the money to take driving courses since the money you spend will transfer to every car you will ever own.

 

I learned three new things in my course. These are for Arizona, and are likely completly wrong elsewhere.

1. Pedestrians ALWAYS have the right-of-way in a crosswalk, which may or may not be marked. (The continuation of a sidewalk at an intersection is always a crosswalk, as an example of an unmarked crosswalk) Hit one and be damned. They do not, however have the right-of-way elsewhere. Due caution is all that is required.

2. This one really suprised me. It is NOT illegal in AZ to change lanes in an intersection.

3. This one made my eyes pop out. It is illegal to drink or have an open container of alcohol in the passenger compartment of a vehicle. Space intended for cargo by the manufacturer is not included. This means that in the bed of a pickup, the trunk of a car, or behind the rear seat of a Prius, it is perfectly legal to have and consume liquor. Yikes!