Web traffic: New Internet site rewards young drivers for completing lessons

Two weeks before 16-year-old Bree Berry had to take her driver’s licensing test, she still couldn’t perfect her parallel parking. She was a little nervous about backing around corners, too.

“I have no idea,” she says, laughing, when asked why she needed to know how to back around a corner, “but they make you do it to get your license.”

Getting a driver’s license is a milestone many teens can’t wait to reach. But according to the Ford Motor Co., teens aren’t learning how to drive safely; they’re just learning how to get their license. And there is a big difference.

Traffic accidents are the number one killer of teenagers. While teenagers make up only 8.4 percent of the driving population in Washington state, 16.4 percent of all collisions involve teens. The statistics are similar in Idaho. According to an Idaho Transportation Department report, even though there has been a decrease in the number of crashes involving young drivers, the actual number of young drivers has decreased by the same or greater percentage.

“Meaning, young drivers are still over-involved in crashes,” the 2005 Idaho Traffic Collisions report states.

Johnna VanDyk, of the Olympia-based Washington Traffic Safety Commission, says that parents are a huge factor in collisions involving teenagers.

“We interviewed a number of parents and heard repeatedly how scared they were when their kids were learning how to drive,” she says, adding that the problem is a lack of proper coaches.

Enter a new coach: An interactive Web site called Driving Skills for Life, www.drivingskillsforlife.com.

The site, created by Ford and the Governors Highway Safety Association, weaves driving tips into online games and quizzes aimed at teenagers. One game called the “Five o’clock Challenge” teaches young drivers about maintaining a safe distance between cars during heavy traffic.

The site rewards safe drivers through a point system. Students earn points by registering for the Web site (it’s free), playing the games, working through lessons and taking quizzes. Points are tallied and converted into entries for a drawing for items like notebook computers, iPods and gift certificates.

The site also features an area for parents and information for driving instructors.

Officer Glenn Bartlett, from the Spokane Police Department, runs the First Step Driving School with Shawn Meese, a reserve deputy with Spokane County Sheriff’s Office. As a traffic officer for four years, Bartlett said he has seen his share of teen fatalities on the road and was motivated to start First Step in April. He wanted to take a different approach with his students, so he says he keeps his classes smaller and focuses on what teenagers want to learn when it comes to the road.

“I can stand up there and tell them what to do but I like to relate it to real-life scenarios,” he says. Smaller class sizes make the class more conversational. Instead of lecturing students to drive safely, he opens the floor to questions.

“They ask me about things they see other cars do,” Bartlett says.

He and Meese requested information from the Driving Skills for Life program after researching other options. Bartlett says it was the most user-friendly Web site he could find.

Berry, a former student of First Step Driving School, says the site caters to her “hands-on” learning curve.

“It taught me more and showed me exactly what they are talking about in class,” she says, adding, “I love playing games on the computer.”

Berry says the Web site was able to expand on the classes she took at First Step. Students visit the Web site when they are not behind the wheel or in class, and the school links to drivingskillsforlife.com from its Web site, www.firststepdrivingschool.com.

“If I have questions, instead of calling Shawn all the time, I am able to go to the Web site and get all my questions answered there,” says Berry.

Meese says that the more information they can provide the better. He likes the way Driving Skills for Life includes materials for parents.

“We need the parents’ support, help and reassurance. And that Web site is geared toward parents,” says Meese.

Bartlett agrees. “We teach them the basic skills here, but really it’s up to parents to enforce it,” Bartlett says.

They also say the Web site is very friendly for teens who have just started driving. The instructors incorporate some of the elements from the Web site into their curriculum.

“This was the most applicable format for us, it wasn’t just filler information,” Bartlett says. “You have to have 30 hours of driver’s-ed class time, we want to make sure they make the best of it – this Web site really helps us facilitate that.”

The Driving Skills for Life program began in 2003 but really took flight in 2005.

“We had an original Web site before this one,” says Jim Graham, of the Ford Motor Co. Fund, “but it wasn’t really teen-friendly.” Graham says they worked with marketing groups and had young designers help fine-tune the Web site to come up with the current version. The site has been updated to include current driving information and new features to entice student drivers.

Driving Skills for Life is part of the $80 million that the Ford Motor Fund has earmarked for community development and community outreach projects.

Since the revamp of the Web site, registered users all over the country have signed up. Ford officials also began touring the country with its “Ride and Drive” program, offering professional driving instructions.

“We went to cities with real grassroots interest in the program, or with a real demand,” says Graham. Recently the program went to Orlando, Fla., where three teenagers from the same high school were killed in traffic accidents. They taught 150 students each day they were there.

“The return is that we will hopefully educate and train teens and parents to be more aware of what they do on the road,” Graham says.

After researching teen fatalities, Ford decided to focus on four major factors they feel cause teen fatalities: hazard recognition, vehicle handling, space management and speed management. Graham says because the program works with these four elements only, Driving Skills for Life is geared toward teens who have just received their license or permit. He says students who use the Web site already know the color of stop signs and what a green light means.

“Obviously they need to know the rules of the road, but we focus on the skills needed to drive safely,” he says.