Leave driver training to the professionals
Teaching someone to drive too stressful, important of a task for amateurs to take on
Driving is easy. Driving well is hard. And driving safely is really difficult. Which do you want for your kid?
I signed up my 18-year-old son, Andrew, for professional driving lessons when I realized the job was too important to try to do it myself — not to mention nerve-racking for both of us.
Young Drivers of Canada offers one of the most comprehensive courses of instruction in the country. It’s not cheap, but it’s thorough and it teaches safe driving above everything else. It includes classroom sessions, online learning at home, and in-car instruction.
I was happy to hand over Andrew to people who know what they’re doing. He has his G1 licence after passing a government-written test and has been practising with me; he now needs to earn his G2 licence to drive unaccompanied on the road.
I told the class instructor, Mike Stringer, about the two near misses I’d experienced with Andrew behind the wheel, and he looked sympathetic. “I find I don’t have any of those little close calls,” he said.
“We teach young drivers to be collision free, and it works if they listen to the instructor. Maybe he wasn’t listening to you very well.”
The 10 students in the class don’t look like they’re listening very well at all to anything, though Stringer retains their interest with slides and video. It’ll all be closer to home when they get out onto the road, but for now, he teaches the four essential habits for safe driving: Look well ahead, move your eyes, keep space around you, and spot the problems.
Each is divided into sub-habits and Stringer goes through them methodically. There’s a test in the third lesson and I take it, just for fun, and get 76 per cent. My kid gets 80 per cent. It stops being so much fun after that.
The 20 hours of classroom instruction takes eight evenings to complete. Halfway through, I write in my notebook: “These kids know more than I do! But they know words — I know actions.” It’s true. They know about proper spacing on the road, and how to deal with adverse conditions, and dozens of other circumstances, but they’ve not had a chance to practise any of it yet. And then come the in-car lessons. Andrew’s practical instructor, John Dinnick, is the most patient man I’ve ever met. The two drive together for a few lessons before I ride along in the back of his Toyota Corolla, and my son seems like a different person. He’s attentive, aware and listening to Dinnick.
More to the point, there’s a second brake pedal in the passenger footwell that Dinnick can press anytime, but he never does. He just talks Andrew through, and Andrew responds.
There’s green tape on the steering wheel at 10 and 2, to be covered by the driver’s hands, and a nice large sign on the roof of the car that shows other road users that a student is in it, learning to drive. We get a lot more leeway than when we’re out in the anonymous family car.
At the first hard right turn, Andrew swings wide into the middle of the side road. “Watch the curb and you’ll turn with the curb,” says Dinnick. I’d never thought to say that — I thought you should always look far ahead, but keeping your lane position on a turn only comes with experience. When I drive my own car later that day, I realize I watch the curb on corners through the edge of my eye — I’d never have thought it.
At a near-empty parking lot, Andrew practises parallel parking — one of the most difficult manoeuvres for any new driver.
He’s way off, but Dinnick tells him what to watch for in which of the car’s windows and suggests putting some tape at the base of the family car window to act as a guide: when the back of the car he’s parking behind lines up with the tape, it’s time to turn the wheel.
At the same time, Andrew’s been learning more theory with the online course, including a “Cognifit” assessment that tells the instructor more about his reaction and recognition abilities.
On another practical lesson, I ride along when Andrew ventures onto an icy gravel road. Nothing extreme, but enough to be a concern. The car skids a little under braking and Dinnick talks Andrew through the correct response. This isn’t skid school, but it’s a chance to become familiar with what can happen long after the test is over.
“This is not just for Young Drivers,” says Dinnick. “We’re trying to prepare you for life.”
And now Andrew’s about as prepared as he can be. He takes his G2 driving test next week. I hope he passes but I won’t have my fingers crossed for him any more — driving is far too important to be entrusted to luck. Freelance writer Mark Richardson is a frequent contributor to Toronto Star Wheels. To reach him, email
wheels@thestar.ca and put his name in the subject line.