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After you have taught your child, I also recommend a good driving school or a defensive driving school for teens.
Distractions are the #1 cause of teenager accidents. There are apps and devices to block the use of cell phones while the car is in motion. You can also limit passengers from riding in the car with your teen which can be another source of distraction.
The 2016 Chevy Malibu offers a safe teen driver package which limits the sound of the radio, warns when exceeding a set speed and has a forward collision alert.
No, I don't accept that. They don't roll the dice with their kids life every single day. Not gratuitously and callously and needlessly. Certain activities are notoriously responsible for destroying kids lives. One of them is driving alone before they are adults. It is easily avoided by not allowing it.
The data clearly shows that allowing your kids to drive alone and unattended when they are 16-18 and living as dependents is a bad gamble with catastrophic consequences for those that roll the dice and lose.
Anyway, no need to repeat myself any longer. That is my position and it is based on reality and data and I will not change my mind unless the data shows that teenagers are safe and responsible drivers. It doesn't, and it won't, because it can't.
My position is recorded and it's time to move on.
This is the opposite of many of my friends... I have never seen so many 19 and 20 year olds or older that have never driven and have no interest in driving...
It's like a whole generation has decided the ability to drive isn't necessary.... I live in the SF Bay Area and a lot of these kids still depend on others to get around...
Just about all of my friends celebrated their 16th birthday at the DMV getting their license... and yes... just about every high school will have teen driving fatality... there was one when I was in high school and others now in my nieces and nephews high schools...
The most recent was driving too fast after the first rain in 5 months... slid into a tree... was not the first... on that stretch of two lane road...
On the bright side when comparing generations... cars have never been safer... air bags, abs, traction control, 5 star safety ratings, seat belts... and even on star...
I believe today's teens are much safer than we were behind the wheel when many of us were driving cars we cobbled together or kept together with money we earned...
Today's high school parking lot is 99% late model cars... a far cry from when I went to school and there was only one new car in the entire student body and the guy worked summers with his uncle deep sea fishing and bought a brand new Trans Am...
I am already teaching my preteens how to drive around the ranch... just as I had learned... clutch and gearshift... checking the fluids and tire pressure...
I'm new to posting in forums but I desperately need advice. My son has recently received his driver license. I'm so worried about him driving and I can't be with him all the time. Does anybody use any tracking devices to monitor your teens driving? What kind of a device do you recommend?
You can set up programs within the system that can tell you if he goes out of or into a certain area. It also has a speed sensor to inform you if he goes over a certain speed you set. It also has real time location to within a few feet of where the car is at any particular time. It can easily be tied into the cars alarm and is better than LoJack if the car gets stolen
It even has the ability to disable the starter for a remote location by just a click of a mouse or smartphone.
ALL MY FRIENDS RACED AT ONE TIME OR ANOTHER. When a teenager gets cut off, they will typically RETALIATE AGGRESSIVELY. Especially guys, THEY WILL LOSE THEIR MINDS, but don't think girls don't do it also.
???
I don't have a SINGLE friend who raced cars when we were growing up. No one. I CAN say that my dad most definitely did but the generalizations you ascribe to an entire group is really crazy to me. Then again, I live in a place where kids have endless things to do so "getting a car" isn't even on the agenda for many teenagers. I didn't get my license until I was in my twenties and many people here never get licenses and if they do, there's a good chance they don't even own a car.
Speaking of people retaliating aggressively, out of all of the road rage incidents that I hear on the news regularly, they are almost always acts committed by adults. Road rage incidents that I have personally witnessed have almost all been committed by adults. That's not to say it doesn't happen but give me a break.
I won't chime in on the politics of this thread, but I used to share a car with a friend; since we street-parked, it would be in a different spot every night. Instead of constantly texting each other where we put the car last, I plugged a cheap Android phone in the armrest storage box with the "Where's my droid" app running in the background. I paid something like $30 every 3 months to keep T-Mobile's cheapest prepaid plan running (probably cheaper now), and whenever either of us wanted to know where the car was, we just texted that phone and it responded with a google maps link. It also told the speed, direction, and other useful data. The phone was just a cheapo used ebay phone. It used GPS location, but if it couldn't receive GPS it would still give the cell-tower location which was still pretty close.
Basically a poor-man's lo-jack. I would probably install this in my kids' cars just for peace of mind (mine are young now so not an issue yet). I would probably also install the app on my kids' phones or at least "find friends" on their iphones.
I'm new to posting in forums but I desperately need advice. My son has recently received his driver license. I'm so worried about him driving and I can't be with him all the time. Does anybody use any tracking devices to monitor your teens driving? What kind of a device do you recommend?
We use Mastrack.com.
My son was a very careful driver for the first six months that he had his license. His sisters and friends would tell me so and there were actually a few times when I happened to see him driving near our neighborhood and he was doing well. Then he got his confidence up and started taking more chances. Complaints from his sisters and finally his girlfriend about excessive speed and taking corners too quickly prompted me to get the tracker.
Mastrack sends you a text message if it detects excessive speed, rapid acceleration or harsh braking. It sends the messages once the car is turned off so it's not live but you can monitor it in close to real time if you log on to the website. We told him that so much as one message could prompt us to take away the car. He had a little trouble in the beginning. He slowed down right away but it took longer to break him of the acceleration and braking issues. He did, though. We were pretty happy with the results. He is the only one of his friends to not have any accidents or tickets.
When his sister started driving, she never had speed or acceleration issues but she got a lot of harsh braking alerts. Without us in the car, she tended to not pay as much attention and I think was following cars too closely and/or not paying enough attention to traffic signals. We told her she needed to fix it and she did start allowing more time to brake. She rarely gets alerts now and if so, it's for doing 47 in a 45mph zone.
I don't use it to track their whereabouts, though you can. You can also set boundaries so it will alert you if they go out of a certain area.
I'm new to posting in forums but I desperately need advice. My son has recently received his driver license. I'm so worried about him driving and I can't be with him all the time. Does anybody use any tracking devices to monitor your teens driving? What kind of a device do you recommend?
SERIOUSLY? Wow you have some serious trust issues! If I found out my parents had put tracking devices on my car, I'd be furious and never trust them with anything! You're only opening a can of worms by being like this. You need to learn to let go. He's growing up. Everyone does! Even you weren't born an adult.
My son was a very careful driver for the first six months that he had his license. His sisters and friends would tell me so and there were actually a few times when I happened to see him driving near our neighborhood and he was doing well. Then he got his confidence up and started taking more chances. Complaints from his sisters and finally his girlfriend about excessive speed and taking corners too quickly prompted me to get the tracker.
Mastrack sends you a text message if it detects excessive speed, rapid acceleration or harsh braking. It sends the messages once the car is turned off so it's not live but you can monitor it in close to real time if you log on to the website. We told him that so much as one message could prompt us to take away the car. He had a little trouble in the beginning. He slowed down right away but it took longer to break him of the acceleration and braking issues. He did, though. We were pretty happy with the results. He is the only one of his friends to not have any accidents or tickets.
When his sister started driving, she never had speed or acceleration issues but she got a lot of harsh braking alerts. Without us in the car, she tended to not pay as much attention and I think was following cars too closely and/or not paying enough attention to traffic signals. We told her she needed to fix it and she did start allowing more time to brake. She rarely gets alerts now and if so, it's for doing 47 in a 45mph zone.
I don't use it to track their whereabouts, though you can. You can also set boundaries so it will alert you if they go out of a certain area.
That sounds like a cool device. I'm glad you had such good luck with it.
I could never fall asleep at night until I heard my two Sons cars pull into the driveway and the doors to their room close. It is only something a Parent can understand.
They are 44 and I still worry about them.........some things never end.
Don
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