Presented next are the Seven Essential Lessons for teaching the necessary driving skills. Both you, the student, and the teacher should have reviewed the User Guide, the Teacher Guide, and the Student Introduction material. Doubtless, you have discussed and planned for the day the first lesson will begin. At last, that day has arrived.
The following lessons are designed to help the student build skills step by step until they are thoroughly versed in all essential skills. Each lesson presents several skills during each driving experience. It is necessary to complete all the skills in each lesson. Many students will require several repetitions to master the skills in each lesson. The point is to gain mastery. Rushing ahead when material has not been absorbed and learned will only create tension, lead to imperfect learning, and undermine confidence.
The teacher may wish to spend more than one session on a lesson when the student needs firmer mastery of the material. By following the lesson plan below, the student can go a long way toward driving mastery. Each lesson will provide simple keys to selecting the appropriate driving environment to learn the presented skills most effectively. A brief practices and procedures section outlines the plan for the lesson under consideration. Finally, a problem-solving portion notes common problems students have encountered in learning the material.
Relax and enjoy the process of teaching and learning to drive, confident that you have full control of your vehicle. HAPPY DRIVING!
LESSON ONE: DRIVING FOUNDATIONS
The following lesson will give you the basic driving skills to build on in future lessons. You must thoroughly master this material before moving on to other lessons.
You will learn the following skills:
1. Identification of all instruments and controls.
2. Starting and stopping.
3. Traveling forward while accelerating.
4. Backing in a straight line.
5. Basic turning.
DRIVING ENVIRONMENT
Use a residential street with little or no traffic. Select a large, empty parking lot or a deserted street with intersections, stop signs, and opportunities for left and right turns.
PROCEDURE FOR PRACTICE
1. Locate and identify all instruments and controls before proceeding to the next step.
2. Practice starting, traveling at low speeds in a straight line, and stopping.
3. Practice backing in a straight line.
Mastering the preceding skills will allow you to practice right and left turns. If you are learning in a stick-shift car, make sure you are in a location with enough space to practice slowing the car for the turn and downshifting from third to second. You may want to practice traveling straight and shifting up, then move on to downshifting in preparation for learning left and right turns.
TIPS FOR TEACHERS
1. Watch for proper hand positions on the steering wheel.
2. Observe hand-over-hand and/or push-pull steering during turns.
3. Check the driver’s eyes for proper mirror use and scanning while approaching intersections.
STOP TO CONSIDER
Student drivers may make right turns that are too wide and left turns that are too tight. After a right turn, they may straighten the car too slowly. For these and other faults, note them during performance. After each maneuver, provide your student with feedback. Deliver performance assessments in a balanced manner. For each correction or problem, include something positive. Repeat until these basic skills have been mastered.
LESSON TWO: LIGHT STREET TRAFFIC
In this lesson, you will begin to confront driving situations that call for special responses. You will consider controlled and uncontrolled intersections and learn to respond to school zones and railway crossings. Since you will face situations that may seem new or awkward, that is fine. If you feel uncomfortable, stop the lesson, review what you have learned, and come back to this lesson. It may take a few tries to master the route and its challenges. Do not worry. Take it easy and make your learning fun. You will learn:
1. Facing special situations, such as schools and railway crossings.
2. Coping with controlled and uncontrolled intersections.
3. Basic traffic turning.
4. Beginning lane changing.
DRIVING ENVIRONMENT
(Light-traffic driving conditions.) Select a two-lane street with little traffic. Choose as many routes as possible that include uncontrolled intersections (intersections controlled by neither stop signs nor traffic lights). Also, choose routes that include sign-controlled intersections (stop signs and yield signs), four-way stop intersections, railroad crossings, and a school zone. Teachers and students: plan your route carefully, keeping the following skills and maneuvers in mind. This will be your first time driving in light traffic.
PROCEDURE FOR PRACTICE
1. After selecting your route for the day, follow your plan, primarily using right turns.
2. Retrace your route in the opposite direction, completing left turns.
3. During your journey, change lanes a few times in either direction. Practice both left and right lane changes.
TIPS FOR TEACHERS
In the beginning, students often steer too far to the right, coming too close to the curb, or too far to the left, near the street lines.
1. Make sure the student looks far ahead, not just at the hood of the car.
2. Observe the learner driver’s eyes at intersections: are they slowing down and looking left, right, and then left again?
3. Make sure both the driver and the teacher check blind spots during every lane change.
STOP AND THINK
Because beginners often have trouble judging steering, always tell your student to AIM HIGH IN STEERING. When making a lane change, ensure the student does not turn the steering wheel toward their attention while checking a blind spot.
Since this is the first extended in-traffic driving, if the student cannot handle the entire course both ways, it is better to stop and take a timeout along the way. Have the student pull over so you can discuss any problems or points of tension. Please do not push the student to do more than they can handle. It is all right if the learner decides at any point not to complete the route. You, the teacher, need to take over at that point. Always discuss problem areas. You can return to this lesson and repeat the entire route if your student feels insecure about anything encountered along the way.
LESSON THREE – DRIVING IN HEAVY TRAFFIC
Well, here you go. You are well on your way to mastering driving. Driving in heavy traffic is nerve-wracking, even for the most experienced drivers. But you have mastered all the skills up to this point, so you are well prepared to handle the complexities of heavy traffic.
DRIVING ENVIRONMENT
Pick routes that favor multi-lane streets. If possible, choose a time of day when traffic is heavy but not at peak, such as during rush hour. Review the lesson plan with your student and discuss your routes.
PROCEDURES FOR PRACTICE
1. Drive the route several times in succession.
2. Well in advance, the teacher should point out street markings and potential hazards, such as side-by-side traffic, blind spots, and heavy traffic.
3. From your selected multi-lane street, turn onto a side street. Go around the block and return to your multi-lane street.
4. Always ensure the student is in the proper lane for upcoming turns and maneuvers.
5. When necessary, instruct the student to change lanes in anticipation of upcoming turns.
TIPS FOR TEACHERS
Beginner drivers who are nervous about street driving may react in several ways. Often, they try to push by driving too fast or following too closely behind other cars.
1. Always give your student clear feedback on performance.
2. Be sure to inform your student about anticipated turns and lane changes well in advance of the maneuver.
STOP TO THINK
Before tackling heavy traffic, students should be adept at basic maneuvers so they can pay full attention to rapidly developing situations on heavily traveled multi-lane streets.
CAUTION – STANDARD SHIFT STUDENTS
Beginners should be well-versed and comfortable driving standard-shift automobiles before hitting heavy-traffic streets. You will often need to:
1. Downshift.
2. Stop completely.
3. Let the car creep.
4. Shift up through the gear pattern, then back down when you encounter heavy traffic.
LESSON FOUR – HILL PARKING
Now that you have gained some skills in in-traffic driving, let us face the challenges of parking. Learning to park in difficult situations can give you the confidence to maneuver your car in even the most demanding situations. You will learn to:
1. Park facing uphill
2. Park facing downhill
DRIVING ENVIRONMENT
Choose a sloping street with curbs and little traffic.
PROCEDURE AND PRACTICE
Practice uphill and downhill parking at the curb. Use the following procedures for each maneuver.
PARKING UPHILL
1. Signal your intention to park (signal right).
2. Pull up and stop close to the curb. As you stop, turn your steering wheel sharply to the left (toward the street).
3. Shift into neutral and let the car creep slowly backward.
4. Allow the back of the right front tire to come to rest gently against the curb.
5. Shift into park. Set the parking brake.
6. When leaving your space, shift to drive (or first for manual transmissions). Signal left. You may wish to use blinkers and arm signals so your signals are clearly visible. Glance over your left shoulder (the direction in which you will head). When you see all is clear, accelerate gently as you release the parking brake and move into the right traffic lane.
DOWNHILL PARKING
- Signal to turn right as you approach your space. Stop close to the curb.
- Let the car creep slowly into the space while turning sharply right toward the curb.
- Now, in neutral, let your right front tire gently touch the curb.
- After you come to a complete stop, shift to park (or reverse in manual transmissions).
- Leave enough space between you and the car behind you so you can easily move out of your space.
- Set your parking brake.
- When you start to pull out, do not forget to keep your car in gear to prevent it from rolling downhill. When leaving your parking space, check for traffic and back up slowly while you straighten the wheels. Stop. Check traffic again. Shift into drive (or first for manual transmissions). Signal that you are ready to enter traffic. Glance over your left shoulder to make sure the lane is clear. Move into the nearest lane.
TIPS FOR TEACHERS
When parking at curbs, learners may allow the car to roll too fast, striking the curb too hard. Whacking the curb can bruise tires, cause blowouts, or damage the fender, undercarriage, or trim. Students may also back up too fast when preparing to leave a downhill parking position. They may also accelerate too quickly when leaving an uphill parking spot, fearing a rear-end collision.
The key to learning parking skills in a challenging sloping-street environment is to take it easy, relax, and wait until traffic is clear before executing your maneuvers. You can help your student assess when it is appropriate to park or pull out until they have the hang of it. Both of you need to be patient. Remember that all of this is new to the student.
LESSON FIVE – MORE PARKING CHALLENGES
Nothing teaches you more about how a car handles than parking. In this lesson, we continue to address the challenges of parking. You will often be called upon to park your vehicle, so these skills are vital for the beginning driver. Probably no skill causes greater anxiety for the beginner than parking. Still, for the student who has mastered the early material in this lesson plan, parking should be easy. Take your time and really concentrate on getting these skills down pat, because they can teach you a lot about your car's maneuverability and your own ability to control your automobile. In this lesson, you will learn to:
1. Park at an angle or head-in in lots
2. Parallel parking on the street
DRIVING ENVIRONMENT
For angle or head-in parking, use a large lot with about half its spaces filled. For parallel parking, choose a residential street with little or no traffic.
PROCEDURES FOR ANGLE PARKING
1. Position your car about five feet from parked cars. Check rear traffic, signal right, and begin braking.
2. When you can see straight into the right stall line, turn the wheels sharply right and slowly enter the stall.
3. Straighten the wheels when centered in the space, and stop before the front bumper touches the curb or white line.
4. When leaving your angled parking, back up until your front bumper is even with the left-hand car’s rear bumper, then begin turning right.
HEAD – IN PARKING
1. Position your car on the left side of the stall you plan to enter so you have plenty of room to pull into the right-hand stall. Check rear traffic, signal right, and begin to brake.
2. When you can see the right stall line of the parking space you intend to enter, steer sharply right and enter the space slowly.
3. Straighten your wheels when you are centered in the space. Stop before touching the curb in front of you or the white line with the front bumper.
4. When leaving a head-in space, perform the same sequence of maneuvers as for an angle parking space.
PARALLEL PARKING
1. Signal and stop two to three feet away from the car in front of your space, with your car parallel to the car next to you. The rear bumper of your car should be even with the rear bumper of the car next to you. Shift into reverse.
2. OK, now straighten your wheels and begin to back up, keeping your vehicle even with the car you have pulled up beside. When the back of your front seat appears to be even with the rear bumper of the other car, turn sharply right and prepare to enter the space.
3. When your car’s front bumper is even with the rear bumper of the car next to you, turn sharply left and continue backing into the space cautiously.
4. When your car is almost parallel to the curb and before you touch the vehicle behind you, straighten your wheels and stop. Slowly pull forward, centering your vehicle in the space. Leave enough distance (two to three feet) between you and the car in front of you so you can maneuver out of the space and avoid getting parked in.
5. When leaving a parallel parking spot, back straight until you are close to the car behind you. (Careful, do not hit it! Easy does it.) Turn your wheels left just before stopping. Signal left, check traffic, and proceed with caution. As you approach the rear of the car ahead, check your front fender for clearance. When halfway out of the space, turn your wheels to the right, gently accelerate, and center your vehicle in the lane as you pull away.
TIPS FOR TEACHERS
Again, student drivers often struggle to judge their proximity to other cars and objects. Nothing improves a student’s judgment more than learning to park. Sometimes, beginners pull too close to other vehicles in either angle or head-in parking spaces. When they back out, students often have trouble gauging traffic. Tell your student to pause briefly to check traffic behind them. When instructing students to parallel park, emphasize slow speed and quick steering wheel turns – the winning combination.
STOP TO CONSIDER- (STICK SHIFT STUDENTS)
When parking a car with a standard transmission, ensure your student can move the vehicle slowly and stop quickly. This requires thorough mastery of clutch control and braking. Beginners need to know how to release the clutch to the friction point, hold it there, and move the car in small, controlled movements at the clutch-pressure point to slow and stop the vehicle as needed. Learning drivers should keep the right foot lightly covering the brake during these maneuvers.
LESSON SIX – HIGHWAY DRIVING
Learning to drive on smaller two-lane highways is excellent preparation for interstate travel and helps integrate skills learned earlier in the course with new material. Both the student and the teacher should feel a sense of accomplishment at this point in the program. You have nearly completed your training and have done very well! Relax and enjoy “the freedom of the road.” In this lesson, you will learn to:
1. Enter minor highways.
2. Maintain the following distance.
3. Recognize traffic signals from a distance.
4. Adjust speed to traffic signals.
5. Learn and apply highway speed skills.
DRIVING ENVIRONMENT
Pick a two-lane highway with moderate traffic. Your selection can be a state highway or a link-up with major freeways. Choose a highway with occasional traffic lights, a few trucks, and slow-moving cars, if possible. Do not choose a major interstate highway until the learning driver has gained highway experience on a feeder highway. Selecting a smaller, less-traveled highway rather than an interstate will help the student gain confidence before the big day when they drive on a major arterial.
PROCEDURES FOR PRACTICE
Entering a high-speed arterial highway can be a harrowing experience for a beginning driver. Still, it can also be a lot of fun and be done safely and with confidence.
1. Instruct the learner to accelerate promptly to highway speeds when entering freeways or highways.
2. Immediately begin scanning for vehicles already on the roadway. Learn to identify traffic flow, density, and hazards encountered when merging with traffic. Examples include slow-moving trucks, tractors, “traffic herds,” and other hazards.
3. Establish your following distance. For every ten miles per hour of speed, allow one car length between you and the vehicle ahead. You will probably be traveling about 50 miles per hour, so allow five car lengths. Learn to adjust your speed to changes in traffic flow. If the vehicle ahead suddenly slows, you must also slow down.
4. While still two blocks from an intersection controlled by a traffic light, ask the student to identify the signal.
5. Speed can often be adjusted to time your arrival at the intersection when the light is green. At many major intersections, the lights are timed for travel at the posted speed limit. Highway signs should indicate whether the lights are synchronized. If you are approaching a stale green light, slow down. Avoid entering an intersection on the yellow caution light. Some state laws make this a ticketable offense. Never run a yellow or red light!
TIPS FOR TEACHERS
Beginners often feel unsure and hesitate when entering a highway at speeds they are not used to. Wait for your student to decide when they feel comfortable entering and merging with traffic. Do not bark orders at your learner, even when you spot opportunities to enter a highway. Traffic lights, when seen from two blocks away, often change before you arrive at the intersection. The learner should anticipate such changes. When rounding a curve or driving over the crest of a hill, the student should be encouraged to quickly and accurately identify all vehicles in sight, with particular attention to potential hazards, such as slow-moving large trucks. Speed adjustments must be made to compensate for slow-moving trucks and tractors, especially when climbing hills.
LESSON SEVEN – FREEWAY, EXPRESSWAY, and HIGHWAY DRIVING
This lesson culminates the material presented in this course. You need to congratulate yourselves on being an effective driver education team. Here we are, ready to head out on roads with higher speeds, which is undoubtedly an adventure.
DRIVING ENVIRONMENT
You should choose a major interstate highway or another freeway for practice. Use a high-speed highway. Before entering the freeway, ask the student to summarize and explain the correct procedures for driving on the freeway. The student should be able to clearly explain standard operating procedures for entering and exiting highways, as well as cruising practices. Select entrances and exits that are close to one another. Try to practice consistently in the same area so the student becomes familiar with these driving conditions and can gain confidence that can be applied to other locations.
PROCEDURES FOR PRACTICE
Entering and exiting a major highway requires many complex driving decisions. Over time, those decisions become routine. Right now, however, they are unfamiliar. Repetition is the key to learning here, as in the other driving environments you have encountered together.
ENTERING THE HIGHWAY
1. Accelerate on the ramp and in the acceleration lane. As you do so, check traffic already on the highway. Are there many cars in the right-hand lane where you will enter? Are there trucks or trailers that could slow traffic or make entry difficult?
2. Check your mirror. Check your left blind spot. While maintaining speed, note opportunities to merge.
3. Signal left to merge. Check to the left. Check your mirror and blind spot, then merge smoothly to flow with traffic. Some drivers in the lane you are entering may see you coming and speed up or try to cut you off as you enter. Do not insist on entering if any unsafe conditions prevail. If you cannot enter, you may have to pull over to the right and wait until it is safe to enter from this position. Be aware that entering the highway from the shoulder imposes additional risks compared to entering from a ramp and/or acceleration lane. You must begin to accelerate while still on the side of the road. Accelerate as you enter the right lane, making sure you have allowed plenty of room for approaching cars. If your student feels particularly apprehensive and has pulled over, you, the teacher, can take over.
EXITING
1. Knowing your exit well in advance and understanding the “lay of the land” can help you exit the highway easily and smoothly.
2. Signal your exit and check the rear, right, and blind spots. Re-check just before moving over to the exit.
3. Decelerate as you exit. Do not apply the brakes suddenly. Gauge traffic flow to exit smoothly.
TIPS FOR TEACHERS
On entrance ramps, ensure your student is aware of traffic behind them. Learners may look over their shoulders too long when checking the rear for a gap in traffic. At this point, steering may become unsteady. Once a traffic gap is identified, the student may not accelerate quickly enough to merge smoothly. Calm, helpful coaching can be very supportive at this point. Do not bark orders or directions, as this may only confuse or frustrate your student. When exiting, learners may misjudge an exit and brake too soon in anticipation of the maneuver. However, the student may have to brake forcefully to exit smoothly. After traveling on the highway, the student may tend to speed when returning to surface streets. Check your student’s speed.
A PARTING WORD
This completes the Driving Success, Inc. course. With the aid of the CONTROLLER™, you have now successfully completed the instruction course. You have learned the skills necessary not only to be a competent driver but also to be a responsible driver who prevents accidents by driving defensively, and you have mastered the skills to be a good driver.
Learning to drive and teaching these skills are also courses in human relations, especially when you are both in the same family. We hope you have discovered that learning to drive is a real challenge that has brought tangible rewards, too. Driving is a privilege that gives you real freedom to go where you want, when you want. It is a sign of personal responsibility that you have both taught and mastered these skills.
No course or driver education program can teach you everything you need to handle the complex situations you will face in everyday driving. It takes years of experience to refine and build on the basic skills you have acquired in this course. Experience is, after all, the best teacher.
Thanks for allowing me to share my years of experience in driver education with you. I hope you have discovered in this book and in the CONTROLLER™ that you have grown throughout your training.
Good luck and happy driving,
Driving Success Inc.
Driver Educational Products, 62 years
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PURCHASER/USER DISCLAIMER
Purchaser agrees that neither the inventor of the CONTROLLER™ nor Driving Success, Inc. shall be liable if an accident occurs while using the CONTROLLER™. At the time of purchase, the buyer accepts and understands all responsibilities for the safe use of the CONTROLLER™. While every effort has been made to ensure safe use, no assurance can be given that the CONTROLLER™ will be used in accordance with the recommended safe operating procedures outlined in this book or in any instructions or materials provided with this product or separately, whether in writing or verbally. The inventor and Driving Success, Inc. shall be deemed free and clear of any liability in the event of an accident, injury, death, or misuse of the CONTROLLER™. The user assumes all liability for any vehicle accident arising from the use of the CONTROLLER™.