Teenage Drivers

[wooley12]

Jeebus........They went through the mandated drivers Ed program....Vibes and good luck.

My Drivers Ed showed this movie as part of the training. Family Movie Night? Your girls will think it's camp and funny at first.

[Meadow Skipper]

Wait...you’re in NM and have auto insurance? 1%er.

A four-banger Toyota pickup will also strongly encourage looking and thinking ahead, they don't exactly have a lot of extra power.

Elegant solution.

[I Skied Bandini Mountain]

Another important skill parents need in regards to teaching teenagers to drive - finding and removing the ignition fuse.

[thedude2340]

There are apps out there that have behavioral feedback, alerts (even on distracted driving) and sometimes come with a discount if sponsored by an insurance company. Will help facilitate educational discussions when mom or dad gets the 75 in a 30 speeding alert and 30 minutes straight of phone handling while driving.

[easyrdr]

I put my 16 year old daughter in crosstek, I can track her on my phone, know the speed she's going etc. She knows I have the capability and as a result she hasn't fucked up yet. Here in MI kids can drive at 14 and 9 months with a parent. Can't drive alone until 16th birthday. She is solid, I'm not worried.

My 14 year old daughter on the other hand I would not trust to drive me to the end of the driveway. She is a full throttle, reckless, kind of kid. Always has been. She terrifies us skiing, biking, whatever. I'm leaning towards no permit for her until she turns 16, the longer I keep her out of a car the safer earth will be. Not looking forward to the conversation next month when she hits the age to get that permit.

[seano732]

I put my 16 year old daughter in crosstek, I can track her on my phone, know the speed she's going etc. She knows I have the capability and as a result she hasn't fucked up yet. Here in MI kids can drive at 14 and 9 months with a parent. Can't drive alone until 16th birthday. She is solid, I'm not worried.

My 14 year old daughter on the other hand I would not trust to drive me to the end of the driveway. She is a full throttle, reckless, kind of kid. Always has been. She terrifies us skiing, biking, whatever. I'm leaning towards no permit for her until she turns 16, the longer I keep her out of a car the safer earth will be. Not looking forward to the conversation next month when she hits the age to get that permit.

Dude your 14 y/o and Thing One should go bowling together.....Two peas in a pod. I’ll drive.
ETA we use Life 360 for stalkering......

[seano732]

Wait...you’re in NM and have auto insurance? 1%er.

Also true story......Fucking Land of Enchantment brah......

[yeahman]

I started out on a manual transmission Ford Pinto. A few weeks into having my license I was going through an uncontrolled intersection fiddling with the stereo volume, looked up and....OH SHIT! Boom.

My daughter seems pretty good about not messing with her phone when driving. I know this because when she gets home she sits in the car for 20 minutes catching up on texts and Snapchat or whatever.

[ate'em]

My 15 year old is starting to talk about driving, getting permit, etc. I looked into insurance, and it looked like it was going to be $3k/year?!? WTF is that? I'm in Southern California so I'm sure there's some premium to that, but I'm shocked. I insure my two vehicles presently for $800/year.

She's a solid, level-headed young lady. She looked at the cost and was totally understanding that she's likely not driving at 16.

I'm bummed for her. I got my license the day I turned 16, hit the road to the mountains, and never looked back.

[I Skied Bandini Mountain]

My 15 year old is starting to talk about driving, getting permit, etc. I looked into insurance, and it looked like it was going to be $3k/year?!? WTF is that? I'm in Southern California so I'm sure there's some premium to that, but I'm shocked. I insure my two vehicles presently for $800/year.

She's a solid, level-headed young lady. She looked at the cost and was totally understanding that she's likely not driving at 16.

I'm bummed for her. I got my license the day I turned 16, hit the road to the mountains, and never looked back.

A beater with liability only. Trust me.

[::: :::]

My 16yo can’t be bothered to drive, nowhere to go...
Has not progressed beyond the learner’s permit

[ate'em]

A beater with liability only. Trust me.

I was hoping my trusty 97 Rav4 with 240k miles would qualify but apparently I need to look a bit deeper in the field...

[XXX-er]

Chillin on mainstreet and someone i know walks up pushing a stroller

" cute kid, they're gona wreck yer car in 15 yrs eh"

[DJSapp]

My first car was a 73 beetle. No power, fuel tank literally just above my feet. Doors barely as durable as a soda can. No air bags. Manual. No power steering.

Makes you think a lot before you do something stupid as a kid, and even then you don't have enough power to do it.

Maybe buying the safest cloud out there isn't the best path.

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[old goat]

Seano--stick to your guns. I'd let both of them wait a year before solo driving. Neither one is ready yet.

Our kids learned to drive before cell phones were ubiquitous. Neither one had any significant problems while they were under our insurance. We consider ourselves very lucky.

One of our sons did Big Brother. He borrowed my car--told me he was teaching his Little Brother to drive, after the fact. Both our kids learned to drive a stick--because that was the car we gave them.
I took driver ed in HS. First day one girl says she knew how to drive so we all piled into a station wagon with her behind the wheel. Instructor told her to back out of the parking spot but she drove forward through a fence.

[smartyiak]

New Mexico drivers will speed like a madman thru town and do 50 on the open highway. Thing one appears to have the first part figured out.

Well...when you get pulled over in Pilar for going 8 over in broad daylight and the last car you saw was 4miles outside of Santa Fe... I didn’t speed the rest of the trip.

Anyways: my son turns 15 in March. In addition to showing all the maturity of a 15y/o, he’s bound and determined to do no homework...and his grades reflect it.

He’s supposed to take Driver’s Ed starting March 1. I am opposed as, in my mind, he is not mature enough to drive. I was informed by his school that Driver’s Ed is part of his curriculum and he has to take it. I was also told, he has to take it now as upper classman are not allowed to take the class.

I couldn’t believe it. I understand the 3 r’s. I get a language requirement. But: Driver’s Ed?


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[gravitylover]

We have 22 year old twin daughters and haven't had insurance issues at all. Only one drives, the other is so bad at it that she hasn't been ready to take a road test yet. The one that does drive only uses grandpa's car so we never had to put her on our insurance. Our company asked about her once 4 years ago and I told them she doesn't ever drive our cars and they were good with that. She isn't listed on grandpa's policy because he has severe dementia and when they called him a few years ago to ask who uses the car now that he doesn't have a drivers license anymore he said he had no idea what they were talking about so they dropped it and didn't ask again.

[char_]

Ok Mags, here’s the deal. I have twin teenage daughters. They got their provisional drivers licenses back in November. Here in NM, the age requirement is 15 years, 8 months to drive solo, which they have been doing.....Until now. Thing One got two speeding tickets in the span of two weeks ( one for going 67 in a 35!!!!), and Thing Two failed to yield and got t-boned in an intersection (she’s fine, thank Dog)......My insurance is gonna be fucked, and I’m arguing with my whole goddamned family that they aren’t ready to drive right now......What says the collective? What are the laws where you live? How did you navigate the teenage driver saga????????

This post has me dreading the day my daughters start driving. I certainly did some stupid shit as a young driver but if either of these had happened there is no way I would have had any use of a vehicle paid for by my parents.


The incidents are both driving behavior your daughters have direct control over. IE - someone else didn’t make a mistake and make them speed or not yield.

I’d be telling my wife that I would rather drive them to events than driving to the hospital after a serious crash, because that’s where this sort of driving behavior gets you. Or jail after the one driving 67 in a 30 hits a pedestrian.

[bodywhomper]

This post has me dreading the day my daughters start driving. I certainly did some stupid shit as a young driver but if either of these had happened there is no way I would have had any use of a vehicle paid for by my parents.


The incidents are both driving behavior your daughters have direct control over. IE - someone else didn’t make a mistake and make them speed or not yield.

I’d be telling my wife that I would rather drive them to events than driving to the hospital after a serious crash, because that’s where this sort of driving behavior gets you. Or jail after the one driving 67 in a 30 hits a pedestrian.

I’m not certain teens have direct control over a lot of their behaviors....

My oldest boy is 15. He looks forward to driving soon as we live in the sticks and some of his best friends are a 30+ minute drive from our house. but he is unwilling to drive down our 0.5 mile straight but steep single lane private dirt road.

[leroy jenkins]

make them pay their own insurance tickets crash damage etc?

[leroy jenkins]

I’m not certain teens have direct control over a lot of their behaviors....

The same can be said for adults. Really, even the best of us with the most emotional mastery, are still almost entirely creatures of subconscious.

[leroy jenkins]

We have 22 year old twin daughters and haven't had insurance issues at all. Only one drives, the other is so bad at it that she hasn't been ready to take a road test yet. The one that does drive only uses grandpa's car so we never had to put her on our insurance. Our company asked about her once 4 years ago and I told them she doesn't ever drive our cars and they were good with that. She isn't listed on grandpa's policy because he has severe dementia and when they called him a few years ago to ask who uses the car now that he doesn't have a drivers license anymore he said he had no idea what they were talking about so they dropped it and didn't ask again.

mind boggling to me that a 22 year old can't drive. Not trying to be rude, but is it ineptness? Or just liking the no vehicle lifestyle?

[fatnslow]

mind boggling to me that a 22 year old can't drive. Not trying to be rude, but is it ineptness? Or just liking the no vehicle lifestyle?

I think if you pass through late teen years without driving it gets much harder to learn. I know a family with 3 kids and the oldest waited until 22 to learn to drive for whatever reason and it took him 5 attempt s to pass his driving test. The funny thing is the youngest sibling took him to take his test multiple times.

[RShea]

Everyone is at different levels of maturity but sounds like these 2 are not ready for safe solo driving. Make it such that they both have to prove that they are able to handle the responsibility by starting out with only allowing them to drive when one of their parents are able to be with them.

Did they go through any Drivers Ed training? Used to be back in the dark ages offered in High School, but many have discontinued the programs and you have to pay for a driving school now.

Of course for the speeding there are some apps and even some insurance companies offer discounts for using their apps to monitor driving habits and things like jack rabbit starts, swerving or erratic driving and maneuvers, and braking too hard on a regular basis. Risk is the behavior can end up going the other way and increase rates (but not much more than these 2 may end up paying based on the driving violations already?)...

Does your state have a points system and if so for Junior drivers they have to make sure they keep their moving violation infractions under a set number or else have to either take additional classes for safe driving or end up loosing their driving privilege's completely if too many moving infractions (not something like parking tickets)...

Also maybe worth a discussion with your insurance agent and see what they can provide in the way of insight. How close would another violation be for your family policy being cancelled as an example?

2 Bicycles and helmets maybe to supplement the pain of driving only when parents are available and your work schedules.

[gravitylover]

mind boggling to me that a 22 year old can't drive. Not trying to be rude, but is it ineptness? Or just liking the no vehicle lifestyle?

No she's just no good at it. The surprising part is she handles a mt bike like no other kid I know and she's pretty smooth at most athletic endeavors but can't seem to coordinate it all to drive a car. The not driving thing has been a hindrance in a few aspects because the public transportation system here sucks and the nearest bus stop is an unwalkable mile and half away. We're going to try again when the snow melts back a bit and the roads go back to regular width, I'm hoping that as she has matured that level of coordination needed has grown with her.