Behind the Wheel Training

What is the point of driving if you cannot get on and off the roadway? We will cover all the tips and tricks to entering and exiting traffic safely.

For instance, do you know how much space you need to make a right turn onto a roadway? It's a trick question. The space depends on the speed of the oncoming traffic, so instead of teaching a specific distance, we teach time: you need an 8 second gap in traffic to make a right turn onto a roadway.

Road signs, signals, and lane markings are all put in place to communicate important information. Shapes, colors, and symbols all have meaning. Drivers need to be able to understand that communication and react appropriately.

Using the information we gather from signs, signals, and lane makings, we will identify the various types of intersections and practice the proper procedures for navigating through them.

Did you know that more collisions happen at controlled intersections than at uncontrolled intersections? We will teach your driver why that happens and how to avoid being one of those statistics.

Right-of-Way Right-of-Way rules can be equated to good manners for drivers. They tell us when we should yield to other roadway users. Right-of-Way rules permeate every aspect of driving on public roads and there are specific rules for encountering intersections, emergency vehicles, funeral processions, pedestrians, expressway-lane-changes, reversible lanes, and more.

Proper Stops Are you one of those people? You know, the ones who don't really stop at stop signs. After all, that big red sign is only a suggestion, right? Well, actually... Did you know that over 40% of traffic fatalities happen at intersections controlled by stop signs?

Likewise, about 70 percent of all crashes at one and two-way stop signs involve the same basic pattern — a vehicle that's required to stop doesn't, or it stops and fails to yield, and then it collides at an angle with another vehicle going across the intersection. We must change the way we react to stop signs, and at National Driver Training, that change begins with the way we teach our students to make proper stops.

*Statistics provided by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety

Right and Left Turns Ever since the invention of the second road, people have had to learn how to negotiate turns safely. As roadways have gotten more complex, and traffic has gotten heavier, proper turns have gotten more important. We will teach your new driver all seven steps of a proper turn, and why it is important to follow them in order.

Sharing the Road Pedestrians, passenger cars, pickup trucks, parcel deliveries—all kinds of roadway users travel our neighborhood streets, and we interact with each one if different ways. In this lesson, we will introduce the concept of sharing the road and put it into practice.

Of all the space outside the vehicle, the driver only has control of the space to the front—the following distance from the next car ahead. Many drivers sacrifice this space, wrongly thinking they will arrive at their destination faster, or maneuver through traffic more efficiently.

We teach our students to value a good following distance as the driver's best tool for avoiding collisions because it grants the driver time to assess an emergency and maneuver (stop, steer, or both) to avoid it.

We use the term, “sign management,” to encompass traffic signs, traffic signals, and lane markings. On roads with higher speeds and traffic volume, sign management becomes even more critical for route planning, risk reduction, and collision avoidance.

This environment is likely to have more traffic signals, so we will introduce concepts such as the “stale green light,” and “point of no return.” We will also teach the proper way to use a shared center turn lane (hint, it should be used for turns, not for driving a significant distance).

Some people struggle to draw a straight line, and some drivers struggle to drive in a straight line.

We will teach your new driver to use lane markings along with vehicle reference points to obtain and maintain a proper lane position. The student will also learn when it is appropriate to use alternate lane positions.

Of all the basic maneuvers that a new driver must learn, lane changes are often feared the most because of the likelihood of drifting out of the lane unintentionally.

We teach our students a four-step process to change lanes and we include a fool-proof method to keep a straight lane position while checking to see if it is safe to merge.

Commercial streets offer our first opportunity to introduce parallel parking. After about 15 minutes in a parking lot, your new driver should be able to parallel park within the lines of a standard curbside parking space.

In the session 3, we focused on the three-second rule of thumb for following distance. In the final sessions, we will continue to practice good following distance and look for indicators that we should increase the following distance.

On roads with higher speeds and traffic volume, sign management becomes even more critical for route planning, risk reduction, and collision avoidance. At higher speeds, we need to look farther ahead and recognize signs, signals, and markings sooner.

Lane management requires visual attention to our vehicle reference points as well as small adjustments to the steering wheel to keep the vehicle properly positioned within the lane.

At higher speeds, these small adjustments have a greater effect on the lane position, so we will practice “micro-adjustments” that provide smooth and appropriate lane management.

Lane changes at low speeds with light traffic are easy, but we will not always have perfect conditions for when we need to change lanes.

In this session, we will practice lane changes at higher speeds and traffic. We will learn how to effectively communicate with other drivers, how to adjust speed and lane position to successfully change lanes in traffic, and how to get back on our intended path of travel if we miss a necessary lane change or turn.

In previous sessions, we focused on the three-second rule of thumb for following distance. In the final sessions, we will continue to practice good following distance and look for indicators that we should increase the following distance.

On roads with higher speeds and traffic volume, sign management becomes even more critical for route planning, risk reduction, and collision avoidance. At higher speeds, we need to look farther ahead and recognize signs, signals, and markings sooner.

Lane management requires visual attention to our vehicle reference points as well as small adjustments to the steering wheel to keep the vehicle properly positioned within the lane.

At higher speeds, these small adjustments have a greater effect on the lane position, so we will practice “micro-adjustments” that provide smooth and appropriate lane management.

Entering traffic on a highway can be a daunting task. In addition to practicing our timed gaps to enter traffic, we will also practice good route planning and use controlled intersections when they are available.

Lane management requires visual attention to our vehicle reference points as well as small adjustments to the steering wheel to keep the vehicle properly positioned within the lane.

At higher speeds, these small adjustments have a greater effect on the lane position, so we will practice “micro-adjustments” that provide smooth and appropriate lane management.

Tractor trailers, over-sized loads, and construction vehicles, oh my—highways will introduce us to larger vehicles and (in some cases) more aggressive drivers. In this lesson, we will expand our idea of sharing the road to accommodate traffic that we find on intra-state and interstate roadways.

Expressway speeds to drop as traffic increases. In these situations, proper following distance is crucial to prevent a multi-car pile-ups.

On roads with higher speeds and traffic volume, sign management becomes even more critical for route planning, risk reduction, and collision avoidance. At higher speeds, we need to look farther ahead and recognize signs, signals, and markings sooner.

A minor steering adjustment or a moment of inattention at expressway speeds can send a car out entirely out of its lane. We will use old-school tricks and modern technology to teach the new driver how to maintain good lane positioning.

While the basic steps of lane changing are the same, on the expressway, lane changes also have special right-of-way rules. The new driver will practice lane changes on the expressway and demonstrate an understanding of the special conditions that come into play.

Tractor trailers, oversized loads, and construction vehicles, oh my—highways will introduce us to larger vehicles and (in some cases) more aggressive drivers.

In this lesson, we will expand our idea of sharing the road to accommodate traffic that we find on intra-state and interstate roadway.

It is time to go back to the parking lot and set up some cones to review parallel parking.

If the opportunity is available, we will park in an actual parallel parking space, or practice the maneuver at an official test location.