Whether you’re a parent who is anxiously anticipating your teen’s novice driving experience, a family looking for guidance during the minimum two-year process a new driver goes through, or a teen unfamiliar with the surprisingly high risks that teenagers face behind the wheel, this Family Guide is intended to be helpful to everyone involved. Our purpose is to take any anxiety and uncertainties you may feel and replace them with specific actions you can take to manage the risks of teen driving in your family. In addition, we have three specific goals for this Guide: *Inform family members about the risks of teen driving based on solid, scientific evidence, *Provide practical advice about ways to reduce that risk, also based on solid, scientific evidence, and *Encourage parent-teen cooperation and involvement throughout the entire process from learning to drive through independent driving. Our overall objective is to provide our readers with helpful information and advice about teen driving based on the most updated evidence available to us. We want to share with families the proven methods that help diminish the serious dangers teens face in the first months and 1,000 miles after they begin to drive. How risky is novice teen driving? Is there anything that can be done to reduce risks? Families know driving involves risk, but they often don’t know how much or how best to react to it. Some parents may think, “We all made it through okay,” but many others rightly wonder, “Are there new ways to reduce the risks teenage drivers face behind the wheel?” The first goal of this Guide is to provide a realistic picture of the risks of teen driving. Family members should be anxious about teen driving, because driving comes with substantially higher risks for novice teenage drivers than it does for adult drivers. In fact, driving may represent the highest exposure to risk that most teenagers will face in their lifetime. However, there are ways to reduce the risk. We can turn our concerns into concrete steps to protect the teen driver, and that’s what this Guide is intended to help you do. Scientific evidence is the foundation for all the recommendations, charts and advice in this Guide. The information provided is based on the latest research and evidence used by the highway safety community. It comes from tried-and-true practices for teaching teens to drive and the newest approaches to structuring teen driving privileges currently being incorporated into traffic laws around the world. The scientific facts do two important things for us. First, they dispel the myth that only “troubled” or “daredevil” teens are in danger of crashing. In fact, all teens are in danger, simply because of their youth and lack of driving experience. Second, the scientific facts show us which methods actually help reduce driving risks for all novice teen drivers. The second goal of this Guide is to provide practical, how-to advice on ways families can reduce teen driving risks. Parents have to be actively involved in the teen driving process. Equipped with the scientific evidence and specific suggestions from our advisors, parents can make a real impact on the odds that their teen drivers will come home safely. The design, content, and writing of the Guide were based on consultation with a wide range of experts, including scientists, researchers, highway traffic safety professionals, doctors, public health workers, driver education instructors, automotive manufacturing safety experts, law enforcement officers, and insurance officials. All of these individuals have dedicated their careers to promoting teen driver safety and most of them are or were parents of teen drivers themselves. The cumulative expertise of these men and women represents thousands of hours of time and attention devoted to understanding the risks facing teen drivers and ways to improve their safety. This Guide is rich with their personal experiences and professional knowledge. At the end of most sections, you’ll find “Advice” boxes filled with practical suggestions for ways to reduce teen driving risks. Many of the points in the “Advice” boxes have been chosen based on their effective use in states implementing new approaches to structuring teen driving privileges. Our third goal is to promote parent-teen involvement and cooperation in teen driving. We strongly encourage your family to map out the timing of the teen driving process that meets your family’s unique needs. We refer to this process as your Family’s Plan. This plan has several important parts, including setting rules and limits for learning to drive and for driving independently. We discuss all the parts of your Family’s Plan at length in upcoming sections. To better navigate the road to teen driving, both parent and teen need to have a broad overview of the entire driving process right from the start. This includes knowing your state’s requirements for teen driving and determining the timing of the process for your family. In addition, you’ll need to work as a family. You will need to talk to each other, set expectations, and anticipate steps along the way. We’ve designed the sections in the Guide so you can tailor a “road map” for teen driving in your family. In each section, we explain information you need to know about teen driving using scientific data. Then we offer specific “how-to” advice for ways to manage your teen’s driving experience. The Guide follows the timeline of the journey your teen will take from learning to drive to becoming an independent driver. It includes everything from getting ready to apply for a learner’s permit, going through the licensing process, and on to driving independence. We want you to be able to use this Guide as a comprehensive resource throughout your teen’s driving experience, whether you read from beginning to end or simply pick and choose the sections that are relevant to your family at any point during the process. The next section, “Quick Start,” summarizes key concepts in the guide. “Quick Start” will give you an idea of the new evidence about the risks of teen driving, and the new techniques being developed to reduce those risks. It’s a good place to begin your teen’s journey to driving independence Whether you’re a parent who is anxiously anticipating your teen’s novice driving experience, a family looking for guidance during the minimum two-year process a new driver goes through, or a teen unfamiliar with the surprisingly high risks that teenagers face behind the wheel, this Family Guide is intended to be helpful to everyone involved. Our purpose is to take any anxiety and uncertainties you may feel and replace them with specific actions you can take to manage the risks of teen driving in your family. In addition, we have three specific goals for this Guide: *Inform family members about the risks of teen driving based on solid, scientific evidence, * Provide practical advice about ways to reduce that risk, also based on solid, scientific evidence, and * Encourage parent-teen cooperation and involvement throughout the entire process from learning to drive through independent driving. Our overall objective is to provide our readers with helpful information and advice about teen driving based on the most updated evidence available to us. We want to share with families the proven methods that help diminish the serious dangers teens face in the first months and 1,000 miles after they begin to drive. How risky is novice teen driving? Is there anything that can be done to reduce risks? Families know driving involves risk, but they often don’t know how much or how best to react to it. Some parents may think, “We all made it through okay,” but many others rightly wonder, “Are there new ways to reduce the risks teenage drivers face behind the wheel?” The first goal of this Guide is to provide a realistic picture of the risks of teen driving. Family members should be anxious about teen driving, because driving comes with substantially higher risks for novice teenage drivers than it does for adult drivers. In fact, driving may represent the highest exposure to risk that most teenagers will face in their lifetime. However, there are ways to reduce the risk. We can turn our concerns into concrete steps to protect the teen driver, and that’s what this Guide is intended to help you do. Scientific evidence is the foundation for all the recommendations, charts and advice in this Guide. The information provided is based on the latest research and evidence used by the highway safety community. It comes from tried-and-true practices for teaching teens to drive and the newest approaches to structuring teen driving privileges currently being incorporated into traffic laws around the world. The scientific facts do two important things for us. First, they dispel the myth that only “troubled” or “daredevil” teens are in danger of crashing. In fact, all teens are in danger, simply because of their youth and lack of driving experience. Second, the scientific facts show us which methods actually help reduce driving risks for all novice teen drivers. The second goal of this Guide is to provide practical, how-to advice on ways families can reduce teen driving risks. Parents have to be actively involved in the teen driving process. Equipped with the scientific evidence and specific suggestions from our advisors, parents can make a real impact on the odds that their teen drivers will come home safely. The design, content, and writing of the Guide were based on consultation with a wide range of experts, including scientists, researchers, highway traffic safety professionals, doctors, public health workers, driver education instructors, automotive manufacturing safety experts, law enforcement officers, and insurance officials. All of these individuals have dedicated their careers to promoting teen driver safety and most of them are or were parents of teen drivers themselves. The cumulative expertise of these men and women represents thousands of hours of time and attention devoted to understanding the risks facing teen drivers and ways to improve their safety. This Guide is rich with their personal experiences and professional knowledge. At the end of most sections, you’ll find “Advice” boxes filled with practical suggestions for ways to reduce teen driving risks. Many of the points in the “Advice” boxes have been chosen based on their effective use in states implementing new approaches to structuring teen driving privileges. Our third goal is to promote parent-teen involvement and cooperation in teen driving. We strongly encourage your family to map out the timing of the teen driving process that meets your family’s unique needs. We refer to this process as your Family’s Plan. This plan has several important parts, including setting rules and limits for learning to drive and for driving independently. We discuss all the parts of your Family’s Plan at length in upcoming sections. To better navigate the road to teen driving, both parent and teen need to have a broad overview of the entire driving process right from the start. This includes knowing your state’s requirements for teen driving and determining the timing of the process for your family. In addition, you’ll need to work as a family. You will need to talk to each other, set expectations, and anticipate steps along the way. We’ve designed the sections in the Guide so you can tailor a “road map” for teen driving in your family. In each section, we explain information you need to know about teen driving using scientific data. Then we offer specific “how-to” advice for ways to manage your teen’s driving experience. The Guide follows the timeline of the journey your teen will take from learning to drive to becoming an independent driver. It includes everything from getting ready to apply for a learner’s permit, going through the licensing process, and on to driving independence. We want you to be able to use this Guide as a comprehensive resource throughout your teen’s driving experience, whether you read from beginning to end or simply pick and choose the sections that are relevant to your family at any point during the process. The next section, “Quick Start,” summarizes key concepts in the guide. “Quick Start” will give you an idea of the new evidence about the risks of teen driving, and the new techniques being developed to reduce those risks. It’s a good place to begin your teen’s journey to driving independence. (Author/publisher)
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