Tips for Teaching Teens to Be Safe Drivers

In honor of this week’s Teen Driver Safety Week, which runs from October 16 through the 22nd, we’ve listed 5 tips on how to help your teen become a safe driver.

Of all the issues related to raising a teen, one of the top worries is about them driving on their own. Understandably so, with unfortunate facts and statistics around teen driving.

5 Ways to Get Your Teen Ready to Drive Safe

Here are 5 ways to help get your teen interested and comfortable about teen driving safety:

1. Enable Drive Detection in the Life360 app on your phone and on your teen’s phone. By allowing your teen to see your drives as well as their own, you will show your confidence in using this tool for positive feedback, rather than as a tool which goes behind their back.

2. Schedule 30 minutes each evening to go over your teen’s driving Events. Talk through how Events such as rapid braking and acceleration can be avoided by focusing on the road and driving at  safer speeds.

3. Provide positive feedback when the number of driving Events decreases. A new driver is inexperienced and will make mistakes, but focusing on improvement will encourage them rather than lower their confidence.

4. Gamify the experience, like rewarding good behavior with prizes like gas and gift cards.

5. Reiterate the importance of safe driving**.** Use statistics in a constructive manner, rather than in a fearful way, to help them understand the effects of habits like texting while driving, driving at night, or driving while impaired.

In addition to helping your teen become safer on the road, it’s also important to educate them on what to do in case of emergency. Simple things like fender benders, flat tires, and driving in severe weather can be scary to anyone, especially to someone who’s new on the road.