A More Useful Driver's Ed

One month ago – on December 26 – I was on the road, driving home from a family ski trip in Killington, Vermont. Snow was falling heavily; ice and slush covered the roads. Not far from the resort, the narrow mountain road started heading downhill. As I tried to brake gently at the beginning of a tight curve, my car skidded on the ice.

I lost control of my 4,000-pound SUV for a few terrifying moments. I was headed straight towards a collision with another car from the opposite direction. In the end, I managed to avoid the crash; I took my only other option – a ditch on the side of the road. My car came to a rest inches away from the jagged edge of a mountain cliff.

My story is not unique. It has been known for a long time now that snowfall greatly enhances the dangers of driving. There have been numerous studies linking increased rates of car crashes and snow. In 1997, Keith Knapp, Leland Smithson, and Aemal Khattak found that the rate of car crashes in snowstorms in Iowa was 14 times higher than the non-storm crash rate; in 1998, Mircea-Paul Andreescu and David Frost showed that 20 more accidents occurred on snowy days in Quebec than on dry days. Similar studies focusing on England and the US point to the same conclusion – that driving in the snow is dangerous.

The reasons are clear. Snowy conditions lead to slippery and slushy roads and decrease tire traction – a problem often compounded by lowered visibility and black ice. Drivers are more likely to lose control with cars slipping and skidding on icy surfaces. The difficulties are further exacerbated by drivers’ relative unfamiliarity with such situations.

Theoretically, driver’s education would teach all students how to deal with dangerous circumstances. However, my experience with driver’s ed suggested a different set of priorities – the instructors discussed driving on icy roads only briefly, even though ice can be seen on the roads here in Massachusetts for almost three months each year. Instructors were much more focused on the basics of driving, on ensuring that students understood the rules of the road.

The current driver’s ed curriculum in Massachusetts is bogged down by too many hours in the classroom. Drivers under the age of 18 must spend 30 hours in the classroom, drive for 12 hours with an instructor, complete 6 hours of observation from the backseat of a training vehicle, and log an additional 40 hours of driving. The practice hours on the road are undoubtedly helpful for teenagers as they begin to learn how to drive; however, the classroom instruction is often overly repetitive and of little benefit to the learner. The lessons I took were wasted on videos of road rage incidents. Far too many hours were spent on the same basic skills. Moreover, the observation hours are utterly useless–my instructor believed that there was nothing to be learned from the backseat of a car, and so I never logged a single one.

Indeed, some of the excess classroom and observation hours should be eliminated. Instead, teenage drivers in Massachusetts (and other northern states) should be required to spend half a day at schools dedicated to driving under extreme weather conditions. Such schools are naturally more prevalent in the northern states – the North Atlantic Chapter of the Audi Club sponsors a Winter Driving School each year in New Hampshire, while Bridgestone runs a similar school in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. These are just two examples (there are many others)—the important thing is that students at winter driving schools learn to maneuver in snowy and icy conditions by practicing through controlled skids.

Winter driving schools are needed because, truthfully, classroom lessons about driving on ice are useless in real life. No whiteboard diagram or instructional video can replicate actual road conditions. These lessons are tremendously difficult to apply on the road, since the proper course of action is entirely counterintuitive – most people are freaked out at the thought of turning into a skid and accelerating. Even though I have driven in the snow and on icy roads for years, I still panicked when my car began skidding out of control. In the heat of the moment, in that instant when I realized that the car was no longer responding to my touch and my control, I forgot all the lessons of driver’s education. Faced with an oncoming car, I froze.

Teaching students through action is much more effective than writing tips on a whiteboard – the only way to prevent panic is through practice. More experience with driving on snow will provide learners with a better feel for the road and their cars. Half a day spent outside at a winter driving school will make a bigger impact than a dozen hours wasted inside a classroom.

As much as I love the snow and the beauty it brings to winters in New England, its presence on our roads seriously increases the danger of driving. If we change the requirements of driver’s education in Massachusetts to include some form of winter driving practice or risk training, everyone can be a little more at ease on the road.

Franklin R. Li ’17, a Crimson editorial writer, lives in Canaday Hall.