Dear clients and past patrons,

First of all we at Dollar driving school would like to wish everyone a safe and healthy and prosperous 2016.

The reason we are reaching out to our past patrons and clients is to remind everyone that this is an El Niño year. What this means is that our normal driving habits need to be flexible and modified with the rainy season ahead. Clearly in a drought ridden state we find ourselves needing much rain ahead, this also means that we have to be extra cautious. Extra cautious are two words possibly even a thought you will keep present in your mind. I would like to give you some pointers that you should clearly take into consideration in the rainy season.

1. Please keep an increased following distance, more than you would normally exercise. In the rain a 6 to 8 second following distance can make all the difference. For those of you who forget how to calculate the following distance take a fixed point in front of you, when a car passes that point start counting seconds until you reach that point. 70% of all car collisions are rear end collisions a good safe cushion will keep you most likely out of trouble and danger.

2. Please consider slowing down in rainy weather and wet surfaces. It really does not matter what other people think or do what does matter is getting to your destination safely. Cars generally begin to hydroplane somewhere between 35 to 45 mph. There are numerous variables due to condition of tires and design of vehicles, nevertheless upwards of 45 mph on wet surfaces is clearly tricky in an emergency situation. Remember the only rush that exists is between our ears it is better to lose a second in our lives then lose our lives in a second.

3. Please remember when you can exercise the option of going out on the road in severe weather conditions or staying where you are, often a smart choice is stay where you are.

4. Please remember when driving on wet roads and you find yourself traversing large bodies of water or large pools of water to slow down significantly as traction between your wheels may be different and what lies below the surface of the water is not visible. You may think you are going through two or three inches of water and hit a severe pothole that could damage your car that you could not see.

5. Please remember when driving on winding roads that have angled surfaces where streams of water run from one side of the road to the other to slow down when traversing those areas as they can cause loss of traction resulting in out of control skidding in curves.

6. Make sure that your windshield wipers work and you have wipers that are new or in good condition to clear away rain. Make sure that your brakes are functioning properly. Make sure that your tires are in good condition with plenty of tread, and tire pressure is correct. This all sounds and should be elementary, but sometimes as humans are, they forget to check these simple lifesaving measures.

I hope these pointers are of assistance to you and your families, friends and love ones. Please remember that Dollar Driving School made every effort to teach you how to drive safely and intelligently we hope you continue in that manner.

Finally we look forward to serving you and your families and friends in the future. Wishing you safe and happy travels.

Dollar Driving School

Here’s a video from National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA/NIH) that we would like to share which has very useful information for the future driving public.

DSAC was proud to help the CHP with their Chips for Kids drive  once again this year. A sizable contribution was achieved this year, with some generous personal contributions from member schools and DSAC on behalf of the rest of it’s membership.

The gifts were presented by past DSAC President Robert J. Stahl of Dollar Driving school to our friend and companion in our mutual efforts for improvement in driver safety, CHP Public information officer Leland Tang.

Image courtesy Wonderlane

Dear friends and Clients,

Please consider this Holiday season that we are dealing with a different season which effects our driving. We will be dealing with visibility problems, such as rain, fog and earlier night fall. We also will be dealing with increased holiday traffic and since the price of gas has come down a great deal that also means more people will be driving. Always give yourself extra time so you are not in a rush. All these reasons are a good reason to slow down. Also remember that at this time of the year people have a great deal on their minds shopping trying to do much more than usual in one day. They do not call the lazy days of summer by mistake, winter on the other hand is frenetic. It is a time of pressure and rush, rush, rush. So consider that and be careful out there you do not want to mess up your own Holiday season let alone someone else’s. Remember the Holiday season should be one of joy not sadness so drive safely and think of others.

Can I go just over the speed limit by five or ten miles per hour?

You “can.” You can get away with many things in life. However, should you?

We all know that you should not. 

First, most drivers do not understand speed, at all.  What I mean by that is the effect of speed and physical laws. For example, if your car weighs 2,000 pounds and it is going 10 miles per hour that equates to 20,000 pounds of impact velocity. Now, assume you are traveling at 50 miles per hour; that is 100,000 pounds of impact velocity. Impact velocity is weight for that one moment, imagine 100,000 pounds even for a moment is crushing power. A two hundred pound individual represents 10,000 pounds of impact velocity at 50 mph, coming to a crushing halt against an air bag and seatbelt. 

Unfortunately, most people do not understand the physical forces they are dealing with – they just understand the thrill. 

Second, let us now consider the law. The “Prima Facie” law sets a maximum speed limit. The “California Basic Speed” law states that one should never drive faster than what is safe for the prevailing conditions.  When we decide that it is “all right” to ignore a posted speed limit, then we are taking the law into our own hands and breaking it. Therefore, any time you are over a posted or non-posted speed limit, the police can stop you and issue a citation for speeding. Make no mistake – yes, even if you are two or five miles over the speed limit, you have committed an offense and can receive a ticket. Some might argue that officers allow minor leeway. This is true. However, which officer will and which will not permit this leeway? How are they feeling that day? You just do not know. It is simply not worth it. My advice is to follow the law. Remember, when the government establishes a speed limit, it is a compromise between what the authorities believe is safe, and the type of vehicle that can safely drive and negotiate that particular road.  It is not there to make your life miserable, but to protect your life and the lives of others.

So, why else should we not speed? Well, it definitely kills. Regretfully, Paul Walker, the famous actor from “Fast and Furious,” and his friend, tragically found out the hard way. Incredibly, they were not ignorant of speed, at all. They had worked around it and built a career on it. Yet, they took speed into their hands and lost control of their vehicle, driving at over a hundred miles per hour, on a road built for no more than possibly 40 or 45 mph. Even professional, highly skilled Formula 1 drivers will tell you themselves that there is great inherent risk in speed, and that the cost of a mistake is often catastrophic. 

If people would think before they speed, they would most likely choose not to. If people realized you could destroy another life, as well as your own, most people would refrain from doing it. The problem is our personality. The more we do something and do not suffer the consequences of our actions, the more we are convinced it is “ok” – we can handle it. Therefore, the five mph over the speed limit soon becomes ten mph over, and so on.  One of my instructors had a wonderful saying: “Better to lose a second in your life than lose your life in a second.” That was great advise.

For years there has been well established evidence, that the new 16 year old driver has been one of, if not the most deadly groups of drivers on the road.

Insurance companies, law enforcement, the government and private industry from the driving school industry and educators to corporations have worked very hard together to stem the tide of these young useless deaths and tragedies. Through legislative efforts and education there has been some success but something unexpected happened.  Young drivers began to wait to drive.  Clearly this contributed to the favorable statistics that show a drop in mortality of this age demographic.  However a picture over the past 5 to 10 years has been evolving, and that now shows a shift of the mortality rates from the 16 year olds to the 18 to 19 year olds.  In fact they are killing themselves four times more often than previously.  A closer look reveals to a great extent what has been happening.

Many families, and 16 and 17 year olds could not afford or chose not to face the high price of insurance, gas, cars and training requirements and have chosen to delay their legal driving status. However once they are close to 18 they begin with no professional training and totally avoid the minor licensing requirements, learning on their own or with family members.  Often when they get their license at 18 or there about, they are also away from home and shortly after that in college or living on their own.  Thus they have missed the vital professional training they need from a driving school and lose two years of driving under the regulations for minors and parental supervision. 

It should come as no surprise to hear and see so many more young adults in the 18 to 20 age group killing and maiming themselves and others.

What can be done.  It is a challenge for sure but here are a few thoughts on the matter.

1. Start training your young driver as soon as you feel they are mature enough to handle it, but remember if they get licensed early it means more experience under your supervision which is vital.
2. Avoiding good professional training to save money is something that will cost more later on for sure.
3. Parents are not instructors, in many cases they are average and even mediocre and do not know what a good professional knows, and should not try to replace them, but instead work with the professional to improve the next generation of driver.
4. Remember what you don”t know will hurt you! And your child!

I have been an instructor since 1980 and on the board of directors of the Driving School Association of California since 1989. Almost every year since I can remember, students and parents have asked me or more to the point told me that as of such and such year kids born after that year will have to be 18 before they get a licence. The answer is the same then as now.

THERE IS NO LAW BEING CONTEMPLATED OR ON THE BOOKS AT THIS POINT IN TIME.

1. As President of the Driving School Association of California I can assure you we have a paid lobbyist in Sacramento and no law has been proposed or is considered at this point in time 10/21/2012.
2. Generally the public gets what it wants in California, and most parents want their kids driving at 16 if they wish, and the reason in most cases is, the parents are happy to not be tied to driving the kids everywhere and welcome the family help.
3. Actually raising the age to 18 although it sounds good in theory it really is not for those who understand the problem. At 16 a teen getting a license will be under parental supervision for at least 2 years of driving, gaining hopefully some valuable experience and maturity. At 18 kids are not often at home and are off in College and learning without parental supervision or training requirements. This puts a young driver out on the road without supervision let alone the college experience.

The sad truth is that the statistics have been going up on the 18 and 19 year olds in fatal or serious accidents as the stats have been dropping on the 16 year olds that are getting trained. The reason is because after 18 there are no mandatory training requirements and youngsters have been waiting until they can turn 18 to avoid paying for training and have the stiffer driving requirements imposed on them. So what is being proposed is to close that loop hole and require teens up to 20 to do Driver Education and Training, so they hit the road with some professional knowledge and training.

Driving, although different throughout the world, holds many similarities as well. I just returned from one of many European vacations, and once again was reminded of the challenges of driving in Europe. I was raised in Europe, learned to drive there and yet I still find it always a challenge. First of all I would not recommend driving in most of Europe for an inexperienced American driver, for several reasons.

1. Unless you are used to European signage beware it is different from the USA.
2. There are restricted areas, based on days, times and pedestrian zones, rendering the driving experience beyond hectic with the possibility of a costly error.
3. Finding a place to park is an exercise in patience that extends the learning curve to stellar reaches.
4. The further south one travels in Europe the concept of discipline in driving takes on a new meaning.
5. It is not that there are no good driving laws in Europe, or good drivers, there are to be sure, it is that in many countries there just is a lack of enforcement of laws and drivers.

Here are some experiences from our latest trip. We drove through Northern Italy to Austria and the Czech Republic and back through Germany Austria and again northern Italy.

Driving in the Czech Republic was very pleasant, the country side has good roads and good signage, except at times if you are not familiar with Czech it is a challenge to figure out where you are or what they mean. Having a GPS system is a tremendous help. The drivers were for the most part disciplined. The countryside is beautiful as are the towns and hamlets.

Prague like most European cities is a mix of old and new streets and can be challenging getting around. Parking was not terrible and the traffic was not unbearable from what I witnessed. However my advise leave the driving in the city to the local Taxi drivers and the countryside to the tourist buses.

In Germany and Austria the driving was well disciplined with good signage and well built roads. The cities although charming and interesting still have similar issues they are a mix of old and new city with small streets and also modern streets, parking can be a challenge and the drivers do tend to drive faster than they should, but they seem comfortable with the excess speeds.

If one is inclined to drive here learn your international signs and be aware of areas that are restricted to vehicle traffic. By the way there is no right turn on red in Europe, well at least a legal one.

Now Italy, Italy is a marvel to see and drive, It is a country as most European lands, that challenges you to keep your eyes on the road as the countryside is so magnificent. Within short drives you find yourself going from Alps to lakes to rivers and cities. Castles on mountainsides to vineyards on hill sides. Tight winding mountain roads that challenge the driver in you, to open highways where you get passed by a Ferrari that makes you feel like you are parked even when you are going 120 kilometers an hour (74 mph). All this joy of driving ends when you hit the cities like if you ran into a brick wall. The cities are a real challenge even for the veteran driver. You are surrounded by darting Vespas and motorcycles, and cars that believe they occupy the same space of a Vespa. If you remember Dumas line from the three Musketeers “All for one and one for all” well driving here is the opposite, All for none and one for themselves is more exact. The Italian is a rare breed from the most charming hospitable kind people to unrecognizable behind the wheel of a car’ with some exceptions. They double park endlessly putting on their emergency flashers and leaving their cars in the middle of the street to go have a coffee or Gellato in the local bar. They cut in an out of traffic lanes, but then of course there are no traffic lanes in the city for the most part. Red lights are often ignored, and the concept of right of way is as foreign to most Italian drivers as steak and eggs for breakfast is. When not double parking or parking on a sidewalk or half a curb, one is trolling for a place to park that can take minutes to hours hence the parking irregularities. If you find it hard to drive one day without seeing a law enforcement officer ticketing someone back home, you can drive for weeks without seeing a person getting a ticket in Italy. You will get honked at endlessly if you drive in a disciplined manner, if you stop for a pedestrian they will most likely smile incredulously at you. Driving in Italy is an experience but not for the faint of heart. There are clearly wonderful disciplined drivers in Italy as was my father inlaw, but they are a breed that is out numbered for sure. Lastly the Taxi cab drivers are good in Italy, they drive well and have a good handle on the experience so when you can leave it to them , I did.