Full Description of Teaching Methods

The Six Hour Lesson at Pro-City Driving School

The professional grade six hour lesson design for the new sixteen years old student enrolled at Pro-City Driving School serves as the complete coaching guide for the instructor and student. It is simple to follow and successfully covers all the essential lessons for new 16 years old drivers that the State of New Jersey requires all commercial driving schools to teach. It begins with very basic instruction and progress in a step-by-step method. Whereas, at Pro-City Driving School we prefer to start all brand new drivers in parking lots or very quiet residential areas. This is extremely important, allowing the student to grow to a certain comfort level away from other road users, while also allowing the instructor to accurately assess the new student’s skill level for operating and controlling the vehicle…. Safely!

At Pro-City Driving School we try never to start new students in traffic, instead preferring the usage of professional methods that require student demonstration of task and instructor written assessments; the student must first be able to park next to the curb or place right tires 3 to 6 inches next to the curb, or in a parking lot, placing there tires within 6 inches next of the parking lines, turn hand-over-hand, corner smoothly, brake smoothly, pull into a driveway or parking space, and back out properly (straightening tires) before we head into traffic. Most students complete the above in 30 to 90 minutes and are ready for light traffic and residential turning.

Most of my previous students are successful drivers due to this precise method of teaching basic car control. However, ultimately it is the attitude of the new driver that will determine their level of safety while they operate their vehicles. Our attitude reflects in our driving.

It has been my professional experience, that parents are more comfortable knowing that their son or daughter is starting there driving away from traffic, especially in the first lesson. And on the other hand, I feel more comfortable asking the new driver to operate the vehicle in more challenging environments after completing the simple task.

Parents – The New Instructor --- A Special Note to All Parents of New Teenage Drivers

Please always realize that six-hours of driving does not make an average driver. The experts (and I use this term loosely) say that it takes 5 years of driving practice to become “average”. Therefore, you may want to consider strongly, purchasing additional driving lessons for your teenager after the six-hours of training for reinforcement of safe driving practices.

However, if you choose not to go that route, as most unfortunately do and you want to begin practicing with your new driver, as most will, please go very slow at first. Allow your new teenage driver, the opportunity to feel very comfortable with the household vehicle (remember you don’t have a dual brake!) away from traffic for about 20-45 minutes or whatever your judgment tells you. But remember that your level of comfort is the real litmus test!

At first practice parking, residential turning, straight reversing and pulling in and out of the driveway or parking spaces. Then move into light traffic, practicing right turns first before left turns, whatever your judgment tells you (the new instructor).

All good driving instructors understand that whenever a student driver makes a mistake, the instructor has probably made an error in judging the skill level of the student they are teaching. So if you find yourself yelling or getting too excited, pull back a little. My rule of thumb, especially in the beginning is, “a little less is always better than a little too much”. Slowly increase the new driver’s time and difficulty level for smoother transition and less stress