Green Driver's Ed
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Green Driver’s Ed (Green Driver’s Education) is an emerging way of thinking within the driving school community that adds environmental awareness as a core component to the traditional drivers education curriculum. Advocates of an environmentally conscious drivers education program feel that incorporating eco-friendly conservation concepts into the standard driver’s ed curriculum and training materials can be a vital technique used in getting young drivers “thinking green” from an early age.
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[edit] Green Driver’s Ed Curriculum
A well taught drivers training curriculum fulfils two important components for new drivers : teaching them the rules of the road (traffic safety laws) and giving them behind-the-wheel instruction on how to handle an automobile safely. A green drivers ed curriculum goes a step further by injecting concepts of conservation and eco-friendliness into the traditional course material. This can be accomplished in many ways:
1) Within the drivers education course itself, providing relevant statistics and real world examples about driving with an environmental conscious (curriculum includes topics such as carpooling, keeping tires properly inflated, using low emission vehicles, etc.)
2) Using ‘paperless’ courses to teach students the drivers education concepts that were once taught in a classroom using books, papers, and pencils. With several states in the US now allowing internet based drivers ed classes, drivers education requirements can now be fulfilled completely online without wasting paper usually used for manuals, written tests, and handouts. Another obvious advantage of an online driving school classroom? Students do not burn gas or emit excess fumes coming to and from class (as there is no need to be driven to a classroom).
3) Introducing students to alternatives in transportation by introducing concepts like hybrid technology that students may not otherwise be exposed to. California driving schools like [Drivers Ed Direct] employ this philosophy by using an entirely hybrid drivers training fleet to show teens that when it comes to driving hybrids “there truly is no difference in the way these vehicles are driven” .[1] but burn less fuel.
[edit] Critics of Green Driver’s Ed
Many driving school traditionalists have argued that a green driver’s ed curriculum is not an effective means to train drivers education concepts to teenagers. Their main point of contention is that an online drivers education course is not an adequate substitution for an in class drivers education course. Though both drivers education methods (classroom vs. online) provide their own advantages, the results of a [CA DMV] study conducted in 2003 show that students who received their education online or via a computer based program outperformed and tested higher on their exit exams than students who sat through the traditional classroom training.
[edit] History of Green Driver’s Ed
The first Green Driving School, [DriversEdDirect.com], opened in 2005 in Southern California. They are the only recognized driving school providing an online drivers ed course and utilizing a drivers training fleet comprised entirely of hybrid cars and hybrid SUVs. Now more than ever, other driving schools in states like California, Florida, and Nevada are at least going “semi-green” by offering online drivers education courses.