Columnist finds way for son to exceed common denominator

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Special to the Star

“Can I use the car today?”

This isn’t a tough question, for the most part. My son Christopher is 18. He’s been driving — and driving well — for over two years. His record is clear. There’s usually a car here for him to use, his cellphone is off when he’s driving, he makes curfew, and he ferries his little brother around so I don’t have to.

“Can I drive up to the cottage?”

I hate this. Legally, if you are a licenced driver in this province, you are clear to drive on all the public roads within it. Yet to pass that test, you need never have set wheels on a highway, let alone performed under stressful circumstances at high speed. So I’m stuck wringing my hands with no good reason to turn down his request.

I believe the requirements to get a licence in this province are lacking. I do not believe we are strenuous enough in teaching excellent driving skills; instead, we teach test-passing skills. The incidents and collisions you see all around you, every day, are testament to this. Lower fatality rates on our roads are due to increased vehicle safety features, not better drivers.

Audi Uptown was sponsoring their annual Day at the Track. This day is for customers, though other schools do use the track for similar events. I’ve attended several schools there over the years, as well as advanced training in smaller locales. When they asked me to join them, I had a counter-proposal: could Christopher do the driving?

A teenager may not be the customer Audi is thinking about, yet it occurred to me that is exactly who should be attending these types of schools. Kids involved in traffic tragedies are often in the driver’s seat of a parent’s car — a high-performance, high-powered car.

When Christopher had had his G1 for about an hour, he attended an advanced training school in a smaller venue. It was a terrific start to his driving career, experiencing handling, sudden stops and collision avoidance at urban speeds. But as extended highway driving moved into the picture, I realized it is difficult to replicate the skills at higher speeds. You need a controlled setting.

I told him none of this, of course. He was signed up to drive one of his dream cars for a day. That’s all he knew, or cared about.

Most 18-year-olds believe they are the best drivers in the world. As I crawled into the back seat of the Audi TT Quattro that was his for the day, I watched the grin spread on Christopher’s face as he grasped the steering wheel. He didn’t actually make engine revving sounds, but it was close. I sighed. We all know people with more experience make far better drivers, right?

Actually, I learned a lot of things that day from the back seat.

The best drivers have excellent vision. I don’t mean they don’t need corrective lenses. I mean they are constantly scanning up and ahead for any changes. In urban settings, this means cars backing out of a driveway, someone about to run a red light, car doors opening, or kids chasing a ball onto the road. At higher speeds, it’s merging traffic, slow-moving vehicles, lane hoppers, someone stopped on the shoulder, or emergency crews.

Christopher has been riding dirt bikes since he was very young. It’s given him a definite advantage in his driving skills — he’s used to choosing lines on a track, and anticipating what others are going to do in front of him. I’ve frequently found that people who drive motorcycles are better drivers — skills they need to just stay alive on a bike lend themselves to better awareness in a car. Watching from the back seat as the instructor led him through the physics of a corner, I finally appreciated the application of a skill set he’d had ingrained since kindergarten.

I was reminded of the importance of letting someone else teach them how to drive. Practising with me is fine, but the best drivers are good learners, and the best learners are good listeners. Christopher listened. I watched him adjust his approach as he repeated drills, each time tweaking and honing according to input from his instructor. He asked questions, and he was determined to be better each time. High driving standards shouldn’t be for some, they should be for everyone.

Hopping out of the car, I observed him taking on the collision avoidance part of the course. Cones are set up in a designated lane, but at the last second, the instructor tells you to veer right or left. This can be nerve wracking, as you typically try to anticipate the coming direction. The point of the exercise is that you can’t predict when something will jump out in front out you, you can only react. You have to learn to make your reactions immediate, safe and smooth.

Younger drivers may have less experience in handling an emergency situation like this, but they have the benefit of better reflexes. I watched cones popping off all over in a group of drivers of all ages and genders, but they weren’t coming from a reckless teenage boy.

Ideally, we should be striving for a combination of practiced drivers who have been tested under a wide variety of circumstances. It’s the decisions forced upon you in an emergency that separate the highly skilled from the lightly tutored. Just as younger drivers must augment their lack of experience, older ones must consider that time can erode many facets of their abilities.

I’d begun the day determined to stay on the periphery, to observe and see my son through unbiased eyes. I’ll continue to encourage him to become an excellent driver, which will include his first trip north next week.

Christopher began the day staring at the keyfob he’d been handed. He looked at me, one eyebrow raised questioningly. I reached over the touched the button that flipped out the key.

There’s still one or two things he doesn’t know.

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