Lead By Example

Q: My wife is a terrible driver. That’s not me being sexist. She even sort of knows how bad she is. She glides through stop signs, she’s a tailgater and she drives with her left leg bent at the knee, her foot resting on the seat. The list goes on and on. She admits she does “a few things wrong” and promises that when our 10-year-old twins get older and closer to driving age, she’ll clean up her act so she’ll be a better role model. I think that’s too late. Got anything besides gut feeling that can help convince her to do it now? A: Yes, plenty. Social scientists long have known that kids take in and copy more of their parents’ behaviors than parents would ever imagine. And now there’s evidence of this specifically relating to driving. A national study Toyota conducted with the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute a couple of years back found that what parents do behind the wheel has a far greater impact on how kids will drive than what parents say about proper driving. So important is the parental influence that when Toyota constructed its online safe driving program, “TeenDrive 365,” a chief building blocks is that parents model safer driving behaviors. “We like to say that driver’s education begins the day a parent turns their child’s car seat around to face forward,” Dr. Tina Sayer, Toyota’s teen safe driving expert, is fond of saying. Some 5,500 kids and parents participated in the study. Among findings: In general, parents who engage in distracting behaviors wind up with kids who engage in distracting behaviors more often than the kids of parents who do not; about half of teens reported that they used a hand-held cell phone while driving, and that was about the same percentage of the parents who admitted they do. There’s much more, but you catch the drift. And then there’s this (anecdotal but worth sharing): The very worst driver of my friends (aggressive tailgater who gesticulates madly as she’s “driving,” and has never been known to completely stop at a stop sign) has two 20-something sons. One has totaled two cars; one has had a significant accident. Coincidence? What’s your question? Sharon Peters would like to hear about what’s on your mind when it comes to caring for, driving and repairing your vehicle. Email Sharon@ctwfeatures.com.