TTW: Street Survival.

Last Saturday I volunteered to help out with a program called the Street Survival Teen Safety Driving School, which was run by the local BMW club. There were about 30 kids in the school, 15 instructors, and a handful of volunteers including me, there to chase down errant road cones from the course. Rather than try to describe the school poorly in my own words, I'll use some of their website text:

"The primary emphasis of the Street Survival school is a "hands-on" driving experience in real-world situations. We use your own car to teach you about its handling limits and how you can control them."

After seeing how awful these kids were on their first road session and how much they improved throughout the day, I'm completely convinced of the value of this kind of instruction. If you are the parent of or know a teenager, get them into one of these courses. Not only do they learn to be more confident behind the wheel, the class does an excellent job of teaching car control and accident avoidance.

The best $60 you'll ever spend.