Sharon Stone Sued By Former Nanny
Bumper stickers to improve teen driving
Filed under: Just For Moms, Teens, Just For Dads, Health & Safety: Babies
I seem to be a little hung up on teen driving lately. In my state, teenagers can begin driving on their own at the age of 15! Only five other states allow unsupervised driving before the age of 16 and I think there is a good reason for that.
But even older teen drivers can suffer from lack of experience and common sense. How can a parent feel secure that their teenager is driving safely and responsibly when they aren't there to watch them?
Slap a Report My Teen bumper sticker sticker on their car, of course. Report My Teen is the brainchild of Texas mothers Kristi Broekhove and Erin Henochowicz. When their teenage sons began driving, they both worried about their inexperience and impulsiveness. In order to keep tabs on them, they came up with the bumper sticker idea.
The sticker is much like those you would see on commercial vehicles asking other drivers to report any unsafe driving. It is printed with a toll-free telephone number and a unique PIN number to identify the bad driver. Callers leave a voice message detailing the bad driving behavior they witnessed and the message is instantly forwarded to the parent's email.
My first thought is that the teenager with the bumper sticker is going to be in for a rash of pranks. I envision the friends of the young driver calling and leaving ridiculous messages. Which is why the service lets the parents hear the actual recorded messages themselves. This way, they can weed out the jokers. According to the website, "prank calls are easy to detect and can be cute and fun."
Other than the potential for receiving cute and fun fake reports, I can't really see any downside to this. The service costs $47.00 per year and although insurance companies are not offering discounts for using the stickers, the Report My Teen folks says they are working on that.
What do you think? Would you feel better with this bumper sticker on your kid's car?
But even older teen drivers can suffer from lack of experience and common sense. How can a parent feel secure that their teenager is driving safely and responsibly when they aren't there to watch them?
Slap a Report My Teen bumper sticker sticker on their car, of course. Report My Teen is the brainchild of Texas mothers Kristi Broekhove and Erin Henochowicz. When their teenage sons began driving, they both worried about their inexperience and impulsiveness. In order to keep tabs on them, they came up with the bumper sticker idea.
The sticker is much like those you would see on commercial vehicles asking other drivers to report any unsafe driving. It is printed with a toll-free telephone number and a unique PIN number to identify the bad driver. Callers leave a voice message detailing the bad driving behavior they witnessed and the message is instantly forwarded to the parent's email.
My first thought is that the teenager with the bumper sticker is going to be in for a rash of pranks. I envision the friends of the young driver calling and leaving ridiculous messages. Which is why the service lets the parents hear the actual recorded messages themselves. This way, they can weed out the jokers. According to the website, "prank calls are easy to detect and can be cute and fun."
Other than the potential for receiving cute and fun fake reports, I can't really see any downside to this. The service costs $47.00 per year and although insurance companies are not offering discounts for using the stickers, the Report My Teen folks says they are working on that.
What do you think? Would you feel better with this bumper sticker on your kid's car?
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ReaderComments (Page 1 of 1)
5-03-2007 @ 11:16AM
Jan Bay said...Insurance companies are saying that the reason they are raising
premiums so dramatically is because of all the payments for natural
disasters, etc. I think that a lot could be done to reduce the
number of accidents by raising the driving age of kids! There's no
way that a 15 yr old should be driving unsupervised. Maybe we could
solve the problems of physical fitness, greenhouse gas emissions and
the auto accidents associated with teen drivers by bringing back
bicycles! Stickers on the bumper are better than nothing, but they
don't completely address the issue.
Jan www.unique-baby-gear-ideas.com
Reply
5-03-2007 @ 12:21PM
caitlin said...Jan, there are a lot of places where riding a bike just isn't feasible. My husband bike commutes 22 miles a day, but we also have great bike paths, as well as shoulders on the road. My hometown barely has more than a token shoulder on their roads, and what sidewalks there are tend to be narrow and in poor repair. My hometown had no public transportation, or even a single taxi. Driving is really your only option.
I've been driving since I was 15 and never had a ticket until I was 26. Just because the law says 15 doesn't mean your child has to get their license right then. You're still the parent. The license age was 16 by the time my brother was old enough. He had to wait until he was 18 for his license because he wasn't responsible enough for one by our parents' standards.
I wouldn't use the bumper sticker when my son gets old enough to drive. I'd opt for the same thing my parents did - I only got unsupervised driving time for short trips until I had gone through their probation period and they gradually lengthened that leash until I moved out. My only solo trips for most of that first year were to places I couldn't walk to, like walmart's.
Reply