New study out of New Zealand says to make kids safer, get them out of cars.
In Brisbane last week for the National Conference on Injury Prevention and Safety Promotion, Professor Weiss gave a talk, An Urgent Call for the Demise of Teen Driver Education Programmes, about scrapping teen drivers' education in favour of lessons in safer, healthier and cleaner ways to get around.
There is a Pittsburgh connection here, too. Professor Hank Weiss moved to NZ from Pittsburgh only a couple of years ago. He lived in McCandless, in fact, & was a regular rider of the 13U.
There is a personal connection here, too. He and I have daughters the same age who were in Girl Scouts together and used to meet at his house.
neat article.
somehow whatever alternative proposed/encouraged has to combat that shiny happy "independent" feeling of getting behind the wheel. I'm the last person to glorify car driving, but I remember when I bought my first one. My first thought - "I can go anywhere... anywhere at all, I just have to decide, point it, and push this little pedal with my foot..." And I was 25, so theoretically more mature and not as easily distracted.
Psychology is tricky.
http://www.archive.org/details/i_like_bikes
The girl actually destroying her bike as she commences her first drive is especially great.
