Driver Ed Portfolio

It’s Your Responsibility

Operating a motor vehicle is a tremendous responsibility.  Every time you sit behind the wheel you are not only accountable for your safety but the safety of others as well.  As a member of the Highway Transportation System (HTS), you must be knowledgeable of all its components and their roles. The HTS consists of three parts: people, vehicles, and roadways.  People are those with whom you share the road.  Walkers, cyclists, joggers, and other drivers comprise the social community that you must navigate.  Vehicles include any motorized machinery that provides the transportation of other people, things, goods, and even other vehicles. Vehicles can also consist of utility machinery such as snow plows, sanders, bulldozers, etc.  Roadways can vary from rural single lane dirt trails to metropolitan super highways.  

As you can see, there is a significant amount of information to digest.  With the right attitude and practice, young drivers can develop into experienced drivers with the ability to safely navigate through our nation’s roadways.  It is now your responsibility to learn and use the lessons learned in this course to become a safe and confident motor vehicle operator.

IDPE Process

The IDPE process is a method of seeing, thinking, and responding to your environment and situations on the road.  It is a process that enables all drivers to safely operate their motor vehicles.

Identify

As you drive, it’s important for you to be aware and understand what is going on around you.  Are you traveling through a high pedestrian traffic area? Are the roadways coated with debris or ice? Are there fast moving or slow moving vehicles that are hindering traffic safety? Being an observant motorist is essential to being a safe motorist.  Always remove all distractions from your driving environment such as cell phones, food and beverages, and anything else that could draw your attention from your driving task.

Predict

You must be able to analyze what you observe in order to act appropriately.  As you drive your vehicle you must be able to predict possible outcomes of any given situation.  Doing so will provid you with courses of action to follow should your prediction actually occur.  For example:  Driving on an icy road – you need to predict what would happen if a car in front of you stops abruptly.  Predicting this situation will mandate that you travel behind this vehicle with ample distance to allow for the possibility that your own vehicle may not stop as quickly.

Decide

After predictions are analyzed, you will have decisions to make.  What is the best course of action to take? Using the above example, you would decide to give your vehicle ample space for braking.  You may also decide to drive slower which will aid in your ability to stop.  Driving is about making these key decisions both in a predicted scenario and in a split second situation.

Execute

Once all your predictions and decisions have been calculated it’s now up to you to execute the proper actions.  This is where your lessons and training will be put into practice.  It’s important that as a young driver, you take the time to be prepare both your vehicle and your car for travel.  Remember that is your responsibility to be a safe driver for yourself and for others.

Original puzzle link: https://puzzlestoplay.com/drivers-ed-word-search-puzzle/

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