Intro Pairs With National Teen Driver Safety Week & National Call to Share Expectations for Teens and Parents for Driving

Dover – The Delaware Division of Motor Vehicles (DMV) announces the launch of an extension to The Parent’s Supervised Driving Program (PSDP), a new mobile app titled RoadReady. The app, sponsored by Ford Motor Company, is designed to augment the award-winning PSDP in its mission to prevent one of the major causes of death and injury for teens on the road. RoadReady’s availability in the App Store coincides with National Teen Driver Safety Week, October 20-26, which this year focuses on the theme that “It Takes Two: Shared Expectations for Teens and Parents for Driving.”

“We are arming Delaware parents and teens with a technologically-advanced, free toolkit to encourage their participation in the teen driver education process,” said Governor Jack Markell. “Not only are we providing parents of permitted teens with a guide to assist them through the state required 50 hours of supervised driving, but the RoadReady mobile app will help parents to track the actual time they spent behind the wheel with their teen.”

“As parents and teens work together through this process, it is the state’s hope that The Parent’s Supervised Driving Program and its mobile app component will help make our young people RoadReady,” stated DMV Director Jennifer Cohan. “Studies show that parents have a tendency to inaccurately judge the amount of time they spend with their teen driving.  The more time parents spend, the safer the teen is when they drive independently. RoadReady eliminates the question of overestimated time and allows parents and teens to focus on driving skills, roadway conditions and enhanced experiences, while the app automatically and accurately tracks their time together”, she added.

The printed guide for the Parent’s Supervised Driving Program first became available in Delaware this August. Now, the new RoadReady app supplements the program, offering parents and teens an easy, compelling means to track their driving experience together. The app is currently available on the App Store and will be made available to Android users in early 2014 at no charge thanks to support from Ford Motor Company which has demonstrated an avid commitment to teen driver safety.

“The skills outlined in this guide and app are meant to help teens learn to be better drivers. It is one of the ways Ford works to help teens,” said Steve Kenner, Global Director of Ford’s Automotive Safety Office.  “In addition to this program, Ford also offers Driving Skills for Life, which gives teens advanced real world training. Ford also offers MyKey technology, which gives parents options to help encourage safe driving behaviors even when the parents aren’t in the car.”

Beyond the educational features highlighted throughout RoadReady, such as the “Parental Pointers,” tips and suggestions to assist parents throughout the supervised driving process, the app tracks roadway types and weather conditions to encourage parents and teens to spend more time driving together in a variety of conditions. At any time throughout the supervised driving process, parents and teens can also export a printable driving log with a list of all of their supervised driving sessions. This log can be delivered to the teens Driver Education instructor in compliance with Delaware’s GDL driving log requirements. Additionally, RoadReady users may opt to share their drives with friends and family on their social networks to spread the word of their safe driving habits.

“We are excited about the RoadReady addition to our state–of–the art program,” stated Jeff Larson, President of Safe Roads Alliance, who worked in partnership with the Delaware DMV to develop the program for the state. “We are continuously working to improve parents and teens supervised driving experiences and think RoadReady is an invaluable step in the right direction.”

The Parent’s Supervised Driving Program focuses on the role of the parent in the teen driver education process. The program offers an enhanced supervised driving experience and even encourages parents and guardians to extend the supervised driving period beyond the state requirement. The program is available to parents and teens on multiple platforms, beginning with the printed curriculum that is distributed at DMV offices when the teen receives their learner’s permit

For media resources on the program, visit www.theparentssuperviseddrivingprogram.com/media

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About Safe Roads Alliance
Safe Roads Alliance is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to improving highway safety by improving driver education with particular emphasis on behind-the-wheel training.

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