How to Use this DVD

Video Overview:

This video functions as a guide for parents and teens, offering a brief overview of the Rules of the Road DVD set. It highlights the features found on each DVD and informs the viewer on how to use them.

Passing the Written Test

Video Overview:

Before teens can ever put their car in 'drive', they must obtain their learner's permit. Ashley hosts this fast-paced section of the program designed to prepare teens for the written test portion of the driver's test. This section of the program, along with the signs index and included practice exams, will help teens pass the written test with relative ease.

Topics Covered:

• Types of Licenses
• Seatbelts
• Signs and Signals
• Railroads and Pavement Markings
• Speed Limits
• Signaling
• Turning
• Following Distance
• Right-of-Way Rules
• Parking
• Night Driving
• Driving in Poor Conditions
• How to respond to emergency vehicles
• How to share the road with bicyclists
• Appropriate use of the horn
• How to report an accident
• Explanation of zero tolerance laws

Disc 1: For New Drivers

The first disc of Rules of the Road is filled with instructional material and interactive features aimed squarely at new drivers.

Topics Covered:

• 7 video lessons
  • Lesson 1: Getting to Know Your Car
  • Lesson 2: Hitting the Road
  • Lesson 3: Residential & City Driving
  • Lesson 4: Expressway Driving
  • Lesson 5: Drug & Alcohol Awareness
  • Lesson 6: Hazardous Conditions
  • Lesson 7: Handling Vehicle Malfunctions
• Passing the Written Test
  • A 20-minute video which covers everything a new driver needs to know in order to pass the written test.
• Virtual Driver Feature
  • Trains driver awareness by forcing the viewer to pay close attention to what is happening both in front of and behind their vehicle.
  • 15 interactive scenarios
• Index of Signs
  • Quiz yourself on 50 of the most common road signs
• Practice Written Exams
  • Eight interactive quizzes featuring sample DMV questions
  • Each quiz features 25 questions
  • Use your DVD remote control to answer each question

Getting to Know Your Car

Lesson Overview:

This lesson introduces you to the host, Ashley, and Adam, Kim, and Molly, three eager teens embarking on a journey toward obtaining their driver's licenses. Ashley and Adam's dad, John, is also introduced as he instructs Adam through his first driving lesson.

Topics Covered:

• Exterior Pre-Drive Tasks
• Interior Pre-Drive Tasks
• Mirror Setting
• Seatbelt Safety
• Warning Lights and Symbols
• Vehicle Balance
• Braking and Accelerating
• Targets and Target Areas
• Lane Positions

Hitting the Road

Lesson Overview:

This lesson follows Kim as she enters the roadway for the first time under the supervision of her mom, Michelle. Through Michelle's instruction and Ashley's informative sidebars, viewers learn how to enter the roadway, establish a safe following distance, approach intersections, and much more.

Topics Covered:

• Entering the Roadway
• Following Distance
• The Dangers of Speeding
• Approaching Intersections
• Wide Turns

Residential & City Driving

Lesson Overview:

During this lesson, you ride along with Molly and her dad, Mark, as they travel through low speed neighborhoods and on moderate risk multi-lane roadways. Mark guides Molly through many maneuvers including lane changes, specialized turns, and various types of parking.

Ashley picks up where Mark leaves off by providing in-depth explanations on space management, 3-point turns, U-turns, and the direction your wheels should be turned when parking uphill and downhill with or without curbs. Ashley's vast driving knowledge is on full display as she offers a brilliant step-by-step parallel parking procedure.

Topics Covered:

• Space Management
• Changing Lanes
• Two-Point Turns
• Three-Point Turns
• U-Turns
• Curb Parking
• Angle and Perpendicular Parking
• Parallel Parking
• Direction of Wheels When Parking

Expressway Driving

Lesson Overview:

Adam and John begin this lesson by traveling on residential roads and working on approaching curves, hills and railroad crossings. Five minutes into the lesson, the focus shifts to expressway driving. While on the expressway, John instructs Adam on a number of topics including passing, exiting using weave lanes, and managing space to prevent getting boxed in by surrounding vehicles.

As always, Ashley offers insightful explanations on a plethora of topics. She discusses how to approach curves and hills using lane position and speed adjustment. She also goes into great detail about passing on two-lane roads, the importance of commentary driving, how to merge onto expressways, and when to increase following distance.

Ashley also interviews three people in this lesson. Two of those interviewees explain their frightening encounter with drowsy driving, while the other interviewee is a police officer warning against driving faster than the speed limit.

Topics Covered:

• Approaching Curves
• Approaching Hills
• Commentary Driving
• Approaching Railroad Crossings and Bicyclists
• Merging onto an Expressway
• When to Increase Following Distance
• Space Management
• Passing
• Expressway Driving Concerns
• Dangers of Rubbernecking
• Exiting an Expressway
• The Importance of Staying Alert
• Guidelines for Managing Space

Drug & Alcohol Awareness

Lesson Overview:

This 23-minute lesson on drug and alcohol awareness features Ashley speaking directly to Adam, Kim, and Molly about the negative effects of driving under the influence of drugs and alcohol. While talking to the teens, Ashley shows a series of related videos.

Corporal Parrish and Tom Bitter:
This video insert includes an in-car interview with Corporal Parrish of the Missouri State Highway Patrol. He speaks on a wide spectrum of topics, including the effects of drugs and alcohol, the gruesome scenes he has witnessed in his career, zero tolerance law, and the embarrassment teens face when he has to take them home to their parents in the middle of the night.

This video insert also includes an emotional interview with Tom Bitter, former President of the Gateway Chapter of M.A.D.D. Tom was a drunk driving offender on a regular basis until his 17-year-old son was killed by a drunk driver. Once the video insert has ended, Ashley and the teens discuss the interviews.

The Other Costs of Driving Drunk:
While drunk driving fatalities often make the headlines, Ashley wisely discusses the other costs of driving drunk that aren't often mentioned. This leads to a video insert including interviews with a police officer, a lawyer, and an auto insurance agent. These interviews inform teens on additional costs of drunk driving, such as attorney fees, court costs, increased insurance rates, and suspension or loss of license. Once the interviews have ended, Ashley and the teens discuss these lesser-known costs.

The Experiment:
Ashley begins talking about the mental and physical effects of alcohol. She then plays a video that demonstrates the affect of alcohol on reaction time, mental acuity, judgement, coordination and perception. The video features an experiment including a 27-year-old male subject. While completely sober, the man performs a reaction time test, completes a maze, and walks across a balance beam. Next, the man drinks a beer, receives a breathalyzer test, and completes all of the tests again. The man repeats these steps until he has consumed a total of six beers. The results show that the subject performed worse on each task as his blood alcohol concentration increased. After the experiment has come to an end, Ashley and the teens discuss the results. Ashley concludes the lesson by urging teens to not drink and drive.

Driving in Hazardous Conditions

Lesson Overview:

Ashley explores subpar driving conditions throughout this 7-minute lesson. She begins by discussing night driving and ways in which to make it safer. Then, she explains the importance of preparing for winter driving and provides tips on how to get around more safely when the roads are slippery.

After discussing winter driving, she notes precautions to take when driving in rain and fog. Ashley concludes this lesson by giving tips on how to handle driving in hot temperatures.

Topics Covered:

• Night Driving
• Winter Driving
• Driving in Rain and Fog
• Driving in Hot Temperatures

Handling Vehicle Malfunctions

Lesson Overview:

Ashley and two of the parent/teen combos reveal step-by-step procedures on how to respond to traction loss, tire blowouts, accelerator failure, engine failure, steering failure, and brake failure. While this lesson is just seven and a half minutes long, it includes a large volume of valuable material to help make teens safer and more prepared drivers.

Topics Covered:

• Traction Loss
• Tire Blowout
• Accelerator and Engine Failures
• Steering Failure
• Brake Failure

Virtual Driver

Lesson Overview:

The Virtual Driver simulates a behind-the-wheel experience for the student. This feature helps teach driver awareness as viewers are forced to pay very close attention to what's happening to the front and rear of the vehicle in preparation of answering some difficult questions. As Ashley takes the viewer for a ride, they must answer a total of 15 questions along the way.

Practice Exams

Rules of the Road includes eight interactive practice exams featuring 25 questions apiece. Each question is answered using the remote control for your DVD player. The DVD automatically scores each quiz and informs you whether you've passed at the end.

All of our questions are nearly identical to ones you would see at the DMV. These quizzes provide a great way to test your knowledge of the material. Of course, if you need a refresher, you can watch the "Passing the Written Test" video which is also included on Disc 1.

Each quiz features 25 questions which are nearly identical to ones found on the actual DMV written test.

Road Signs

Our signs index includes 50 of the most common road signs you'll likely to encounter. This index allows you to view a realistic rendering of the sign along with its definition. Teens can use the index for reference and to test their knowledge of street signs prior to taking their written test.

New drivers can easily test their knowledge of 50 common road signs using our Index of Road Signs feature.

Disc 2: For New Drivers and Their Parents

Disc 2 includes a complete behind-the-wheel curriculum to assist parents in best instruction practices. It also includes bonus sections on car maintenance, road rage, and safe driving practices.

Topics Covered:

• 7 Behind-the-Wheel video lessons
  • Each Behind-the-Wheel lesson offers instructional tips for working with your teen in the car.
  • Put Disc 2 into your computer's DVD-ROM drive to access printable pre-drive and drive packets. These worksheets will help you plan your behind-the-wheel lessons as well as provide a checklist of tasks to have your teen perform during each lesson.
• Basic Car Maintenance
  • A 9-minute video which covers the benefits of taking proper care of your vehicle. Includes step-by-step instructions on jumpstarting a dead battery and changing a flat tire.
• Road Rage
  • Learn tactics to avoid becoming a victim of road rage.
• Safety Tips
  • Distracted driving, cellphone use, and common driving courtesy are discussed and illustrated.
• What to do in the Case of an Emergency
  • An ER nurse describes basic tasks you can use to help someone injured in a car crash.

In-Car Lessons

Lesson Overviews:

General Instruction for Parents
Ashley introduces this video by stating the importance of parental involvement in teaching teens how to drive. She also previews the in-car lessons and informs viewers that each lesson includes step-by-step procedures and checklists, and provides a minimum time frame in which to complete each lesson.

All of the parents and teens in the program offer tips for parents watching the video. These tips include: setting good examples, avoiding yelling, asking questions relevant to the driving experience, minimizing distractions, and taking breaks. To conclude this video, Ashley provides notes on time requirements and gives some additional in-car suggestions.

Lesson #1
Ashley, John, and Adam prepare parents for their first in-car lesson. John warns that all of the activities performed during this lesson should take place in a traffic and obstacle-free environment, such as an empty parking lot. During this video, John also discusses the proper starting and securing procedures, operational devices, and how to instruct teens on making proper turns.

Adam reminds parents to review pre-driving tasks with their teen and explains hand-over-hand and hand-to-hand steering techniques. He also suggests teaching the pivot method when teaching teens how to brake and accelerate. With the help of an animation, Ashley illustrates the proper way in which to approach and proceed through curves.

Lesson #2
Ashley, Michelle, and Kim prepare parents for their teen's initial journey onto a roadway. Ashley explains how to teach backing in an empty parking lot before entering the street. Ashley also urges parents to practice this lesson's tasks on a low-traffic rural or residential road and offer tips on how to safely ease your student onto the roadway for the first time.

Michelle provides a thorough explanation on how to determine following distance and gives tips on how to make turns. Kim speaks on the topic of right-of-way rules and how some of those rules are often forgotten or overlooked.

Lessons #3 & #4
In this video, Ashley, Mark, and Molly pick-up right where Michelle and Kim left off. Mark gives an extremely in-depth explanation about space management. Additionally, he informs parents that they should start incorporating night driving into their lessons and offers some statistics about the dangers of driving after dark. Molly suggests parents allow an occasional role reversal. Ashley insists that parents ask their teens to respond to their surroundings as they drive.

Lessons #5, #6 & #7
John and Adam return to help Ashley prepare parents for expressway driving lessons. John offers some great tips on easing nervous teens onto the expressway for the first time. John also suggests incorporating driving in poor weather conditions if parents haven't already done so. Adam discusses distractions and reminds parents to increase distractions as their teen gets more comfortable behind the wheel.

Ashley urges parents to plan routes and encourage their teens to use maps. In addition, she provides an exercise designed to improve navigational skills and stresses the importance of parking in well-lit areas at night.

Lesson #8
Ashley, Michelle, and Kim gather to warn parents of the dangers of vehicle malfunctions. Michelle provides an exercise that parents can use to teach teens how to respond if their car runs off the road. She also explains how to practice braking and steering out of potential problems.

Kim discusses the power of anti-lock brakes and how they function. Ashley speaks on the topics of stopping distance and what drivers should do if they get a flat tire while driving through a dangerous neighborhood.

Lesson #9
Ashley, Mark, and Molly wrap-up the in-car instruction by explaining when and how to give teens their final evaluation. They stress the importance of making sure teens are ready before parents allow them to apply for a driver's license.

Road Rage & Safety Tips

Road Rage Overview:

Ride alongside Ashley as she defines three types of road rage: quiet road rage, verbal road rage, and epic road rage. In addition to being defined, each type of road rage is also demonstrated on-screen. Ashley also discusses how to safely respond to aggressive drivers and provides tips on how to avoid angering others while you drive.

Safety Tips Overview:

Ashley is joined by her friends, Hassan and Danielle, and they discuss all of the dangerous driving activities they noticed on their short drive to the park. The purpose of this bonus feature is to inform young drivers on what to avoid as they drive.

During their trip to the park, they encountered bad drivers eating, reading a newspaper, tailgating, talking and texting on a cell phone, and performing many other risky maneuvers.

Ashley speaks at length about how using a cell phone while driving can be as dangerous as driving drunk. In addition, Ashley talks about school bus safety, while Hassan and Danielle discuss drivers running red lights and how to determine a point- of-no-return for yellow lights.

Basic Car Maintenance & Emergency Tips

Basic Car Maintenance Overview:

Ashley highlights the benefits of taking proper care of your vehicle. One section of this video focuses on tire maintenance. In this section, Ashley explains how to check tire pressure, how to check tire tread, and how to change a tire. In addition, she lists the dangers of uneven treadware.

In another major section of this video, Ashley explains how to use jumper cables to jump start a dead battery. Ashley also reviews under-the- hood items that should be checked on a regular basis. Oil, windshield washer fluid, and engine coolant levels are all discussed.

In addition, she warns that drivers should be aware of all gauges and indicator lights on their dashboard. To conclude this valuable video, Ashley lists warning signs that indicate that your car needs to be checked by a mechanic.

Emergency Tips Overview:

An emergency room nurse informs teens on proper actions to take if they are the first to arrive at the scene of an accident. This short bonus feature provides information on how to care for injured persons.