AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety DVDs
Good information, but dated
Currently, the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety sells two driver’s educational DVDs: Driver Education Volume 1 and Driver Education Volume 2.
Volume 1 includes four videos: Freeway Driving, Managing Space and Time for Safe Driving, Sharing the Road, Using Your Eyes Effectively.
Volume 2 includes six videos: Driving in Bad Weather, Breaking the Accident Chain of Events, Night Driving, Getting Safely Past the Orange Barrels, Unlocking the Mystery of AntiLock Brakes, Dangerous Crossings: A Second Thought.
Obviously, anything from AAA is going to be full of great information. However, all of these videos are at least 10 years older or more (one of the videos is from 1992). Thus, the program feels fairly dated in terms of people’s clothes and the cars portrayed. Also, because the videos are quite old, they still reference threshold braking which has become obsolete due to ABS brakes.
Plus, most of the videos are an “illustrated lecture”. Unlike some of our more favorite DVDs in which teen actors are seen conversing with instructors and attempting driving maneuvers, in these AAA videos, a duo of (middle-aged) hosts talks while related footage is shown on screen.
However, to be fair, I don’t believe that the purpose of these AAA videos is to teach any type of driving maneuver. Rather, they’re trying to teach the typical “textbook” info via video. In that regard, the AAA videos provide fantastic info.
That being said, the Rules of the Road and Driver Ed to Go DVDs cover the same amount of information, but in more interesting and up-to-date manner.
You cannot go wrong with the AAA videos, we simply believe there are better options available. Driver’s Ed instructors may wish to use the AAA videos for certain topics, but for parents teaching their teen to drive, I can’t recommend having your teen watch these DVDs in their entirety.
Running time: Vol. 1: 35 minutes | Vol 2: 70 minutes
Trailer:
not available
Pros:
- Solid information.
- Good production values.
Cons:
- Pricey.
- No interactive features.
- Dated.
Bottom line: These are decent additions to a driver’s ed resource library, but definitely cannot be your only DVD purchases.
Price: $49.95 per volume
Available from:
