Getting the Most Out of Traffic School

Soon after a motorist gets written up--whether for running a red light, speeding, making an illegal turn or another moving violation--the scary thought hits home: How much will my car insurance premium go up?

So many offenders trot off to traffic school, which allows them to make their tickets disappear--at least in the eyes of the Department of Motor Vehicles and insurance companies.

Traffic school enrollment has climbed steadily, according to the Automobile Club of Southern California. In 1975, 20,000 California drivers attended traffic school. Today the number is well past a million, out of the more than 5 million drivers ticketed every year.

And there are more options than ever for completing traffic school. Drivers can choose “distance-learning,” including home study or Internet courses. Or they can stick with traditional classroom schools, some of which attempt to distinguish themselves by serving up pizza or promising funny teachers.

Some schools undercut the typical fee of about $30, promoting themselves as thrifty choices after motorists have already paid stiff traffic fines. Some are all-day; others offer two evening sessions. Online schools can be completed in one segment or several, as can at-home courses that use handbooks or videos. The marketing pitches make it sound so convenient: “Sit at home and watch your ticket disappear,” one video take-home school suggests.

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With all these choices, it would seem that Californians should be en route to perfecting their driving skills. So does traffic school really make us better drivers, or are we kidding ourselves?

The distance-learning options are so new that they have not been studied thoroughly, so experts can’t say yet how they compare with the traditional classroom setting. But there is some concern about Internet and at-home options.

“There’s no oversight of what people do outside the classroom,” said Steven A. Bloch, a Los Angeles-based senior research associate for the Auto Club. “Is the person who got the ticket doing the test?”

But distance-learning for traffic school shouldn’t be discounted, said Milton J. Grosz III, a management review specialist with the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, who has studied traditional traffic schools and plans to begin a study of online schools. In other subjects, he notes, distance-learning has proved successful for undergraduate, graduate and vocational courses.

Not that traditional traffic schools are perfect, either, as Bloch well knows. He conducted several studies of traffic school effectiveness, and the club published his findings in a December 1997 report.

In one experiment, he followed 6,000 Southern California traffic violators. Half completed the traffic school and the other half were allowed to leave.

“No one knew they would be sent home,” he said. In fact, one woman demanded to take the class. “We accommodated her,” he added.

Those who completed the school and the “control” subjects who were allowed to leave took a 30-question traffic knowledge test the day after the session.

“There was an increase in knowledge of about 5% in the students compared to the controls,” Bloch said. “It was statistically significant but not substantially meaningful.”

Next, he sought to find out whether the knowledge learned at traffic school would be retained. He tested the students and control subjects again at six and 12 months after the traffic school course: The students demonstrated an increase in knowledge of about 3% compared with the controls.

Then, in a second phase of research, Bloch compared 3,000 traffic offenders who participated in traffic school with 3,000 who opted to pay their fines and skip school. There was no difference between the groups in terms of frequency of accidents later. Those who attended classes did have 14% fewer citations in the year afterward, but Bloch said he cannot be sure the finding is scientifically sound.

“Those who go to traffic school may be more motivated to keep tickets off their record,” he said, noting that in California and other states, motorists usually cannot repeat traffic school for a specified length of time. In California, it is 18 months, according to the DMV.

Comedy traffic school appears to offer a slight edge, Bloch found, with students who attend such courses showing a small increase in knowledge over those who enroll in non-comedy schools.

Grosz, in a 1997 study of Florida drivers who completed traffic school, found that his subjects went on to receive fewer tickets and were involved in fewer crashes.

But a true experimental design, he explained, would evaluate two groups: one that attended traffic school and one that was released, as in Bloch’s study. Florida law prevents him from doing that, Grosz said, so instead, he compared those who went to traffic school with controls of the same age and same ZIP Code who were written up for the same violations but did not attend.

Traditional traffic schools definitely have room for improvement, Bloch and Grosz agree.

Bloch suggested that traffic schools consider exit tests and make passing grades mandatory for obtaining a completion certificate.

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So until traffic school is perfected, how can a motorist hoping to avoid future citations--not to mention accidents--make the most of that eight hours of school?

“Focus on the defensive-driving tips,” Bloch said. Using what you’ve learned in traffic school, change your attitude, he advises; become less aggressive, more courteous.

And Grosz advises: “Participate and ask questions. If you go in with an attitude of, ‘I’m just putting in my time,’ you’re going to be back.”

Some schools have taken note of the research and are trying to make the learning experience more valuable. Kenny Morse, an instructor at a Los Angeles traffic school, said he has tried to make the curriculum more interactive so students learn in a fun way.

“We play games such as ‘Traffic Family Feud’ and ‘Jeopardy!’ ” he said. “When students get involved, they listen better.”

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Good Carma is a guide to automotive-related health and consumer issues. Kathleen Doheny can be reached at kdoheny@compuserve.com.