Advanced Drivers of America, Inc is the best information source on this topic.
Regrettably, almost all of the so-called ‘advanced driving’ courses and even ‘defensive driving’ courses available in the USA have more to do with adapted racetrack techniques than with enhanced road driving skills, and this is potentially very dangerous.
The comment above does not denigrate the superb skills of racing drivers; on the contrary, we admire them. But racetrack driving and public road driving are two entirely different skills. Therefore, for anyone to pretend that race track techniques have any beneficial role on public roads is inaccurate and irresponsibly dangerous.
It should go without saying, for example, that on public roads, it is vastly more important to avoid a skid situation than it is to be able to rectify a skid. While you are busy with any such rectification, another vehicle may well ‘take you out,’ or you may hit something. Skid pads are inevitably large, open areas with enough space for such tactics — public roads are usually not.
Collision Avoidance courses, regrettably, come into the same category. Dangerous scenarios on public roads are like serious crime: complete avoidance is always better than attempting to rectify a bad situation after it has started.
That is not the end of the matter, however, because recent research in the USA and Australia suggests that young drivers — especially males — who attend skid pad (skid pan) training or timed slalom-type courses are much more prone to have crashes afterward, than are other young drivers who have never been on such classes. This is attributed to systems such as this tend merely to strengthen a young person’s usual but overestimated belief in their abilities and their regrettably natural but equally baseless belief that “it will never happen to me.”
What follows is a brief list of courses that we are not personally in a position to recommend (i.e., we have not attended them) but which would appear to be worthwhile:
- BMW Driver Training Courses — Canada — BMW offers drivers the unique opportunity to learn from highly qualified BMW instructors and improve their driving. It provides approved driving skills, superior safety, and a better understanding of a vehicle’s capabilities.
- Bridgestone Winter Driving School — Colorado — The Bridgestone Winter Driving School offers a variety of Winter Driving instruction. Programs are available for all driving abilities, whether one is a timid novice or a seasoned professional. Experience driving on one of the world’s finest ice tracks and develop skills to safely and confidently in dangerous winter conditions.
- National Safety Council — Defensive Driving Courses