ue Welsh got a speeding ticket
this year. Facing a point on her license and a possible increase
in insurance rates, she had two options. She could go to a state-sponsored
traffic safety school to wipe out any penalty on her license
or go to court to contest the charge and take her chances with
the judge.
Although Ms. Welsh, a law school librarian from Acampo,
Calif., preferred the class option, she was worried that she
would not be able to find one that fit into her schedule. When
she got her paperwork from the court, she was happy to discover
that there was an online driving school that she could attend
whenever she felt like it.
"I had a new job, and I was really afraid I wouldn't be able
to take my traffic school classes," Ms. Welsh said. "I actually
finished the course at work on my lunch hour, and it was
incredibly convenient."
Ms. Welsh is among a small but growing group of drivers who
are opting to take driver safety classes online. The classes use
streaming video, lessons and online tests to accomplish what
usually takes four to eight hours to do in a classroom.
Although students can end up spending the same amount of time
online, many find the online classes more convenient because
they can take them whenever they choose. A student can spend 10
minutes with the program and go back to it the next day to pick
it up at the same point. Most driving schools taught in
classrooms require students to put in a seven-hour stretch on a
Saturday or Sunday or two nights during the week. And online
students can save money because the classes start at $19.95.
The online programs available now include a pilot program
sponsored by the National Safety Council and three commercial
Web-based programs, TrafficSchoolOnline.com
(trafficschoolonline.com), TrafficSchool.com (trafficschool.com)
and Web Traffic School (webtrafficschool.com). Although anyone
with access to the Web can take the programs, they are certified
in only a handful of states. Even within those states,
certification varies from one jurisdiction to another.
California, where Ms. Welsh lives, was one of the first states
to accredit online programs. Nevada, Arizona, Florida, Ohio,
Oregon, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia and Wyoming followed with
limited programs of their own, according to the owners of the
Web-based schools.
Online classes are not an option in New York State. Unlike
many other states, New York's traffic safety schools primarily
attract drivers who want to lower their insurance costs by 10
percent. More than 500,000 New York State residents take the
six-hour classes each year, and only about 10 percent of them do
so to reduce the number of points on their licenses, said Joe
Picchi, associate commissioner for communications at the New
York State Department of Motor Vehicles.
Last year, the New York legislature approved a bill that
would have let drivers take online traffic classes that would
have been similar to those available in other states. But the
bill was vetoed by Gov. George E. Pataki, who said he was
concerned about fraud. "These programs pose special challenges
in respect to verifying the identity of individuals taking the
course," he wrote in his veto message.
Since courses are taken entirely online, students can cheat
by having other people take the classes for them, or have other
applications or browsers open while the course is running. The
creators of the online courses are looking at technology like
speech recognition and other strategies for weeding out
cheaters.
To address the question of deception, TrafficSchoolOnline.com
recently joined forces with Kinko's copy centers in California,
Virginia, Maryland, Oregon and Washington, D.C., in a pilot
program that is designed to put officials at ease. Students in
the pilot program take lessons online, but they are required to
take a final exam at a Kinko's center, where they must show
photo ID cards. After they pass the exam, they receive their
course certificate.
"Typically, people do the course in a week or two," said
Samuel Crump, president of TrafficSchoolOnline.com, which is
based in Santa Rosa, Calif., "and even though they have to go
into Kinko's to take the test, they are still ahead because they
can take their time and really learn the material."
Web Traffic School is taking a different approach by working
on a voice-recognition component for its online course. When
students sign up for the course, they must speak into their
computers, using a microphone. They can also call into the
service using a regular telephone. During the course, the
students are periodically prompted to verify their identities
the same way. Telephone users can be called on the phone at any
time.
"We only give people 30 seconds to speak into the microphone,
so you don't have enough time to call your spouse into the room
to speak their name," said Isaak Tsifrin, the chief executive
and founder of Interactive Solutions, the parent company of Web
Traffic School, in Oakland, Calif. "We also retain the right to
call the students to make sure it's actually them."
Mr. Picchi said New York State could decide to allow the
online courses in the near future, after the Department of Motor
Vehicles completes an assessment of the state program for
reducing driver's license points or insurance rates. "There are
sponsors that have come to us with ideas for an online program,"
he said. "We're considering them, but right now we want to make
sure that the current program is effective."
Ms. Welsh said she had liked her online traffic safety course
at Web Traffic School. "Ordinarily I would prefer a classroom
situation, but this was a great alternative," she said. "I
really feel I learned a lot, and I got 100 percent on the test."
