{"id":155074,"date":"2025-09-19T14:53:16","date_gmt":"2025-09-19T14:53:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/155074\/"},"modified":"2025-09-19T14:53:16","modified_gmt":"2025-09-19T14:53:16","slug":"asking-eric-advice-for-anxious-drivers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/155074\/","title":{"rendered":"Asking Eric: Advice for anxious drivers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"5QNHKZHZKNC6DISZ3YK36NSZJI\">Dear Eric: Your question and response concerning \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cleveland.com\/advice\/2025\/08\/asking-eric-my-friends-crazy-driving-scares-me.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.cleveland.com\/advice\/2025\/08\/asking-eric-my-friends-crazy-driving-scares-me.html\">Nervous<\/a>\u201d who didn\u2019t feel safe riding with her friend appeared in our local newspaper on the very day my husband and I took the AARP Smart Driver course. <\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"LDHR27HGQRDJXEBNSKGPJQHGX4\">I highly recommend it. <\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"PUKKLUVYUBGM3MRJTMNGGBCNWE\">It is a six-hour class, and most insurance companies offer a discount for three years upon completing the course. You don\u2019t have to be an AARP member. <\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"GOSX73YRGJA2ZGRPRW5LKFMNAA\">Although the class is offered online, I recommend taking it in person. \u201cNervous\u201d and her friend could take it together.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"IEM63BQGLRDULOSVHJ5DKN36PQ\">\u2013 Smart Driver<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"2GYZD5TDCZG3NA7SO6EBQWOIYQ\">Dear Driver: Thank you for writing, many people wrote in to sing the praises of the Smart Driver program, which can be found at aarpdriversafety.org. <\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"OTFMOFNF4ZFNTNLYCO3ZY2TOKE\">Additionally, others wrote to remind the letter writer that state Departments of Motor Vehicles often, if not always, have ways of anonymously reporting unsafe drivers. If the letter writer doesn\u2019t feel comfortable talking with the friend, this is an option, albeit one that will take longer, which continues to put the friend and others at risk.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"CSB5RW4LEBEOVOXFK73BY2ZP7A\">(Send questions to R. Eric Thomas at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cleveland.com\/advice\/2025\/09\/mailto:eric@askingeric.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">eric@askingeric.com<\/a> or P.O. Box 22474, Philadelphia, PA 19110. Follow him on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/oureric\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Instagram<\/a> and sign up for his weekly newsletter at <a href=\"https:\/\/rericthomas.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">rericthomas.com<\/a>.)<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph article__paragraph--left\" id=\"KTGINYCQ6NALBN7LIHOAPQYCAE\">\u00a92025 Tribune Content Agency, LLC<\/p>\n<p>If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation. By using this site, you consent to our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.advancelocal.com\/advancelocalUserAgreement\/user-agreement.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">User Agreement<\/a> and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and\/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.advancelocal.com\/advancelocalUserAgreement\/privacy-policy.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Privacy Policy.<\/a><\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dear Eric: Your question and response concerning \u201cNervous\u201d who didn\u2019t feel safe riding with her friend appeared in&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":155075,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[49,48,84,393,394],"class_list":{"0":"post-155074","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mental-health","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-mental-health","12":"tag-mentalhealth"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155074","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=155074"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155074\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/155075"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=155074"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=155074"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=155074"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}