Michigan Program for
Driver Improvement (PDI) Course Details
The Michigan Program for Driver Improvement (PDI) course
has been developed by DTA to reduce traffic fatalities
and injuries on Michigan roadways by training drivers
in defensive driving strategies that have been proven
to reduce both crashes and violations among
course participants. Since 1977, millions of drivers
have benefited from the training they received in our
Program for Driver Improvement course.
Who Can Take the
PDI Course?
The PDI course can be taken by a driver who has been
ordered by the Michigan DMV or by a Michigan judge or
court to attend a driver improvement course. This is
also sometimes referred to as traffic school attendance.
Since some courts provide their own training programs
for this purpose, we recommend that prospective students
contact the court prior to enrollment to ensure
that completion of this traffic safety program will
be accepted.
Other common names for this course include:
What Does the PDI Course
Teach?
The PDI course teaches participants to use DTA's IPDE
(Identify, Predict, Decide, Execute) strategy to anticipate
traffic hazards and deal with them in ways that minimize
risk for the driver. Simulated traffic crash scenarios
are used to demonstrate how the IPDE strategy should be
used in situations such as a rear-end collision, a side-impact
collision, and a passing maneuver collision. Other course
topics include an overview of the highway transportation
system, the dangers of driving after drinking alcohol,
and how to respond properly in emergency driving situations.
DTA's PDI course is the only Michigan traffic school course
that teaches students how to control their emotions and
attitudes through the understanding of the concept of
Attitude States. Using Dr. Eric Berne's groundbreaking
theory of Transactional Analysis (TA), the PDI course
teaches students that each of us has three Attitude States
-- Parent, Adult, and Child -- that constantly influence
our behavior. Learning how to identify these Attitude
States is the key to controlling them, which can be critical
during potentially hazardous activities such as driving
a motor vehicle. Students learn that by remaining in the
Adult Attitude State, they can reduce their chances of
being involved in a crash or of committing a traffic violation
that could result in a citation.
