- Written ByCraig Fitzgerald
- 7/11/2024
Edited ByJulie Bausch Lent
Traffic school courses, also called defensive driving in some states, can help you reinstate a suspended license, eliminate points from your record and possibly reduce your auto insurance rates. Rather than taking classes in person, many states now allow you to take traffic school online.
To this point, here are Car Talk's expert recommendations for best online traffic school courses:
Top online traffic schools nationwide
4.9
of 5
IMPROVLearning is a great program geared towards keeping the student engaged in the materials. Classes are a mixture of text, audio and video and hold the attention of the user using comedy whenever possible. The site is user-friendly and engaging.
Full Review
4.8
of 5
Safe2Drive is a highly rated program featuring nationwide course offerings. The company maintains excellent reviews and ratings and is known for very responsive, 24 hour customer service.
4.8
of 5
Aceable is not only an excellent program in terms of content, it is incredibly user-friendly and engaging. Classes are available on any device, have accessible audio and video and manage to make the subject matter interesting and fun. The site itself is easy to use and intuitive.
Full Review
4.3
of 5
This solid program is less flashy than others in the industry, but is a good choice in terms of content. The site is easy to use and self explanatory. The program tracks your progress and helps you along with prompt questions throughout.
Full Review
3.7
of 5
This program is filled with all the information you need to pass the tests. The site is a little slow and simple compared to others in the industry. This content is timed, and users are expected to get through the material at a set pace. An audio option is available for a price.
3.2
of 5
This program is the basic offering in terms of frills. IDriveSafely has all the information you need, and no extras or distractions. The user-experience is very basic, but the content is complete.
Full Review
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Choosing the right traffic school
First off, we're using the generic term "Traffic School" here, but your state may call it a "Defensive Driving Course." The terms are interchangeable.
The first thing to consider is whether or not your state actually accepts traffic school as a way to remediate a license suspension or an insurance surcharge. Not every state allows you to take traffic school to correct a suspension, a fine, or a surcharge.
For example, in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts -- where Car Talk is headquartered -- if you lose your license, you lose your license and there's no way to get it back until the suspension period is completed. Similarly, if you're assessed a surcharge on your insurance, it'll stick around like a bad cold. Massachusetts has a friendly-sounding program called the "Safe Driver Insurance Plan" that starts each driver at a neutral 15 points. Go for a year without a surchargeable incident? Your point score lowers and your insurance rate goes down. Get a traffic ticket? Your point total goes up and so does your insurance -- for SIX YEARS afterward.
So if you happen to be from one of the 15 states that does have a way of reducing those surcharges, or getting your license back after it's been suspended, consider yourself lucky.
Once you've determined that traffic school can help you get your license back or reduce your insurance cost, you've often got several choices for completing traffic school:
Classroom - Like your original driver's education classes, this type of Traffic School requires that you show up at a predetermined location and sit in a classroom full of other offenders -- er, "students" -- and take the classes in person. The main disadvantage, of course, is that you actually need to show up there. That can present a problem if you happen to be in quarantine, have responsibilities like childcare or have other life inconveniences, such as a job that requires your attendance. The plus side is that you actually get more personalized education. There's an instructor present and depending upon how engaging they are, you can actually learn something. Some states actually attempt to make Traffic School entertaining by hiring standup comics and improvisational actors to run the classes. Depending on how willing you are to listen to somebody who spends every evening in a dank comedy club in front of a faux brick wall, comedy traffic school can actually be slightly less oppressive than listening to somebody whose public speaking chops were honed by talking into the mic at the McDonald's drive-thru.
Online - There was nothing positive about the social distancing and occupancy mandates of the past two years, but utilizing technology to complete the requirements of a course like Traffic School now makes much more sense given that reality. Many states will allow you to remediate a ticket or reduce an insurance surcharge by doing exactly what you're doing now: sitting on your butt in front of your computer. Online Traffic School allows you to complete a course with a lot more flexibility than courses offered in person. Have to be at work from 9 to 5? Not a problem, you can complete an online class after you get home. Have a baby that you can't leave alone in the house for hours on end? You can complete an online class during the one hour a day that babies actually asleep. Can't get your lazy butt out of bed before 10:45 a.m.? Online traffic school was made for you. The downside of an online class is that you don't get the individualized instruction offered in a physical classroom. If you have questions or don't understand something, you can shout your questions at your laptop all you like, but you're not getting an answer.
CD/DVD - If you happen to be trapped in 1993 and still have a DVD player, traffic schools in your state may be able to blow the dust off of a DVD that you can rent in order to complete your traffic school. These types of schools often require that you take the exam portion of the school in a physical classroom, which kind of eliminates the convenience of online traffic school, but may still offer a bit more flexibility than taking the entire class in a classroom.
State by state information
We’ve assembled some state-specific information for some of the more populous states that offer traffic school. Click the links to learn more about traffic school in these states:
- California Traffic School
- Florida Traffic School
- Texas Defensive Driving School
- Arizona Traffic School
- New York Traffic School
- Colorado Traffic School
How we selected the top online traffic schools
To recap, based on our analysis we recommend:
IMPROVLearning See discounts for IMPROVLearning courses here »
iDriveSafely See discounts for iDriveSafely »
American Safety Council
How did we select them? Here are some things we looked for and recommend you consider as well:
HONESTY
The biggest criteria we used to select online traffic schools was honesty. There are dozens and dozens of companies online that will be more than happy to sell you something, no matter what state you happen to reside in. But they get slippery when we investigated whether or not those states actually accept traffic schools or defensive driving classes to either reinstate a suspended license or reduce insurance surcharges.
On several websites, you can select any state and be provided with a generic $30 to $40 class. That class promises to -- in one example -- "Improve your driving," but there's no language that suggests it will reduce a surcharge or help get a driver's license reinstated. When we investigated deeper into the FAQs, the answers were predictably murky. In this example, we knew that Massachusetts doesn't accept any kind of traffic school for reinstating licenses or reducing surcharges. Yet:
Q: How do I know if the (Shady Company Name) Massachusetts online defensive driving course is approved for dismissing a Massachusetts traffic ticket?
A: We recommend that you contact your Massachusetts court in order to be sure that the (Shady Company Name) Massachusetts online driver safety course is approved for dismissal of a Massachusetts traffic ticket.
Reputable companies that offer state-sanctioned traffic school or defensive driving programs (see our deep investigation into iDriveSafely here) are clear that the classes they offer are accepted to reduce fines or surcharges, and they offer them only for the states in which they're licensed.
STATE LICENSED
All of the companies we've recommended are licensed. That's not saying much, though. The states that license these schools seem to have a pretty generous licensing program. California has a list of traffic school providers in the thousands.
COST
Costs for these classes vary pretty significantly. Some areas cheap as $5 and they'll tout that in the name of the company, like "$2 Traffic School". Costs for the more legitimate providers are in the $20 range, depending on the state.
WEBSITE SAFETY
We visited a lot of traffic school websites with really sketchy names and even sketchier websites. We've checked all of the sites we've recommended with Google's Transparency Report.
REVIEWS
We narrowed our recommendations to online drivers ed programs that are highly popular on the web (as evidenced by number of users) and have at least 90% positive reviews on customer feedback websites that have at least 1,000 reviews from customers of the drivers ed company, and where applicable, top ratings with the Better Business Bureau.
- Aceable - Aceable offers traffic school in California, Texas and Defensive Driving Courses in Florida, and clearly states their license numbers for each of those states on the website. Aceable has been rated A+ by the Better Business Bureau, and has a 4.9-star rating on TrustPilot.
- IMPROVLearning - IMPROVLearning is unique because it attempts to combine the crushing boredom of a driving class with a bit of entertainment by hiring standup comics and improv actors to take care of the instruction. It offers Traffic School including ticket dismissal in Arizona, California, Florida, and Texas, insurance point reduction in New York and New Jersey and service for Negligent Drivers with multiple traffic tickets in Idaho. They have a 4.7 out of 5-star rating on Shopper Approved.
- DriversEd.com - This company is a big player in the industry, and offers Drivers Ed, Traffic School, and Defensive Driving courses that are accepted in a number of states. This company maintains a 4.5 star rating on TrustPilot.
- American Safety Council - American Safety Council is a renowned online source for Traffic School, highly regarded throughout the industry. Their users number in the millions, and their reviews remain very high. They have been accredited since 2008 by BBB, earn an A rating, and have a solid reviews score.
- iDriveSafely - This is a sister company to Aceable. Our recommendation: Look for a course on Aceable and - if they don't have one in your state - they may direct you to an available course on iDriveSafely. You don't need to cross-shop the two.
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Editor's note and disclaimer: Car Talk is supported by our fans, readers and listeners. When you click on some of the links on our website, we may receive referral compensation. However, you should know that the recommendations we make are based on our independent editorial review and analyses.
