The detailed course, and accompanying miniature cars and kid-sized bikes, is the centerpiece of Brookhaven's Safety Town program, a local iteration of a concept dating to the mid-20th century that has spawned unaffiliated Safety Towns in back lots around the world. In the class we sat in on last month in Brookhaven, teachers drilled in sayings like, "look four ways, always"—the four ways being over your shoulder to the left, to the left, to the right, and over your shoulder to the right—and drove home warnings about distracted driving with PowerPoint slides showing scary dashboard-perspective photos of young car passengers realizing death is imminent as the oblivious driver talks on the phone, eats, and reads over the steering wheel. More info here: http://gothamist.com/2016/06/16/safety_town_kids_driving.php
