Yuut Elitnaurviat Now Offering Driver’s Ed

By Jeremy Osborne

If you want to learn how to drive a car in Southwest Alaska, your options are pretty limited.  Many villages rely mainly on four wheelers and snow machines for transportation and most don’t have any paved roads.  Even if you manage to get to the regional hub of Bethel, which has both paved roads and numerous vehicles driving on them, you still have to find someone who will lend you their vehicle – let alone teach you how to use it.  Luckily for you, there is now an organization that will not only let you use their vehicle, but teach you how to drive it and give you a state approved road test without making you wait months for an appointment.  That organization is the Yuut Driving Academy.

The Yuut Driving Academy (YDA) is the only state approved Driving School, Third Party Road Tester, and Defensive Driving Course administrator in all of Southwest Alaska. The YDA is a program within parent organization Yuut Elitnaurviat, which aims to get residents of the YK Delta higher-wage jobs by helping them receive their Alaska Driver Licenses.  According to a 2009 independent statewide study by Baranof Consulting & Associates of Anchorage commissioned by the Construction Education Foundation, workers with Driver Licenses are one of the top three demands by employers.  When contacted, local businesses Bethel Car Rental, Alaska Airlines, and Napa Auto Parts all confirmed that they do not hire employees without Driver Licenses.

The YDA offers numerous courses to help students through all the stages of getting a Driver License.  For residents who are having a hard time passing the DMV’s written test, a Permit Class is taught in the evenings at Yuut Elitnaurviat.  The test not only covers information from the Alaska DMV manual, but includes help with identifying road signs, and taking a multiple choice test.  One local graduate of the YDA had failed the test more than ten times before taking the YDA’s permit class.  She went to the DMV the day after she took it, passed the test, and received her learner’s permit.

As the only organization in Southwest Alaska authorized to teach a state-approved Defensive Driving Course, the YDA already offers monthly classes, and is willing to hold more if there is greater demand.  Drivers with points on their record can take the class once a year, and remove two points from their record by doing so.  With approval from the court system, first time offenders can even have a citation removed from their driving record upon course completion.  Even if you don’t have points on your license, many insurance companies will give discounts for customers who take a Defensive Driving Course.  “This is an amazing resource which used to be offered only in Anchorage, and we hope that more people in the community take advantage of it.” A Driving Academy representative is quoted as saying.

A recent query to the DMV found that there is more than a month wait to take a road test at the Bethel DMV office.  Realizing the need, the YDA became certified in November to administer the state road test for a Class D Driver License, and since then has proctored over twenty road tests.  The price of the road test includes the use of the YDA’s fully licensed, fully insured driving vehicle which passes all state inspections.  YDA also provides the fuel and the state approved examiner.

If you’ve never been behind the wheel of a car or truck in your life, the YDA has you covered there too.  The “Driving Academy” program provides up to eight lessons behind-the-wheel of around an hour apiece, and includes the Defensive Driving Course and road test.  The lessons are one-on-one with a state approved driving instructor, and the total program cost is half of what a similar program would be in Anchorage.

The YDA even offers classes to residents of the YK Delta who already have their Driver Licenses.  Bethel newcomer Charlotte Gruber was born and raised in Texas, and did not have much experience driving in snow.  “After taking the Yuut Driving Academy’s Winter Driving Course I feel much more comfortable driving around Bethel” she says.  The YDA’s Winter Driving Course allows students to practice skidding and braking on ice under carefully supervised conditions.  For area residents hesitant to drive when it’s slippery out, the course can be helpful in understanding how your vehicle works on ice, and help to build confidence for winter driving.  The course is also a component of the Driving Academy program.

Since Bethel is classified by the state as being on the road system a Drivers License that you receive here in Bethel allows you to drive anywhere else in the United States.  A Yuut Driving Academy representative was quick to warn new drivers that driving in Bethel is not like driving in a larger city.  “Here in Bethel we have two lane roads, two or three turn lanes, and our only permanent traffic signal is a blinking yellow light.  You might be legally allowed to drive in Anchorage, but you will have to deal with one-way roads, six lane highways, changing lanes, greater numbers of cars, numerous different traffic signals, and countless other elements of the road system which you might only have read about in the DMV manual.  If you try to drive in Anchorage and cause a traffic collision, just saying you live in Bethel is not going to be a valid excuse for what you did.  If you’re going to drive in Anchorage you should either take further lessons with a company there, or have a friend or relative drive with you until you are comfortable.”

For prices, or more information, you can call the Yuut Driving Academy at (907) 543-0978, or (907) 545-5300.  When called, the director of the Yuut Driving Academy was out teaching lessons, and could not be reached for comment.