IMPROVLearning Review

You got caught speeding and now you’re off to traffic school. While that’s a good way to save some money on insurance rates and make the ticket go away, it’s not exactly the most entertaining way to spend your day. Unless, of course, you go to IMPROVLearning Traffic School. It’s run by national chain Improv Comedy Clubs, and employs comedians to rewrite ordinarily dry material into something that’s entertaining and fun.

Pros and Cons

How Does IMPROVLearning Work?

Improv Traffic School is pretty easy; start at this their homepage, choose your state, and if it’s available, select “traffic school” from the course dropdown. If you don’t see traffic school, that means Improv Traffic School isn’t offered in your state. That doesn’t necessarily mean you can’t get your ticket taken care of with Improv, but it does mean you need to check with your court to make sure their defensive driving class will count.

Once you’ve picked your course and paid, you can start working through the modules. You can go at your own pace, although some states have imposed a minimum time you need to spend on each module. If you get through the material before the timer hits 0, you’ll have to wait. Improv Traffic School recommends you review the important information presented in the module while you’re waiting or, if you prefer, you can watch a “Comedy Break” video to stave off the boredom until the timer runs down. As long as you get everything done before any deadline imposed by the court, Improv Traffic School will report your successful completion, and you’ll be done!

Well, almost. You’ll also get four tickets to an Improv Comedy Club at the end of your course, where you can get the laughs without the learning, if you want.

Overview of Courses Offered

IMPROVLearning offers courses for Defensive Driving, Driver’s Ed, and the one you’re interested in, Traffic School. Not all courses are offered in all states. The best way to see which classes you can take is to choose your state from the dropdown on their homepage.

Driver’s Ed

This is the course you’d take if you’ve never had a license before. It’s the classroom segment of the training you’ll need in order to get your driver’s license for the first time.

Read more on the topic of Driver's Education here.

Traffic School

Traffic School is what you take when you’ve gotten a ticket and are trying to get it reduced or removed from your record. It’s also what you take when a court orders you to based on whatever you did behind the wheel that you knew you shouldn’t have been doing.

Read more on the topic of Traffic School here.

Defensive Driving

Defensive driving is where it gets a little confusing. There are two reasons to take a defensive driving course from IMPROVLearning. One is for folks who don’t have a ticket, but who want a discount on their insurance premiums. If that’s you, you’ll want to check with your insurance company first, to make sure they’ll accept Improv’s course for a discount.

The other reason is the same as Traffic School; you’re trying to get a ticket reduced or dismissed. That’s the confusing part; which do you take? Fortunately, that part isn’t all that confusing. If your state requires Traffic School, Improv lists that. If it requires Defensive Driving, Improv doesn’t show Traffic School as an option.

Defensive Driving gets broken down into two other categories as well. Some states, like Arizona, have pre-approved Improv Traffic School, which means you can just take the course, and Improv will tell the court when you’ve passed. Others, however, haven’t. If you’re in one of those states, you’ll want to confirm with the court that they’ll accept Improv’s class.

How Much Does IMPROVLearning Cost?

Pricing depends on where you live and which course you take, but we didn’t find any that cost more than 50 bucks, and many that cost half that. Of course, your state may also impose fees and other court costs related to taking traffic school.

Reviews of IMPROVLearning

IMPROVLearning’s reviews are generally positive, with many of them specifically highlighting the entertaining nature of the courses. That’s something you don’t see very often in reviews of regular traffic schools! On Yelp, Phil B. of California writes:

"This is a solid course with excellent fact and law based training, not a lot of useless fluff and an appropriate amount of humor. I completed the course early and had to go back and review to complete the 6 hours. You cannot take the final test without the full 6 hrs of class work. I would recommend this to friends if I had any."

And from Arizona, Marlo A’s also enjoyed the humor:

"If you are the sort of person who is aware that every two years you can take "traffic school" and have one ticket not be put on your driving record, you're gonna wanna bookmark the website for this online traffic school. Very reasonable price. Follows the required time rules by not letting you take the quizzes until you've spent sufficient time with the material. The technology all worked fine. And, in the end, traffic school is traffic school. However, this one has a few minutes of comedy before each section to break up the monotony of the required hours of material and the questions are not difficult and you can easily fulfill the requirements and move along. I got a ticket on one day and completed the course the next day and then just waited for my ticket to appear on the court website, then disappear from the court website."

But not everyone was quite so pleased. Negative reviews often focused on technical difficulties with taking the courses, such as Brittany A. from Orange, CA:

"I am so frustrated with this platform, words can't describe how bad it is getting through this. To start off I am not deviating from the webpage and staying on them the entire time. Sometimes the continue button won't pop up after watching a video after waiting a few minutes so I refresh the page and it makes me start the entire section over from the beginning. If you leave a section in the middle of a section you have to start over from the beginning and watch all of the videos over again. I wait for the timer to timeout before taking the quiz at the end of the section so I know that is not the problem. In the middle of selecting answers, the print page will pop up instead of continue."

Such technical problems do not appear to be universal, so we wonder if perhaps something on Improv Traffic School’s site isn’t compatible with all browsers.

IMPROVLearning Offerings by State

Each state has different requirements for what courts will accept to meet traffic school requirements. Just to be sure, you should verify with the court that Improv Traffic School will be accepted before you sign up.

We’ve put together a sampling of Improv Traffic School’s approach in a few different states:

California

In California, a Traffic School course will get your ticket dismissed, and you won’t get any points on your license. Your insurance rates should stay the same. As long as you finish the course before midnight on your due date, you’ll get credit with the court and the California DMV.

The six chapter course should take you about 7 hours to complete, but you can break it up into chunks. There’s a quiz after each chapter, and then a final test that you’ll get review sheets for before you take it.

Florida

An IMPROVLearning class in the Sunshine state can take as few as four hours, and as long as you get it done before midnight on your deadline day, Improv will get you credit with the state. If you get another ticket, you can even take the class again to get it taken care of, as long as your second ticket isn’t less than a year after your first. You can only be a “repeat offender,” so to speak, five times total, so it’s not a complete get out of consequence card.

Florida has several tiers of traffic school, depending on how badly or how many times you screwed up. The shortest is four hours, and there are two 8 hour courses for more serious tickets. One is an “Intermediate Driver Improvement” course, and the other is an “Aggressive Driver” class. You don’t need to take either of those unless a court orders you to.

The regular four hour class might be court-ordered, or you can take it voluntarily to get a ticket dismissed.

Texas

Texas ticketed motorists get a ten chapter course that you must spend at least 4 hours and 45 minutes taking in order to comply with state requirements. The class is pre-approved throughout the state, so you know your work will count. You’ll get no points on your license, and your insurance rates shouldn’t increase. If you get another ticket, as long as it was issued at least a year after your last one, you can take the class again.

Read more on the Best Online Traffic Schools in the industry here.

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