Desolate areas to teach new driver? (Pittsburgh, Mansfield: home, university, closing)

[francisco1844]

Any recommendations on good areas to teach a new driver?
A park or big desolate parking lot would be great to start.
We live on Robinson, West Pittsburgh, so something on that area would be great.

We moved here on Jan 2012 and the GPS takes us anywhere we need, but we have not really gone out exploring places off the beaten path to have seen any good spots.

My wife is reading to take the driver permit so for now she can't do any roads yet.. but when she gets her permit what are also good very low trafficked roads? Preferably not too narrow. I just got my license myself on Jan right before moving to Pittsburgh and still feel uneasy on some of the narrow roads.

Thanks for any recommendations.

[I_Like_Spam]

If you're going to do this on the weekend, how about over on Trumbull Drive which lead to where David Weis used to be?

One way dead end business road parallel the Parkway West, off of Mansfield Ave.

That's where my old man took me when I had my permit 40 years ago and its still there.

[captainmidnight]

The Port Authority Park and Ride in Moon off of University Boulevard. The lot has 600 parking spaces and it will be empty on the weekend.

Good idea, I learned to drive in the parking lots of the old Greengate Mall back in its dying days. Nowadays, you can do that during the week at Century III Mall or at the old Eastland Mall site.

[francisco1844]

Thanks for the suggestions. Perhaps will try one location Saturday and the other one Sunday.

[greg42]

Originally Posted by I_Like_Spam

If you're going to do this on the weekend, how about over on Trumbull Drive which lead to where David Weis used to be?

Ah, Pittsburgh directions.

Some of my earliest driving was in a mall parking lot, but back then they didn't open that early on Sundays for example. We went out one Sunday and tooled around. I picked it up pretty quickly though and progressed to roads fairly soon.

The Mall at Robinson doesn't open until 11 on Sundays so if you get out there early on a Sunday morning you could do a little bit before too many cars are in the lot surrounding the mall. Another one might be the Port Authority Park and Ride lot on University Blvd. I believe you enter next to the Sheetz, somewhere around there, up near the Business 376 end (the airport end). There shouldn't be many cars in this parking lot on Saturdays and Sundays and actually should clear out pretty well by 6-7pm most evenings too. I'm not familiar with the patterns of this particular lot but most commuters should be out of there by then. This is a 600-space lot so that might be enough to make it work.

Another thing about early driving is driving on a freeway/interstate can actually be some of the easiest. One of my early road stints I remember with my dad was we pulled off on a low-trafficked interstate at a rest area or exit and I took over. I drove home and driving on that highway was fine. I was more nervous about stopping for traffic lights, etc, once I exited the freeway at the other end. For that, I would suggest Rt 22 going towards Weirton. After a couple exits that road has very light traffic all the way down to the first Weirton exit. Just make sure there's not an event at the First Niagara Pavilion that day.

Should be plenty of other roads out there with little traffic although some are narrow. I remember particularly the roads south of the airport are pretty desolate but I think many are narrow enough to have no center line and that sort of thing.

[XRiteMA98]

Try a cemetery? parking lots at the mall after closing hours?

[TechieTransplant]

Originally Posted by francisco1844

Any recommendations on good areas to teach a new driver?

Why bother with a desolate area? Just get out in traffic and get used to it. Native Pittsburgh drivers have a lot of very bad driving habits, so remember, you can make it down a hill without riding your brakes, and you don't have to use your brakes around the slightest curve in the road. And the left lane on our highways is for passing, not for daydreaming.

[eccotecc]

For what it's worth, I learned to drive in Calvary Cemetery then graduated to Schenley Park and ultimately Murray Ave in Squirrel Hill.

[GarlicBreath]

Originally Posted by eccotecc

For what it's worth, I learned to drive in Calvary Cemetery

Thats funny, that's where I taught my wife to drive a manual.

[Hopes]

Cemeteries are where we taught our children. We'd go to different ones to give them variety. After a few weeks of that, we took them to North Park where the roads are one way. When you move on to actual roads, go early in the morning on the weekends because nobody is out.