The Best Places in St. Louis to Teach a New Driver How to Drive

Congratulations. You have a new permit driver in the house. They took the written test, passed the vision test, got the signs test right, and now they can get behind the wheel. With a qualified driver sitting next to them, of course.

That’s the good news.

The bad news? Acing a written test doesn’t make someone a good driver. It just means they know some of the fundamentals that they’ll need to be a good driver. They still need to develop an understanding of how to do the driving. That’s not something a person can just learn in a classroom or from a book, either. In my view, driving is basically an apprenticeship, and the only way to learn is by doing.

That can be a scary prospect for the permit driver. It’s also a scary prospect for the licensed driver sitting next to the permit driver.

Driver’s ed, if a school district offers it, can help. So can driver training if you can afford it. (I’m a fan of Coach Harder Driving School, a St. Louis-based service that will pick up your driver at your house or local school, put them through practice, and return with them when they’re done, providing feedback.) In America, though, most of the training falls on parents.

So what does a parent do? Where can one take a new driver to learn the ropes in a way that won’t break the car?

The reality is that any driving has some risks, but there are some places you can go in St. Louis, with lower traffic and more generous space, that can help ease new drivers into the business. Let’s look at some of them.

Getting Started: Big Parking Lots

My favorite place to start with a new driver is a large, preferably unoccupied, parking lot. It lets the driver do things like start and stop, which are actions that can take getting used to if someone has never been behind the wheel before. If you’ve worked with a permit driver lately, you know that things can get a little jerky while the kid figures out how much pressure to put on a pedal.

Here are a few easy suggestions.

Local high schools with big parking lots. St. Louis has plenty of large high school campuses, many of them with spacious parking lots. Not every high school campus lot is an open plan, but some are. For example, Lafayette High School in Wildwood (Google Maps link) and Hazelwood Central High School in Florissant (Google Maps link) both have large, flat, rectangle-shaped lots that offer plenty of room and relatively few obstacles outside of scattered lightposts or medians. It goes without saying that you should use these on days when there is no school and no major events, as then the lots will be just about empty.

Community colleges. Universities like UMSL and Maryville do have a decent amount of parking, but not all of it is in open spaces ideal for new driving, and they can also still have some traffic even on weekends. Community colleges, by contrast, tend to be quieter during times classes aren’t going on. St. Louis Community College at Meramec (Google Maps link) in Kirkwood and St. Charles Community College in Cottleville (Google Maps link) have large, open lots for practicing.

The old St. Louis Mills. The area formerly known as St. Louis Mills Mall in Hazelwood (Google Maps link) isn’t a bad choice. There can be some traffic by Cabela’s, and on Sundays a church holds services there. On a typical Saturday morning or late afternoon, though, the parking lot is mostly empty. Other than some medians and light posts, it’s mostly open on both the north and south side, and the street that circles it can make for useful first practice on a two-lane road.

Getting Going: Quiet Streets

I believe it’s good for a new driver to get a solid amount of time behind the wheel in a low-pressure parking lot before doing anything else. Dealing with traffic can be scary, and even a stationary vehicle on the curb can pose a hazard.

Nevertheless, eventually a permit driver needs to face the streets. In time, you’ll want the permit driver to get comfortable with their own neighborhood, but if your streets have a lot of parked cars or a lot of traffic, you might want to break them in somewhere quieter first.

I like the area immediately around the aforementioned St. Louis Mills Mall (Google Maps link) in Hazelwood, because it has both the parking lot and also some side streets nearby that are lightly trafficked, especially on weekends. You’ve got the roads near the Mills complex, St. Louis Mills Blvd. that cuts a circle around the 370 interchange, and Park 370 Blvd. in an industrial park that is mostly silent on Saturdays and Sundays.

Just down the road from the old Mills is 370 Lakeside Park in St. Peters (Google Maps link), which has low-traffic two-lane roads circling part of the lake. Getting there can be a little strange for the new driver on account of some less-than-ideal pavement lane painting at the 370-Truman exit, but if you start the permit driver out at one of the parking lots, they can do some slow driving on two-lane roads.

It may seem odd, but another place to do some light road driving? Jefferson Barracks in South County (Google Maps link). The roads are slow, not usually heavily trafficked, and can be a place for a novice driver to practice turning corners.

Getting Moving: Highways

It’s a big step getting on the highway, and it can unnerve many a driver watching their kid accelerate to 60 miles per hour. But, hey, this is St. Louis — to get around this town you have to be able to deal with highways. At some point, they’re going to have to navigate, say, 270 or 70.

“Highways” and “low traffic” don’t necessarily go hand-in-hand, but there are a few freeways in STL that are less trafficked than most. I recommend scouting them out for yourself before turning a driver loose on them.

One is MO-370, connecting Hazelwood to St. Peters. Three lanes most of the way, this highway is usually more lightly trafficked except during rush hour, and even then it is not as bad as the interstates near it. It’s also relatively straight. If you want a decent first highway drive, you could do worse than have a kid get on 370 at St. Louis Mills Blvd. — a spot I’ve already talked about — go west for a bit, and get off at the Earth City / 141 exit. On a Saturday or Sunday, you’re not going to see too much traffic that way. On the west end of 370, a kid could get on at Salt Lick Road headed eastbound before getting off at Truman Blvd.

Another is MO-364 west of I-270, or what is commonly known as the Page Extension, connecting Creve Coeur to several points in St. Charles. The Page Extension has multiple lanes and is generally quiet on the St. Louis County side, only getting somewhat busier as you get farther into the 94 corridor. The Page Extension also benefits from being near Maryland Heights Expressway, which is a solid medium-speed road that also isn’t usually heavily trafficked.

Here’s a final one for the Metro East people: while 255 is a solid choice, given how generally quiet it is, there’s another stretch on 55 that can be a nice short ride. Take the car to the Phillips 66 just off of I-55 at MO-143 in Edwardsville (Google Maps link). The permit driver can pick up 55 North, drive a few miles, then ease into the Northbound Homestead Rest Area (Google Maps link). It’s a taste of interstate driving in an area that isn’t too congested.

Closing Thoughts

Teaching a new driver can be intimidating, especially in a busy metropolitan area like St. Louis. Fortunately, there are some off-the-path spots that can let new drivers get comfortable without too many distractions or other drivers. I’ve listed a few here, but there are plenty more in the area. And take heart: the more practice a driver gets, the better it gets. The apprenticeship will pay off with patience.

In any event, good luck, and stay safe.