Driving Schools

[dominika-kretek.livejournal.com]

The best thing about living in Davis Square is not needing a car. However, there are times when being able to ZipCar or whatever would be most useful. I haven't driven in like ten or fifteen years, so I think I will need a refresher, to say the least, and I will need a car to take the driving test to get a license. Can anyone recommend a local driving school that provides these services.

Comments

[georgy.livejournal.com]

I learned to drive (I'm 26) with Friendship Auto School (their office is in Davis) last year. I had Dominique, and he was great. $30 hour, 10 lessons - $270 if you pay up front. And they'll sponsor you to get your license.

[signsoflife.livejournal.com]

I got my license with TNT, and really liked them. However, that was in '99.

Before them, I had one lesson with the cheapest school I found in the yellow pages, and they were really really horrible. My half-memory is that they were "Angela's" or something like that, but they also went by another name, like "International".

The good school took me out on back roads near my house and had me practicing right and left turns on empty streets for the first couple lessons. The bad school took me out immediately on the McGrath and up near Assembly Square where those rotaries are.

The good school, the car was clean, the instructor a professional driving instructor, and the radio stayed off. The bad school, the car was so dirty I had trouble seeing, the instructor was clearly a high-turnover employee, and the radio was on distracting music (and I was too terrified -- I mean, literally terrified, I had never had a license and hadn't driven in ten years and here I was on a highway with rotaries) to ask him to turn it off.

Oh, and remember sunglasses.

[signsoflife.livejournal.com]

(And I was 25 when I got my license. On account of the whole not needing a car thing.)

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

Wow, that's temptingly cheap. Back in the 80's, my parents payed $65 an hour for my driving lessons before I finally gave up and quit. I'm glad it's more accessibly priced now.

But then, I would no longer be able to proudly display the "lifelong non-driver" button. Le sigh...

[enochs-fable.livejournal.com]

Tagged this post.

[anotherjen.livejournal.com]

Thanks for posting this. I have a fear of driving (which I've had for years before I moved to this area) and was about to start investigating driving schools, so you've saved me some trouble. :-)

[georgy.livejournal.com]

Just to add a bit more about my experience, the car I used at Friendship was clean, though sometimes WBZ NewsRadio was on (low) and my instructor would take calls. Also, on my first lesson (I got picked up on the Tufts campus, where I work), we went down College Ave and turned right onto Broadway (rotary!). Still, I have no complaints. For city driving, I feel like immersion may be the best way to go (though McGrath sounds a bit insane for the first time!).

[ron_newman]

If you're going to do rotaries, that's a pretty low-stress one to start on, especially if all you're doing is making a right turn.

[georgy.livejournal.com]

Yup, and it was def. a confidence builder for a newbie.

[signsoflife.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it's an easy rotary, an easy turn *on* that rotary, and, if you live in Davis Square, it's a rotary you're going to navigate at least occasionally. I don't think I've been back to that area near Assembly Square in the seven years since that driving lesson.

I totally agree about it being important to learn on the kind of streets you'll actually be driving on.

[seaweedgirle.livejournal.com]

Do these schools teach on standard/stick cars? I need to learn how to drive one of these.

[strangeanimal.livejournal.com]

I'll second Friendship and Dominique. very helpful, very nice guy.

driving lessons for manual transmission

[edmokeski.livejournal.com]

I was just about to ask the same thing...
I'm an experienced driver who's only ever driven an automatic. I'd really like to learn stick, and keep meaning to research where I can do it and how much it'd cost. If anybody here can give a quick tip that'll save me research time, that'd rock.