4 Local Places to Teach Your Teenager to Drive

One of the biggest jobs a parent must tackle comes when their little bundle of joy turns 15. For the first time ever, they will allow their kid to get behind the wheel of two tons of motorized steel and plastic…and learn to drive.

Missouri requires that new drivers have an instruction permit for at least 182 days—six months—before applying for their intermediate driver’s license at 16 to 18 years old.  They also need 40 hours of drive time, with ten of those hours occurring after sundown.

Patch drove around Fenton and High Ridge to scout out the best places to spend those first few hours of instructional time before you hit the main roads.

Gravois Bluffs: there are several quiet and underused parking lots in Gravois Bluffs that will serve you well for those first driving lessons. Try the lots around the outer edges of , the recently vacated TV and Appliances, or J.C.Penney, 798 Gravois Bluffs Blvd.

Fenton Light Industrial Zone on weekends: the streets around Administer Drive and Fenpark Drive are a ghost town on weekends, which makes a perfect place to practice driving on real streets and stopping at intersections without anyone around.

Highway 30 west of Fenton: give your student driver their first taste of highway driving on Hwy 30 in Jefferson County. Hwy 30 is a great first highway due to its straightness. Just avoid it at rush hour, especially on a Friday.

Highway 21 south of Highway 141 (still known to many as "new" Highway 21) is another, mostly serene highway that can provide a good first-time training ground. The trick is to ignore the beatiful scenery along the highway, especially in the autumn. But that probably goes more for adults than for teenagers learning to navigate.

Any school, after hours: school parking lots are usually vacant after the day’s activities are done, especially on weekends. Bigger schools have bigger lots, so try student parking lot for the biggest area.