my son is of the age to begin driving lessons with us. whiel we are excited to give it a try, we live in an urban environment lacking large parking lots that would be empty and safe to teach him the basics- at least that we can think of. does anyone know of a large lot in portland proper that would be empty during the day any day of the week?
Are you near the north end of town? There are a bunch of defunct big box stores on North Hayden Meadows Drive (across the street from Lowe's & Joe's) with empty lots, and I also think the Portland Meadows lot, just south of there, is empty most of the time.
I know it may sound morbid - but cemetaries are a nice quiet safe place to learn.
What about Movie Theater parking lots during the day?
What about a large church? Most business offices close at 5 pm so they should be fairly empty after that. Or again on the morbid side, funeral homes?
The Lloyd Center lots are empty in the evenings. Security does chain off the driveways but it's an hour or so after the stores close which is 6 on Sunday's I think.
Same should go for the Jantzen Beach parking lots. I've been there in the evening when whole sections of the lots were empty even tho the stores were still open.
The lot behind the Point West Credit Union is pretty much empty after the offices closed. This includes both Saturday and Sunday. It's a large lot because it's shared with an office building next door. The Credit Union's address is 718 NE 12th Ave. It's located between Benson High School and I 84. The streets south of this lot are quiet also.
A short way out of the city are the Tannasbourne Mall to the west and the Outlet Mall to the east. Both are next to freeways. Travel time is short.
Kaiser Permanente offices are closed on Sunday. Their lots would be empty.
I learned to drive in the Tektronix parking lot in beaverton Oregon on the weekends it is very empty and it is a very large space
I took my sons to Barton park to start practicing parking and driving. There's plenty of space if it's not a weekend and a road to practice on. The speed limit is between 10 and 20 mph depending on where you are. The RV park is like a tiny little town with turns and driveways. They were pretty sick of the park by the time we hit the streets but I felt better. I always drove to the park and back in the beginning. As a paranoid instuctor/passenger I wasn't ready for that until they had some hours in. Then we started slowly with trips to the grocery store, and gradually made longer and longer trips. We kept a little book in the glove box that they recorded their driving time in. If your son takes driver's ed in school they only need 50 hours behind the wheel instead of 100. Plus you'll get a discount on the insurance. Some community colleges offer driver's ed at roughly the same price. It's a discount that can be offered to students under the age of 18, whether through the high school or college.
Please give your son driving lessons with an instructor also not just from you his parents. They need the instructional education for them to be safe, smart drivers. Also look into what your insurance company may offer for young drivers. There are so many more tools out there now for helping develop good attentive drivers. Sorry I don't know of an empty parking lot. Try going out later in the day when the stores are less busy.
Best of Luck to your new driver!
