STUDENT DRIVERS BRAVE AN URBAN CHALLENGE -
STREET CURRICULUM: BAD DRIVERS, AIMLESS WALKERS, DOUBLE PARKING
Boston Globe, The (MA)
September 4, 2005
Author: Tara Murphy, Globe Correspondent
Estimated printed pages: 2
Boston driving is notoriously not for the faint of heart. Yet instructors in Chinatown not only use the city's
streets as their training ground, but make it a point of vying for space on a handful of Boston's most anxiety-
provoking roads.
John Hung, owner of City Auto School on Washington Street, acknowledges the going often gets tricky.
"There are a lot of one-way streets, a lot of stop signs, a lot of `Do Not Enters,' " he says. "But we just tell
people: `When you drive in the city, this is how you must drive.' " Still, when Maggie Chun, 18, of West
Roxbury, slid behind the wheel of one of City Auto's nondescript gray Nissans one recent sweltering
Saturday morning, the student was in for an obstacle course that would have whitened the knuckles of even
the most experienced driver.
The lesson started smoothly enough as Chun, under the guidance of instructor Rich Scott, pulled away from
the curb in front of the Wang YMCA on Oak Street. Making a cautious right onto Charles Street Square and
then another onto Boylston Street, the young woman a fourth-time driver easily navigated the traffic past
Boston Common and pulled to a well-planned stop at the intersection of Tremont Street. And it was then, as
the light turned green and Chun eased the Nissan onto the pothole-ridden streets of Chinatown, that the
challenges really started coming at her.
"I like bringing students down here; the pedestrian traffic is tough," said Scott, watching closely as Chun
trailed a shiny silver Mercedes onto Harrison Avenue, which at 10:30 a.m. on a Saturday was already a
harrowing maze of shoppers, bicycle riders, and double-parked cars.
"This is very common," he added, nodding toward delivery trucks lined two deep in front of the Eldo Cake
House on Chun's left and taxis double-parked on her right. Chun slowed to a crawl as her instructor spoke,
gently touching the brakes to avoid a man on a cellphone who had wandered directly into her path.
Two blocks and perhaps 10 minutes later, she emerged unscathed at the corner of Kneeland Street and
headed for the congestion-free streets on the other side of the Washington Street bridge to practice parallel
parking and three-point turns.
"See what I tell you, it's the other drivers I'm worried about," Scott said to Chun somewhere near Mullins
Way, gesturing at a black SUV that was leisurely cruising along a one-way street in the wrong direction.
"If you ever wanted a natural driving course, Boston is it ," he asserted, adding: "If the kids can handle this,
they can handle anything."
Chuck Efremidis, an instructor with TNT Driving School, which has a main office in Stoughton and eight
branches scattered throughout Boston's suburbs, agrees.
"No doubt, city students get a much better education in terms of traffic and being aware of their
surroundings," Efremidis said, adding that he "definitely" prefers teaching on suburban streets.
For his part, Rich Scott, who has been a part-time instructor at City Auto for a decade, claims that he has
never suffered an accident that was the fault of a student.
But the drivers with licenses are a different story altogether, he said. Carefully choosing his words, Scott
concluded: "Well, I think there are a lot of people out there who could do with a refresher course."
PHOTO
Memo: CITY WEEKLY / BOSTON NEIGHBORHOODS / CHINATOWN