Really? That surprises me.
In the US, I was able to learn a stick in the high school parking lot and quiet roads. Here you are thrown out in the open. I think I would have freaked out!
Ah, you live in a busy metropolitan area... I live in a village so much smaller than the city I lived in in the US.
I've had to fight all the muscle memory of driving how I was taught in the US which is the opposite of how you drive here. No one ever taught me how to do a hill start in the US either. We also have a lot of narrow windy country roads and so much double parking here where I live now.
You could literally go to a large supermarket parking lot and get the same experience you are describing where I live. Either our shopping centre (that closes at 6pm weekdays) or the large Sainsbury's, Morrisons or Tesco after they close at 8pm.
