Driving in Tashkent as a Beginner: Best Districts and Hours

In short: make your first solo drives in your own district, on weekend mornings or weekdays between 10 am and noon. Start with the inner roads of residential areas, then move to wide streets with U-turns, then the Small Ring Road, and leave the city centre and rush hour for last.

What makes Tashkent different for a beginner

Instructors who have taught driving in Tashkent for years know that the city has a few features a new driver should be ready for.

• U-turns instead of left turns. On many major streets you cannot turn left at the junction. You drive on and make a U-turn at a designated point. Miss it and the next one may be several hundred metres away. Note that stopping at a U-turn point or within 30 metres before or after it is prohibited.
• Wide streets with constant lane changes. Bunyodkor, Amir Temur and Shota Rustaveli have many lanes, and drivers often switch lanes for no obvious reason.
• Taxis and minibuses. They pull over sharply and in unexpected places. Keep your distance from cars with taxi signs or route numbers.
• Cameras. Speeding and red-light running are recorded automatically at many junctions. Inside the Small Ring Road and on many other city streets the limit is 60 km/h, and lower still near schools and in residential zones.
• Horns. People honk a lot, and it is not always aimed at you. How to stop flinching at it is covered in our piece on fear of driving.

Districts for your first drives

This is a working list. It is not about "good" and "bad" districts, just where it is easier for a beginner to build the basics.

Where to start

• Inner roads of Yunusabad and Chilanzar. Clear block layouts, low speeds and places to stop and think. Good for practising turns, passing parked cars and giving way to pedestrians.
• Residential areas of Mirzo Ulugbek and Sergeli. Many have wide internal roads where you can practise lane changes calmly.
• Training grounds. Learn to pull away, stop and park on a training ground before heading into the city. Locations are listed under Tashkent training grounds.

Where to go next

• Wide streets with U-turn points outside rush hour: Bunyodkor, Muqimiy, Qatortol. They are ideal for the core Tashkent skill of getting into the left lane early and turning around.
• The Small Ring Road in the middle of the day. Start with a short stretch between two exits you know.

What to leave for later

• The centre: the area around Amir Temur Square and the streets near Tashkent City. Lots of lanes, pedestrians and lane changes over short distances.
• The Old City and Chorsu. Narrow streets, the bazaar, pedestrians in the road and tightly packed kerbside parking.
• The Tashkent Ring Road. High speeds and lorries. Useful later, when you need practice above city speeds.
• Multi-lane roundabouts. Read our guide to roundabouts before tackling them.

When to drive: hours and days

Traffic patterns change, so open Yandex Maps or 2GIS and check the congestion score before every trip. From instructors' experience, these are useful guidelines:

Time	What the roads are like	Good for a beginner?
Weekdays, roughly 7:30–9:30	Morning peak, especially heavy near schools and universities	No
Weekdays, 10:00–12:00	Noticeably calmer traffic	Yes, the best slot
Weekdays, 12:00–16:00	Moderate traffic, hot in summer	Yes, if the car has air conditioning
Weekdays, roughly 17:00–20:00	Evening peak	Only in the final stages
Friday around midday	Busy near large mosques such as Hazrati Imam and Minor	Avoid these areas
Saturday and Sunday mornings	The emptiest streets of the week	Yes, ideal for first outings
Weekend evenings	Busy around shopping centres and leisure spots	No

A note on September. When the school year starts, morning congestion rises noticeably, especially in the first weeks. If your first solo drives fall in September, move them to later in the morning.

How to make a Tashkent U-turn without stress

This is where beginners get flustered most often.

1. Check in your navigation app where the U-turns on your route are.
2. Start moving into the left lane 300–400 metres ahead, one lane at a time, with the indicator on and a mirror check each time.
3. As you approach, slow down and check for oncoming cars that are also turning.
4. Let the oncoming traffic pass. Do not rush, even if someone honks behind you.
5. After the turn, take the nearest lane, not the far right one straight away.

If you could not get into the left lane in time, carry on to the next U-turn. It costs two minutes, nothing more.

A six-week plan

The plan assumes two or three drives a week with an instructor or an experienced driver beside you.

Week	Where	When	Focus
1	Training ground, inner roads of your area	Weekend mornings	Pulling away, stopping, turning
2	Quiet district streets	Weekdays 10–12	Traffic lights, pedestrians, lane changes
3	Wide street with U-turns	Weekdays 10–12	U-turns, moving with traffic
4	Small Ring Road, short stretch	Weekdays, midday	Joining and leaving, following distance
5	City centre	Weekdays 10–12	Multi-lane roads, roundabouts
6	Familiar routes (home, work, school)	Closer to peak time	Planning trips on your own

If a week felt hard, repeat it. Your pace depends on you, not the calendar. For help choosing lesson times, see how to choose the right time for driving lessons.

Seasons and weather

• Summer. July and August afternoons can be extremely hot and the car heats up fast. Drive in the morning, keep water in the car and do not leave your phone in the sun.
• The first rain after a dry spell. Built-up dust and oil make the asphalt slippery. Increase your following distance and brake earlier.
• Winter. Snow is uncommon in Tashkent, so on snowy days the roads are full of drivers with little winter experience. Without winter tyres and some practice, skip that day. It also gets dark early, so evening lessons in winter happen in the dark.

Checklist before a solo drive

• Route checked in the app, U-turn points known.
• Seat, mirrors and steering wheel adjusted before moving.
• Phone in a holder, voice navigation on.
• Time to spare, so you are not running late.
• Off-peak time chosen.

Finding an instructor for city practice

If you want practice on the streets of your own district, look for a nearby instructor in the Tashkent instructors directory or pick a school from the Tashkent driving schools catalogue. You can also leave a request on our matching form with your district and preferred hours, and we will suggest options close to home.