M. 34
I’m currently studying for the theory and then the practice for the license and I hate it… But since I’m unemployed for like half a year now maybe it will give me more chances to get hired. Still I will avoid driving as much as possible, being on a highway scares me and I’m afraid of having an accident. Plus I wear glasses and I’m not sure if my reflexes or peripheral view are good enough…
So, what’s your reason to not drive a car… money? For the environment? Are you afraid? You really don’t need to?
As an experienced driver, highway driving is much easier, and relaxing, then street driving.
Familiarity breeds contempt of course. But genuinely, on the highway there are less variables to account for so it’s easier mentally
I love driving, I find it very relaxing, opens your perspective to see the world. I grew up driving, my family always drove, everybody I know drove, got my license as soon as possible. That’s what everybody around me was doing too.
I think parts of the world were you see driving as being more luxurious, or difficult to have, or just unaffordable, then driving becomes a status symbol, it’s not as universal, but also the infrastructure is less universal because most people are on foot or motorbikes. In those contexts driving can be more stressful than using the other methods.
Depends on where the highway is. If it’s rural and away from big cities, it can be relaxing. If you’re trying to drive to / through Toronto, it’s a fucking nightmare. People will drive up your ass and cut you off then brake immediately, not let you into your exit lane which starts and ends with little notice, and the signage leading up to it was blocked by bumper to bumper traffic and big trucks. Yes, I am bitter about it.
Unless you experience physical pain from driving, it’s a slippery slope because every facet of modern life gets easier in car culture if you have a car.
Just look at Road Ragers: people who experience extreme emotional duress from driving, possibly endangering everyone with their angry antics and maybe giving themselves health problems from the blood pressure fluctuations, and yet they keep doing it.
And some people even drive without a license, simply because getting between places in time is nigh impossible otherwise.
As for why I decided to give up renewing my license, here’s my rant from elsewhere:
It’s not just the pollution from the exhaust, it’s not just the tons of trash/scrap that rots away in junkyards, it’s not just the rubbers and plastics from tire wear and tear getting into ecosystems, it’s not just the gigagallons of hazardous chemicals required to maintain, it’s not just the steady trend toward “Cars as a Service” while locking your premium features behind a paywall, it’s not just the carwashes draining their runoff into the local groundwater, it’s not just the needlessly large cities to accomodate every individual having a car to themselves, it’s not just the ever expanding highways in between cities that continue to have congestion but now take more space and more time to repair and do more damage to the environment, it’s not just the asphalt island effect, it’s not just the burden on local economies that is car culture, it’s not just the hostility drivers have for pedestrians and bikers, it’s not just the millions of accidents causing hundreds of millions dollars in medical damages and 40,000 deaths every year, it’s not just the blatant disregard for millions of animal and insect lives left on the roadside and windshields as warnings, it’s not just the arms race between assholes for bigger and louder and more dangerous death machines so they can feel like they’re the only one on the road who matters.
It’s all of it, and more.
Other than making sure to be wearing your glasses if you are near sighted enough that your local licence requires it, glasses are an irrelevant factor. It’s not like you are going into active combat duty…
Not my priority
I’m not allowed to learn to drive. Where I live, people drive like crazy and they follow some sort of “law of the jungle”. Having ADHD doesn’t help either.
I do have a license but refuse to drive. I guess the main reasons would be:
- I get lost very easily and navigating while driving is much harder (no stopping, turning around etc)
- You can’t entirely zone out or use that time to do something else like reading so if it’s a daily commute this is just lost time
- Road infrastructure here is terrible. I actually find it much safer to drive at night because at least you can see the headlights of cars coming out of blind intersections
- Just like there are (many) places you can’t go without a car, there are also places you can’t go with a car because there is no parking, mainly the city center, which is the place I visit the most
You also can’t drive drunk and I kinda like drinking.
Don’t need to and its cheaper
I had no access to or use of a car until I was around 23. Up to that point I lived in a country where you could cycle for most of your daily routine, take the bus a couple of times a month and the train sporadically.
I moved to a country where cycling was for the poor and foolhardy, me for several years, and public transport was atrocious.
Public transport has marginally improved, my bicycle hasn’t been used for 20+ years and our household has one car.
Learning to drive is a process. It takes time. Just like learning to fly a plane takes time. If you have a need to drive, learning how is step one. In my country even when you pass your test, you are required to keep a logbook for at least two years and drive in a variety of conditions before you can actually upgrade your probationary licence.
Wow which country did you go from and to where?
It seems like a downgrade, but there must have been an economical / life quality reason that you had moved.
I was born in Australia, moved to the Netherlands as a child and as an an adult moved back to Australia where I am now.
I don’t think people are “refusing”, it’s not like it’s mandatory or anything. Nobody’s trying to force you to drive a car.
I know I’ll never be able to afford a car, they’re incredibly expensive to buy and operate, and most of my travel is already covered by our excellent Trams, Buses and Trains, which can get me basically anywhere comfortably and quickly.
For the times I need something special I can ask someone for a lift, but that happens only a handful of times a year. A car would be a big, expensive, risky piece of equipment to just leave sat around for someone to steal…
Some people certainly are refusing. I know someone who is almost 23 and refuses to get a license. His parents got a car for him and his brother (who never leaves the house) so he could drive just chooses not to. He even had his mom drive him to his job every day over the summer.
I don’t think people are “refusing”
I know a few people who have no reason NOT to learn to drive, but just don’t and instead mooch off everyone else.
My folks had a falling out with a couple they’d been friends with for ages because they refused to get their licence… But then expected them to come and pick them up from the train station when they were invited to dinner, spent most of the night telling everyone how smart they are for not having a car, and then expecting a lift back to the train station. Having just spent a couple of hours banging on about how much financially better off they were, I saw it as essentially stealing to then demand someone else use their asset and running costs to carry them around for free.
My sister in law finally got her licence at 30-something after a couple of decades constantly harassing family members for a ride.
I don’t think people are “refusing”
This is kind of a pointless assumption. There are billions of people. Yes some people are refusing.
If you’re not refusing, then the question isn’t aimed at you.
Cars are expensive to buy and maintain. Also I don’t think finding a parking spot and then parking is a fun activity. Also the metro can in many cases be faster, and I can use my phone while I’m in it.
Trust me, you could absolutely follow the example of other drivers and use your phone while driving.
…my grandmother never drove in ninety-one years after suffering a siezure in her youth; now i work with a girl who does likewise…
The more you know, the more responsibility you have
Yeah, I taught my partner to drive manual transmission in case I’m incapacitated and need to be rushed to emergency care. Bit selfish of me.
because they gave me a license anyways
It’s simple: I don’t want to, and I don’t need to.
I can use my bicycle or E-bike. And on a family trip someone else will drive.
It also saves a lot of money.
I have a license, but never use it. I’m Dutch. My work and the train station are less than 10 min by bike, the supermarket is a 5 min walk. I can do almost anything by bike and sometimes public transport and it saves me hundreds of euro’s a month.
