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?
Simple: I fucking hate driving. I hate the smell, I hate the noise, and I hate the stress. Thr environmental impact isnt exactly a plus point either. You could say that I’m lucky to live in a place with good public transport, but I actively sought out a place with public transport because I didn’t want to rely on a car.
Final nail on the coffin: I developed Menieres disease, so I am prone to intense vertigo attacks at short notice - I couldn’t get a license even if I wanted one.
I just don’t need one, so never bothered with it.
Same here. I grew up in a big city, moved around to different big cities, always been on foot, biking or communal traffic. Never felt the need for a car. I’m in the upper middle ages now so I doubt it’s going to change.
You time traveled to the Middle Ages to avoid cars? That’s dedication!
Indeed. While you were learning how to reverse the car I was studying how to reverse the time.
We have good public transport and I believe reading something on the way to be a better use of that time.
But you can read while behind the wheel of a Tesla 🙃
You can technically read behind the wheel of any car …
Whoa. Eye-opening.
hits and kills kid crossing the road because Tesla is a lying piece of shit and their “self driving” doesn’t actually work
Oops.
At least you got a few pages in, right?
You don’t need an overpriced piece of junk for that. That’s why american cars are plastered with useless safety instructions
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.
I’m personally baffled at how many are killed in automobile accidents. 44,000 Americans every year. American KIA numbers for the entirety of the global war on terror is around 5,000. That is roughly only one month’s worth of automobile deaths.
Americans dead in Vietnam is around 58,000 over ten years. That’s only a year and a half worth of automobile deaths.
Even in WW2, over 4 years, 416,000 americans lost their lives, around 104,000 per year. Even during the deadliest war in history, automobiles today still kill 44% as many year to year. Granted the war did not touch America as much relatively but are still mind boggling statistics.
It feels as though learning to drive is merely fueling the cycle. More cars cause politicians to invest further in road infrastructure instead. More people giving up on public transportation further starves it of the funding it deserves and desperately needs.
It feels as though learning to drive
Yous should probably start there
Fuck me, the worst, most selfish and badly trained drivers I’ve ever seen in my life
How the fuck could anyone be ten times worse than the Italians?!?!
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.
I have a license. I enjoy driving as a leisure activity.
But I hate driving to work. I just take the shuttle and enjoy listening to my podcasts. We have a decent public transport system as well, so it helps.
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.
Basically, confidence. I don’t have enough confidence to drive a car. Heck even riding a bike gives me anxiety that I’m going to collide with somebody or get hit by someone.
Just wait until you try canoe.
I have, didn’t get far. lol
i think a unicycle is more your style
The river literally pushes you bro
I was on a beach.
According to medical checkups, I am fine, but I know for a fact I am not a safe driver. I have bad attention span, sight, reaction, field of view, and tiredness issues. I am ideologically repelled by cars. And it looks feels dull to me to drive and also to study for an exam.
For me, it’s the opposite. I’m autistic, without ID (aka intellectual disability), but apparently, I have practically the same amount of rights as people with ID. I was forced to go to the psychological exam, where nothing was wrong, but I got accused of being irresponsible and have to wait another year. Great.
I feel you mate.
Also get easily tired in a car. Already got in an accident with another car at slow speeds. Luckily it was a company owned car :p
I don’t want to get a license only to forget everything because I won’t drive.
I see having a car as a necessity only. For me, it’s only acceptable if public transport/bicycle is not an option. Unfortunately, the latter is almost never an option due to how everything is built car-centric, but the former very often is.
Also, I don’t know anything about cars, I don’t have to think where to park that huge piece of shit, I don’t need to be my own driver, I don’t need to do any maintenance, it’s more ecological and even cheaper than just gas.
I got my license at 18 before I moved out, but my parents made the entire ordeal a nightmare. It was more anxiety than it was worth to get my required miles in with them as the instructor. People living in large cities often never get the opportunity, it’s high stress and taxis are readily available. Car ownership is expensive and public transportation is available, as well as biking. In uni I taught several Asian students how to drive because countries like Japan often have expensive training programs, and insurance is painful for testers. European cities are often designed for micro mobility and bikes and smart cars are preferred just because of size.
Aren’t taxis incredibly expensive where you live? They are here.
They typically are quite expensive, but if you don’t use them daily, only use them when absolutely needed (which is when other options are not available), it will be cheaper than maintaining a car.
Instead of car, people of my country usually able to drive motorcycle.
But not me. I’d rather take my bicycle. I don’t want to deal with cost of maintaining motorcycle.
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.
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.
