Are there any damaging long term effects of not being able to drive?

Factual Questions
21

I’ve been driving for 40 years and I don’t think about these issues, either. Except for being required to carry my driver’s license, which I accept in return for the privilege of being allowed to drive a car.

Seriously, I have had a couple of periods of being unable to drive for six to nine months due to illness or financial difficulties. I learned to cope. I was able to buy food or order prescriptions online. I could buy other things online. If I need transportation to a doctor, I could schedule rides from volunteers with a community service group. I was happy when I could resume driving but I never felt as if my daily life suffered from not driving.

22

It is. I have lived about half my adult life in New York City, and half in Indiana, with one year in DC. I have never had a New York driver’s license, except once, briefly, when my Indiana license was about to expire, and I renewed it in New York. I have never owned a car in New York, but I have owned a car most of the time in Indiana. Indianapolis, despite being one of the largest cities in the US (it’s something like #16) has really lousy public transportation. You can’t just hop a bus and go somewhere, or go down the subway, and get across town almost instantaneously. Buses come on thew half-hour or hour. My car had to go in the shop today, and even though my husband has a car, it’s been a huge hassle, because my son happened to have a dental appointment scheduled today. I just took a cab home, and it cost $10, in spite of being a very short distance-- I would have walked, but it’s been raining.

I really wish we could live with just one car, and use the buses some of the time; you’d think in a city this size we could. When we lived in a smaller town in Indiana, and didn’t have a child, we managed with one car, and a bicycle each.

If we were in NYC, we wouldn’t need a car at all. On the rare occasion that we were doing something like buying a large appliance that was too big to bring on the bus, and too small to have delivered, we’d use a cab. We’d use a cab to go to the doctor, sometimes, and other than that, the buses and subways are great. And then, there are always bicycles.

If a person loses the ability to drive to a handicap, there are things like special door-to-door bus services, and medicabs, but if you’ve been used to total autonomy, it must be hard. If you lose driving ability to a DUI or crashing your car into a tree and not being able to get a new one because you only had collision has to suck, particularly if you live in a town with poor public transport, because not only is getting around hard, but you end up having to explain to people all the time about how you screwed up.

23

I drive less than 3000 miles a year (my seven year old car has 25,000 km on it) and I feel I get the best of both worlds. Routine trips downtown are by bus, train, or walking. Today, I walked one way and used the commuter train to come home. I do drive to concerts because it is dreary to take the bus at 10:30. And I will be driving to visit a friend in Montpelier, VT (from Montreal) next week.

Still I figure this is my last car. I can take a lot of taxis for the cost of running a car.

24

I can’t put my finger on exactly why, but I have a nagging feeling that those two statements contradict themselves. :smiley:

25

I hate driving. I’ve been doing it for almost 50 years and I’ve never enjoyed it. I’d be happy to be done with it.

26

My wife has not been able to drive for more than 10 years. This is self imposed due to poor eyesight; she actually has a license and could legally drive. I know that it bothers her that she has to ask me to drive her places and run all the errands. She feels she is imposing on me more than she should.

So I’d answer yes, there might be some effects of not “being able” to drive in situations in which it might be expected you could. I don’t know if this is the type of situation the OP is asking about.

27

Recent research has shown that the percentage of people over all history who never drove who contracted the black plague is much greater than the percentage of people who drove who contracted it, so there must be some connection.

28

My husband has not been able to drive for about two years, due to his illness. He had a brain tumor causing severe vertigo, surgery to remove that brain tumor, and subsequent recovery from the surgery. Now a year after surgery, he’s feeling better, to the point where he would like to try driving again, but his car needs a new battery and other work before it’s drivable again so he’s still grounded. (I haven’t driven his car while he was ill, for various reasons.)

Psychological effects? He’s cranky and bitchy. He’s frustrated and annoyed. He’s tired of depending on me to take him places or get him things. He wants his car fixed, but wants me to do all the work to get it taken care of - not surprising, I’ve been in charge of cars since we got married. He won’t try to drive my “old” car (we bought recently me a new car, but haven’t donated my old one yet) because it’s a stick and the air conditioning is shot (we’re having a heat wave right now). Also, he’s not healthy enough to take the bus anywhere, since he can’t easily walk the half-mile or so to the nearest bus stop, and bus service isn’t all that great around us.

29

What country do you live in that this is a thing?

30

People like that really annoy me.

I don’t drive either, so I suppose there’s some inconvenience when I ask people for help occasionally. But in a case like this? If I can’t tough it out at the party, I’ll call a cab. It’s my problem, I imposed my own set of limitations, I’ll find a way to deal with it that has the smallest set of consequences for other people.

As for psychology… the only difference I really see between me and other people is that I consider 2 miles to be walking distance when they complain about having to park at the far end of the parking lot. I consider 5 miles to be a long way away, when they’re happy to drive 20 miles for their favorite coffee shop. (In fact, some people even drive around for fun… can you believe that? I can’t wrap my head around that idea. :dubious: )

31

He’s likely referring to insurance. But if he’s paying $800 a year, he is doing it WAY wrong.

32

I’ve driven to New York on vacation once and it sucked. And parking sucked even more. Now I look forward to going to New York, London and most especially Tokyo. It’s great not having to drive. If I were young again I’d make for a city with decent transportation systems and only rent a car when I needed one. I’d be a lot healthier with all the walking too and most likely socialize more with coworkers. Now we just get in our cars and head 30 minutes in opposite directions.

33

I don’t want to speak for the OP or change the thread, but when I read it, I imagined a scenario that is common (well, not common, but happens a lot) around here.

I live in West Virginia. We aren’t like the Hatfields and McCoy’s and there are small cities nearby, but public transportation is largely non-existent. If you want to work, go to the grocery store, attend social events, or do pretty much anything outside of your home, you need to drive to do it.

So a person gets a DUI and loses his license for three months. He also must pay his fine within 6 months or his license will be suspended until he pays the fine. Since he loses his license, he loses his job. He has no money to pay the fine.

He has to rely on the charity of his (few remaining loyal) friends and family to drive him to the grocery store or to attend social events. If he meets a nice girl and asks her out, he’d better ask if she can drive his pitiful ass around and pay for everything because he has no license and is broke. She probably declines his offer.

So, IOW, I sort of agree with the OP in that certain areas of the country, the loss of the ability to drive starts one’s life on a downward spiral that could certainly lead to depression and other long term effects.

34

OTOH, you’ve got the nation’s only Personal Rapid Transit System…

35

Well, I went to WVU in Morgantown and have ridden the PRT many, many times. It is certainly unique and is very much a cultural icon for WVU.

But it’s failure to expand beyond only Morgantown, WV shows the many flaws in the system. Sure, you could expand the track for $XXX million dollars, but unless you are within walking distance to one of the expensively maintained stops, it’s not something that most people will use.

It’s great for transporting students between campuses, but that doesn’t lend itself to being useful for daily work commutes.