Have you asked if the hotel has ride service? When I’ve stayed in hotels in more rural areas they’ve often had shuttle vans available for a nominal fee.
I can’t fathom being without a DL.
Is he going to be able to fly with expired ID?
kittenblue, that was my thought too. Maybe he has a passport? If not, yikes!
Also, OP, while I know this is his event and he booked stuff…didn’t you think about how in California in general you’d need a car once you realized you’d be staying off-site? I mean, the places in the US where you can easily not own a car or have a valid license (as in it’s not an inconvenience) are very minuscule; while it’s certainly Not Your Problem I don’t quite think it should have been a complete surprise to you.
Wisconsin is 8 or 10, depending on how old you are at the time it is issued.
kittenblue, he has a NY ID card, so getting on the plane is no problem.
lindsaybluth, had I been making the arrangements, I would have meticulously researched every tiny minuscule aspect of the trip, including transportation methods, long before I made reservations for anything. I, for some reason, assumed he would do the same thing. About a month ago, he mentioned to me the situation he’d gotten us into and I immediately suggested he call around to other wedding attendees, asking about rides. In the meantime, I started searching on my own for transportation options. It wasn’t until this week that I realized how little was available and panic set it. And it’s no fun starting threads about things until the panic has fully set in.
This thread is making me appear like an obsessive compulsive neurotic person (which of course, I am). It’s also making TB look a bit lackadaisical (which of course, he can be). But I’m keeping the majority of my crazy panic inside and I’m really trying not to put a damper on the weekend before its even begun.
Ohhhh I see. That timeline makes more sense, since he didn’t tell you you wouldn’t be with everyone else in the hotel situation to begin with. Man, he sounds like a loser, sorry. I think since it’s his fault and his buddy, he should pay for all the cabs (now, this is where you come in and say “oh but I make more than he does” :smack:)
Well to be perfectly snarky 
Since New York is the Center Of The World and you can do everything you want even at 3am and never need a car or a driver’s license… It would only make sense to stay there and shun activities and people who try to seduce you into leaving Paradise.
What are you insuring if you don’t have a car?
In most states you need proof on insurance to take the driver’s test. I’d imagine that the insurance does not need to be in your name; it would only need to cover anyone who has permission to drive the car. In these states (CA is one of these) you do not need any insurance to actually have a license and no car, and there are non-DL IDs which provide and equivalent identification level. IMHO everyone should get a DL even if they don’t plan on driving, although maybe joebuck’s ultra-prohibitive state makes this very onerous.
Wow, good luck! Maybe you COULD get your license re-issued in time, if only with a temporary paper copy.
I didn’t get a drivers license until I was in my 30’s. I commuted for years by bike or mass transit. Then when we relocated to just outside of Houston for several years, I said, oh HELL no, I HAVE to have one!
Really depends on the area; some (like LA and Houston) are VERY difficult to get aorund without driving, both due to urban sprawl/sheer size and having grown up around the automobile and being very unfriendly to pedestrians or cyclists.
Prior to that time, I had only a state ID card.
I can’t wait for the oil to run out completely so that car maniacs of that ilk get screwed.
:rolleyes:
Don’t hold your breath.
Yes, of course. joebuck made it sound as if in his state you have to have auto insurance simply to get a license even if you don’t own a car. Perhaps I interpreted his post incorrectly.
In Arizona they’re good until you turn 65. However, you need to have a new photo taken every 12 years. After 65, you need to renew every 5 years and must pass a vision test for every new renewal.
When I did the head-math on this person’s license, it must’ve been easily roundable to 65, and we both assumed it was 40 (or whatever years). How exactly though do you get a new photo without getting a new copy of your license, though? Tape the new one on front?
Indeed :).
In Michigan you can get a state ID card if you do not drive. Either one license or a ID card can be enhanced. Enhanced costs an extra 50 bucks but will serve as a passport and get you across the border into Canada. I think most expire in 4 years.
That’s what I did in Florida: I took it once with a borrowed car, got flunked (I “braked too softly” for the tester’s taste, had no idea what a 3-point turn was, and he didn’t like that I was willing to test in either Spanish or English), then called a driving school and paid for 2h: 1h worth of explanations on “how to pass a test here” followed by the time to go and pass it.
My Barcelona cousin got her license at the tender age of 39. Not because she kept flunking it (like her mother, who took the written eleven times and the practical more than twenty), but because she’d never needed a car. The few times she was in places where she would need a car, someone had one; this is true even now, but since her boyfriend (and designated driver) is a Type-1 diabetic, they figured it was best if she could drive too. That was pretty much my reasoning in order to get it at 22, way before I got a car: if I went wherever and the driver got sick/drunk/hurt his wrist, best to have a driver available. The age for car licenses in Spain is 18, many people outside the biggest metro areas get a license within three years of that age but not a car.
In California too. I got one when I needed to be fingerprinted because I was working at summer camp (then found out that dishwashers don’t need to be, but whatever)
(bolding mine) Say what? What possible reason would he have for flunking you because you spoke two languages? As long as you con communicate with the tester and read those wordy US road signs, that should be all that counts. Was it some kind of weird anti-Spanish predjudice?