My name is Lucky 13, and I don’t have a driver’s license.
(SMDB: “Hello, Lucky 13.”)
I am considered a freak in that I live in the greater L.A. area and don’t drive. There is even a song that says “Only a nobody walks in L.A.”. Guess I’m a nobody then. See, when I was a sophomore in high school, all sophomores were requred to take a driver ed class. My school’s driver ed class was run by the 80-year-old teacher who showed a lot of movies so he could nap. Once you passed a written test, you were given some sort of voucher so you could schedule after-school time on the driving simulators owned by the school district. Somehow I managed to get sick and miss school on the one day out of the school year when they scheduled simulator time. I found that out the next day, and the teacher said I was SOL (my feeling is, he didn’t want to be bothered). So I gave up and rode the school bus until graduation. I attended a local university and either rode the bus there or was driven by my folks. I couldn’t afford driving school, and had no luck getting driving lessons from my parents. Dad is not a patient driver and an even less patient instructor, and it took one screaming argument in a rainstorm while double-parked outside the house to convince me not to take any more lessons from him. :mad: Mom, on the other hand, is careful to the point that she has not once driven on the freeway. I soon got tired of hearing “Oh, watch out, watch out!” every five minutes while driving with her. Mr. Lucky tried teaching me too, but he is slowly losing the peripheral vision in his right eye, so that’s not working out either. Right now I am on my sixth learning permit, :eek: and next week I will call a driving school. I mean, I can afford it now, and there is no reason to keep being scared or embarrassed.
Uh, no, not an easy concept. Learning to drive, especially when you’re older, isn’t an impromptu thing you do over a weekend. What if you need to drive tomorrow? Don’t say it can’t happen.
BTW, some of you people sound vaguely, I dunno, proud of the fact that you can’t do something. It’s like being proud of the fact that you weren’t suckered into learning to read because you didn’t plan on ever reading, and besides, someone you know could always read something to you. Isn’t that what people always joke about small-minded rednecks doing?
Do you have a pilot’s license? There are situations where it could be very useful, and you certainly can’t just suddenly decide out of the blue that you’re going to get one tomorrow. How about a doctor’s license - being able to write an Rx for your wife when she runs out of her heart meds at an inconvenient time could be very handy.
I don’t believe it’s a case of pride. It’s a case that some people have come to the conclusion that being able to drive is for many people NOT a requirement of modern society, including many people that think they do need to drive to live in a modern city (note that I absolutely accept the fact that many people MUST drive due to the nature of their occupations or other life circumstances; I simply don’t accept that the fact that thinking you need to necessarily implies that you really do need to).
To clarify one of my points in a previous message - I mooch rides from people when they and I are going out to the same place, i.e. in similar situations to what people with licenses often do when it is inconvenient for everyone to go in their own cars.
A while back I had my Mum collapse and need to go to hospital urgently. They offered me a ride in the ambulance.
Otherwise I’d take a taxi.
If it’s an emergency, it’s probably better to have a professional driver anyway, rather than drive stressed.
No it’s not. :rolleyes:
England is a small country with an extensive rail system, buses, taxis and underground systems.
Even so we have traffic congestion in the cities, with consequent pollution and time-wasting.
Not driving is perfectly feasible here.
I read a lot because it’s useful and enjoyable.
I’ve never smoked because I don’t want to (plus it’s expensive and unhealthy). Are you going to make snide cracks about that? :smack:
I’m not “proud” of the fact that I don’t drive. There are times when it would be convenient if I drove. But I also realize that for me driving could be dangerous…not just for me, but for other drivers…so I don’t want to risk it.
As for the fact that people who drive me places might resent it, I make every effort to reciprocate the favors they do for me. Including occasionally paying for gas.
Another 35-and-unlicensed here. It’s not that I don’t want to drive, it’s just that I’ve never really been able to comfortably afford to buy a car and maintain it. Sure, public transit is a hell of a lot less convenient, but it’s generally cheaper. As a result I’ve never had the need to go and get my license. Maybe one day I will, but right now it’s not really that feasible. (Oh, I’m sure I could save up the money and could even afford gas and stuff, but it would necessitate a fairly significant lifestyle change that I’m not prepared to initiate right now)
Yeah, I feel a bit freakish, but so be it. It’s not really a big deal to me, and the money I save is rather nice.
I’m 36 and haven’t had a license since I let it lapse almost ten years ago.
Ditto to what everyone else has said here: I have a state ID and a wife who likes to drive for relaxation. I’ve lived in Boston for most of those ten years, and I have yet to find something I want to do or somewhere I want to go that is longer than a ten minute walk and/or a ride on the MBTA away.
I might add that Boston–while being my favorite city in the world next to Seoul, Korea–is also one of the worst cities on earth to drive in. You talk about encountering an emergency situation? If you put my inexperienced ass behind a wheel in Boston, sooner or later an emergency situation is exactly what you’re gonna have! I’ll leave the driving to my native-born Bostonian sweetie. It’s not like God’s gonna strike me impotent if I decide to go out and get my license someday.
I have one for the US, but never bothered to apply for one in Japan. Back when I was living in the countryside, I used an International Permit, but now that I’m in Tokyo driving is usually far more trouble and expense than it’s worth.
Still, every now and then I start thinking that it would be nice to go places that aren’t accessible by train (I hear Japan has one or two), or do a large-scale shopping run down at the new Costco. I’m planning to apply for a J-license sometime this year before my current US license expires.
Can I mention my mother? Never got a license, never learned to drive. She turns 78 later this month. Her passport expired sometime in the 60s I think, and she hasn’t had photo ID since.
Me, I have a perfectly good license, but I haven’t driven in over 20 years.
I’m 29 and I’ve never had a driver’s license. I’ll get one when I think I should. As it is:
The Pacific Ocean is really what prevents me from driving to visit my parents. Even if I did drive, all the friends or family I’d go visit are not within a distance I would drive.
My workplace moved last year to within a mile of my apartment, so I walk to work. Not only is this convenient, but this makes me get off my ass. I walk a minimum of 7-8 miles per week, more if I stop by for groceries on the way home. I’d be completely sedentary otherwise.
All the stores and businesses I need on a day-to-day basis are along my route to work. (As is, amusingly enough, the DMV.) If I need to go anywhere not on this route, I can catch one of the three transit system buses that pass within 3 blocks of my apartment.
If I had a car? My roommate uses our parking stall, so I’d have to find street parking for my car every evening, which isn’t always possible. I’d have to mind the streetcleaning schedule. I’d have to pay for parking at work, which would feel stupid considering I could get there for free if I walked. I’d have to either worry about my car being broken into (which has happened at this apartment), or drive a car no one would want to steal. I’d have to pay for insurance and gas, which means bye-bye to the nice chunk of money I’m able to put away each month.
Not worth it.
Pretty much the only problems I’ve had with not driving are people like Malienation.
I’m 33 and license-less. Like Canadjun, I pretty much gave up on the idea after a botched driving test. No damage done, but it could’ve been bad, and it proved to me that I too was a nervous driver, and better off not behind the wheel. So these days I get by on foot, by bus, and, if necessary, taxi.
As others have said, the bus can be really inconvenient, but then again car ownership sure seems inconvenient, and expensive too. I can get a pass for unlimited bus rides for $60/month. To me, that’s a bargain.
My coworkers see me waiting at the bus stop at the end of the day, and they all know I get home just fine every day. Sometimes they’ll offer me a ride, which I sometimes accept, but only if they’re going my way, or if the weather is just terrible. I only ask for a ride if I really need it, and that’s not very often these days.
The biggest problem for me is finding a convenient place to live. I got lucky finding my current apartment - just 5 minutes on foot to a bus stop, and a few more minutes to a grocery store, several restaurants, a mall, a post office, and more. A 40 minute walk to and from work, if I have or want to. But I’d rather own a home one day, and finding a similarly convenient location has proven tough.
I currently have a driver’s license, but I went fourteen and a half years without one after losing it to a DUI in 1992. After the DUI I was given a 90-day suspension, but simply chose to stop driving completely, since I wasn’t ready to quit drinking at that time. By the time I decided to quit drinking, I’d gotten comfortable with walking and bicycling, and taking a bus when possible. Hey, it kept me in shape, if nothing else, and I was enjoying having money to spend on things other than car payments, insurance, and gas.
But, I got older. I got tired of walking to work in ass-freezing winter weather. The city buses don’t run past 7:00 PM, or at all on Sundays. I finally decided to get my license back last fall, and have had it now for four months. And after four months, most of my pants no longer fit.
No, lot’s of carless people here. I lived w/o a car the first 3 years I was here. The Steve Carrell line was a joke, but I was serious about ID. A friend of mine once had her passport rejected when she tried to buy alcohol. It’s also big to carry around.
No licence, aged 43, and no intention to learn or get a licence. I just simply don’t want to drive. I get by with public transport and walking, and so far haven’t seen it impact on my work.
Yeah, I’m a freak to everyone who’s asked me “Why not learn to drive?” I do get tired of the very kind suggestions that I should drive – but that’s life. I’d rather have the economy and relative stress-freeness of public transport, thanks.
On the other extreme, I’ve had a DL for over 50 years and have driven close to 3 million miles (I was in the trucking business for over 20 years). I enjoy driving and have often just gone for a drive to explore and pass the time. I have a bike and I like to ride, but it’s pretty dangerous around here. We’ve had a rash of auto/bike accidents in the past few years. I wear a helmet, although I don’t like it, but I slipped on wet pavement about a year ago and fell. I hurt my knee and skinned up my leg, so the helmet wasn’t much good in that case.
It would be a major adjustment if I couldn’t drive, it’s a freedom to me.
I was a driver for many years, but the sudden onset of an eye disorder (intermediate uveitis…pars planitis for those interested) put a stop to that within a matter of weeks about eight years ago.
It shits me to TEARS that I cannot drive. The lack of freedom, the dependence upon the vagaries of public transport (even though I live in the PT hub of Melbourne) is enough to drive me up the proverbial wall (sans car of course).
Days when I want to go bush by myself are cancelled. Camping trips are now at the whim and desire of my SO rather than me. Ferrying kids and their shit around is not an option anymore, and they too have become dependent upon PT and have little inclination to get their DL’s either.
I’m glad I’m not the only one without a license! I really feel like a loser because all my friends drive, so if we’re all going somewhere, they always have to pick me up and drop me off like a kid. I didn’t think it was a big deal until I turned 21 and suddenly I’m able to go clubbing and bar hopping with friends. I’m so used to living in Berkeley, and not having parking anywhere. This meant that I walked/biked/bused/barted to wherever I needed. Works fine now, but it’s a bit of a hassle always needing to depend on other people’s schedules.
Hopefully when I get back from my family vacation, I’ll get my license, but definitely not before I turn 24 (which is 2 weeks after I get back). Oh well. Car insurance is going to be high when I get it :smack:
Lessee… my cousin got her license last September, so she was 37.
She lives in Barcelona, always has. Heck, she’s one of the very few people I know who’ve lived their entire lives in the same house. Her flat is 7 blocks from Sagrada Familia, 1 block from Passeig de Gràcia; two subway lines “right there” and many bus lines. If you catch the traffic lights right, you can walk to the Plaza Catalunya in 35 minutes. She’s always been able to use public transportation or walk to work.
She finally decided to get her license because her SO is diabetic (has been in the hospital a couple times for this before he learned to manage it and still feels more comfortable knowing there’s another driver); having two licenses in the car means that they can go on longer day trips: they can change drivers if one gets tired and if one gets hurt or has sugar problems the other one can drive.
Oh, and in Spain we get a National ID (DNI) which has your picture and your ID# (same one as your passport, driver’s license and tax ID; can also act as your medical system ID) and is about the size of a credit card but thinner when we turn 14. We can get it earlier if we’re traveling to a country that accepts it as a passport substitute. Foreigners get an equivalent one, it’s a different color but same info.
