root Posted March 22, 2015 I learned how to drive as a teen and my first vehicle was a motorcycle because it's something teenagers in America are allowed to drive on their own with just a learner's permit (if you only have a learner's permit, you can't drive a car without a licensed driver in the passenger side), and also because my dad was grossly irresponsible. Everybody who knew I had a motorcycle at the age of 16 thought it was badass, but I hated it because I was certain I was going to kill myself on it. Also because I couldn't transport anything but my own body on it. HOWEVER. I also learned how a clutch operates by riding a bike, which made learning how to drive with a manual transmission easier, and I eventually became so used to driving stick that driving an automatic felt way weird to me. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
dibs Posted March 22, 2015 SBM, I'm going from cork to Cavan for a wedding. Put that one into Google maps public transport:P I find my car pretty indispensable to be honest. Outside dublin/the pale only really the main routes get public transport. To get home to me mammy from cork would take nearly twice as long as driving and require two busses. I've noticed a lot more of my friends who live or come from cities don't drive versus my friends from home who, with one medical exception, have all been driving since we were all around 20-24. I was discussing it with a non driving friend who is taking lessons atm (avid cyclist so she never really wanted to before). She said that the big difference between taking lessons now (she is around 26) versus when she was 17 is that now she is much more aware that she is controlling a ton of metal driving at high speeds, and as a result she is a lot more uncomfortable with the whole learning experience, and the consequences of something going wrong. She was knocked off her bike a few years back as well and pretty badly injured so that plays in as wel. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
clyde Posted March 22, 2015 I drive to work and I detest cars. I have felt for a long time that I have to choose between having a job decent job and having a car because the only jobs within walking distance are not preferable. There is no public transportation within 15 miles of mountain from me. I live in rural United States. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Bjorn Posted March 22, 2015 My dad started teaching me how to drive when I was 10 or 11. We were a farming family, and sometimes they needed an extra driver to help move equipment (this was driving like 5 miles an hour in a pickup down a flat trail road, so no traffic and not much risk). I started driving tractors when I was 12, and over the next 6 years spent literally thousands of hours in one vehicle or another. Before that, I had already spent thousands of hours riding around in vehicles tagging along with dad while he worked. He still has this adorable little stool that I used to sit on in the tractor and combine with him. I bought my first car when I was 14 (because people were fucking insane when I was a kid and let 14-year-olds buy and drive cars. What the fuck, adults?!). Driving is so hard wired into my upbringing that I literally can't imagine what it would be like not drive more days than not. And as far as public transportation goes around here, it's shit. There's some limited public bussing in both the cities closest to us, but it's not easy to get by without a car even if that's a thing you want or have to do. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SuperBiasedMan Posted March 22, 2015 Yeah, true. I should have said that I have the privilege of living in Dublin(-ish? I'm kinda not any more), the place all the public transport points to like a bad GG collusion diagram. For the occasional times when I have had to go to the awkward places I just accept a lift or mangle the routes and put up with it. I do think that pure ignorance makes it easier to do driving stuff when younger. That actually seems like a terrible thought to me though, makes me want to start a campaign to dissuade kids from driving. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Twig Posted March 22, 2015 I was terrified of driving and so didn't even learn until I was about 19 or 20 and had to for my internship... Once I did I had no problem and started enjoying it and I was better at it than most people who I assume had been driving for years longer than me and yeah I'm smug about it fuck you! And then I got tired of it. And then I moved to Washington and my entire life was based around Digipen, and I drove very little. And then I let my license lapse. And then I moved to San Francisco, where I didn't ever have to even pretend to drive and it was fantastic. And then I moved to Dallas, where I need a car and I hate it and I don't have one and public transportation is ass and ughhh fuck me I guess. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
tegan Posted March 22, 2015 I hate driving and deliberately avoided it for as long as I could. I got my license at 16, barely used it, and let it expire a few years back. It makes it a hassle to move things and I have to plan out my routes if I have an appointment somewhere, but otherwise I'm happy with things this way. I'm not paying for constant upkeep on a car and I'm much less likely to accidentally get killed/kill someone. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Badfinger Posted March 22, 2015 I don't find it odd that someone in their mid-twenties hasn't ever driven. Cities are excellent at enabling that. There are probably people who would look at me crosseyed if I told them how few times I've ever used a city bus. I love driving, but I wish that driving wasn't always 100% necessary. I literally can't do anything without getting in the car for at least 5-10 minutes. I would probably have to drive somewhere just to take the aforementioned bus. I can't imagine not driving on my commute, but I wish I didn't have to drive EVERYWHERE. For very related reasons, I'll never own a handheld game console no matter how much amazing stuff gets released. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SuperBiasedMan Posted March 22, 2015 Oh don't get me started on commutes. I had a bus commute once and if was pretty awful, since then I've always walked. Infinitely better when it's possible. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Patrick R Posted March 22, 2015 I told my terror-car story in the thread for Episode 193 so that (coupled with my general financial instability) means I will probably never drive again. But I really really really miss it. I don't mind the CTA, it's pretty good as far as public transit goes, but I definitely don't feel as free as I used to. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
BadHat Posted March 22, 2015 I've survived most of my 20s on a learner's license, only just rectifying that now out of necessity as I'm living outside of town for the first time in forever. I much prefer being able to just walk to where I need to be, and rely on public transport or, in a pinch, chuck a friend some gas money to get me places. But realistically a license is pretty gosh darn useful, if not necessary in this country, so I probably should've sorted it out a while ago. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
undermind9 Posted March 22, 2015 i love driving. i wasnt very good at first (16-18) but after commuting to college for years and some love interests that required some distance driving i began to appreciate it. then when i got hired at my current job it required that i drive from chicago suburbs to the city proper sometimes twice a day and i really learned to enjoy it - even with traffic. Fortunately for the wear on my vehicle I don't drive as much now but still really enjoy going out on a drive and insist on driving when in a group of people i also really liked my car during the heavy driving years, since my wife laid some criteria - cheaper gas, better cost of maintenance, and 4 doors for rear seat access - bleh. might as well have gotten a lesabre again Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Apple Cider Posted March 22, 2015 I didn't get my license until I was 23, I still have never owned a car. It's part of living in cities or otherwise being too poor to afford a car. How are you supposed to buy and own a car if you've never had more than a couple grand in the bank (or less) at any one time? I suppose I could probably get a car now but I'm still so scared of all my money being taken away that I'd rather not in case I magically lost my job. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Twig Posted March 22, 2015 I didn't get my license until I was 23, I still have never owned a car. It's part of living in cities or otherwise being too poor to afford a car. How are you supposed to buy and own a car if you've never had more than a couple grand in the bank (or less) at any one time? I suppose I could probably get a car now but I'm still so scared of all my money being taken away that I'd rather not in case I magically lost my job. Pretty much how I feel right now. The only cars I ever owned were hand-me-downs from parents. Now I don't have one and I can't even begin to see how I'd afford a new one... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Mangela Lansbury Posted March 22, 2015 I used to love driving -- I lived in Atlanta, so the immense amounts of traffic made it a leisurely affair where I never really had to pay attention for very long and got to listen to whatever I wanted for a while. Now I live in a snow infested tundra and hate driving. I avoid doing it whenever I can, even in the summer. I still have the car and I make sure I move it at least once a week, but I've had it for about 3 and a half years and it doesn't even have 30,000 miles on it. I prefer public transit for everything but grocery shopping. I also still sometimes go out for midnight drives when I'm incredibly stressed and need some time, though. Just get in the car, drive out to the middle of nowhere, get a little lost, and come back. It's therapeutic, and has been ever since I first got a car. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
miffy495 Posted March 22, 2015 I didn't get my license until I was 23. I'd had my learners for YEARS but had never really lived far enough away from anything to need to drive there. Then I started my in-class training for teacher's college and had to travel all across Calgary to get where I needed to be every morning by 7:30. We are a GIANT example of terrible urban sprawl and an underfunded and terrible public transit system, and going from one corner of the city to another can take literal hours even if you're driving. One of the perks of living in Canada's oil capital I guess. You need to buy in to the local markets at least a bit, because not driving here is not an option. As it is, I have a 45 minute to an hour drive each way to work every day now, and I'm only going from downtown (as I said, I try to live central so that I don't have to drive too many places) to about halfway into the Southwest quadrant of the city. I was terrified of driving when I first got my license, but after so much time behind the wheel for the last several years, it's not really a thing any more. I actually quite like it when I'm not trying to BE anywhere. Driving around aimlessly is great, especially in light rain or something. Super relaxing. Driving to a place with a deadline sucks. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Apple Cider Posted March 22, 2015 Yeah, I'd really love a car for grocery shopping. As it is, my boyfriend carpools with his mom but since I work all day, it means I have relatively little input on what actually gets bought from time to time and I'd love to be able to shop on my own time without also finagling with the bus. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SecretAsianMan Posted March 22, 2015 I've been driving since I was 16. I think the longest continuous period I've gone without driving a car is a month. I've only ever lived in places where driving was a necessity either because of a terrible to nonexistent public transportation system, or because every is just too damn far away to walk/bike. The few times I have been in places with decent public transportation, it was really nice to not have to worry about how I'm going to get around. Having a car is nice because it gives me the freedom to go where I want when I want but there are a lot of times I wish I had another option. I hate needing to drive to the store just to get a single thing like milk so I always end up talking myself into getting more so the trip doesn't feel like a waste. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SuperBiasedMan Posted March 22, 2015 I hate needing to drive to the store just to get a single thing like milk so I always end up talking myself into getting more so the trip doesn't feel like a waste. Stuff like this is so weird to me that I always forget it. I've never lived more than 10 minutes walk away from some size of shop. I think it's currently a legal obligation here to include some commercial outlets when planning a housing estate over a certain size. So that you don't end up plonking a bunch of people in an isolated area and nothing near them. Of course that's just inherently not as big an issue for us anyway because of how our towns and cities developed. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Apple Cider Posted March 22, 2015 That's so cool and thoughtful whereas here in the US where it's huge and sprawling and there's absolutely food deserts. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
osmosisch Posted March 22, 2015 We currently don't have a car. Until this autumn we lived in the city centre and had absolutely no reason to own one. Now we live outside of town a bit more, and have our own house it's becoming more tempting. Things like replacing roof tiles, collecting firewood for the woodstove etc. are so much less convenient with the cargo bike. Still, we've been fine so far borrowing friends' or parents' cars. I'm very happy to have a bicycle commute again, I was getting fat and slothful from living 500m from work. Now I get to ride my bike half an hour every morning and evening which is so much better. Screw you, gym membership. Basically I kind of like the mechanics of driving, but knowing it's statistically pretty much the most dangerous activity I'm likely to engage in really stresses me out. Combine that with the boredom of long trips and it's just not good for the ol' mental health. I didn't know it was possible to be both bored and stressed at the same time until I started driving. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
iax Posted March 22, 2015 I've never cared for driving or cars in general and my relationship with the idea of me driving is exactly what SBM posted. I actually have a licence, I was basically forced to get it when I was 18 for no good reason (pressured by my family because apparently that's what you do when you're 18). So I started in some cheap trashy driving school which I think expected that since I'm an adolescent male, I obviously know everything about cars and somebody taught me basics of driving already. Let's say it wasn't very fun experience and I hated every second of it. I'm not very good at multitasking and automating things so I had a lot of problems with knowing where I am exactly, handling gears, observing traffic, deducing the right of way etc while being acutely aware that even a small mistake can ruin my/others lives forever. I still have no idea how so many people manage to do it like it's the most natural thing ever. There was a lot of stress and being yelled at. I somehow managed to pass the exam on the first try and that was pretty much the last time I've sat behind a wheel. I never really needed to drive and right now I live in a city with exceptionally good public transport system. I've talked to some people about this and it turns out a lot of them don't have a license in their twenties and thirties. Maybe at some point in the future I'll want/need to drive and I'll just buy some refresher lessons or something like that. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
eot Posted March 22, 2015 I've never gotten a license either, I live in a city where I can take the anywhere. I have practiced driving quite a bit with my parents, just never followed through with it. With the way gas prices are I feel like there's less reason to than ever. It's been on my mind lately though as I might have to get a real job and not having a license might be bad for those prospects. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Badfinger Posted March 22, 2015 Stuff like this is so weird to me that I always forget it. I've never lived more than 10 minutes walk away from some size of shop. I think it's currently a legal obligation here to include some commercial outlets when planning a housing estate over a certain size. So that you don't end up plonking a bunch of people in an isolated area and nothing near them. Of course that's just inherently not as big an issue for us anyway because of how our towns and cities developed. That sounds really useful and also seems completely untenable in North America. People just live far away from things. It is mind boggling to me that there are countries BIGGER than the US, because I am often reminded of just how immense the US really is. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
syntheticgerbil Posted March 23, 2015 Driving since 16, it's basically a requirement to do anything in Texas as all across the board it has poor public transport. Driving is fine, I like listening to music, but what I really hate is just the expense of owning a car. I've never had a new car or like new car, I've always had to go through older cars bought second hand for a few thousand and they inevitably end up dead or costing way too much in repairs. My car right now feels like it's on it's last legs but I am broke as fuck and I don't know what I'm going to do if something bad happens to it. I can't finance a car for x amount of dollars a month when I'm already drowning in debt. Cars fucking suck. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites