How would you manage if you lost your driving licence tomorrow?

I would be ok.
It would affect my ability to help others but I would manage.

This happened to me. I had a brain MRI and within 1 hour was told not to drive after they found mets in my brain, unfortunately three years later I am still unable to drive. It has been one of the worst things about having stage 4 cancer. You lose your freedom in an instant, and in my case it has also caused redundancy as I am no longer able to travel for work. I also now realise how crap public transport is if you’re not in a big urban area.

I wouldn't because I need to work and can't wfh (teacher).

I live within 15 mins walking distance of 3 tube stations, 2 rail stations, 1 bus garage, multiple schools and within walking distance of my office, mum, siblings and aunts, GP, high street and supermarket.

If you follow the thread, a PP did talk about BPPV, however.

I could potentially get by in the day job, lift from a colleague and lift share with DH. But then I would need my mum or sister to get DD from nursery/child care as we can’t be in two places at once.

Would be more of an issue with my second job to be honest, but I’m not willing or able to change that so I’d have to try and work around it.

I would have to move if it was a long-term thing. We live rurally with no public transport at all. I could work from home but school run would be impossible (12 miles) and our nearest shop, doctors, etc is over 4 miles away.

I’ll answer because I don’t drive so do plan my life around this. I get the bus and train to work, walk wherever possible. My husband drives the kids to/from school.

Perfectly fine since I can't drove to begin with.

This is from NICE guidelines on BPPV

I don’t think you should plan your life incase something happens. But you can think if I couldn’t drive I would, in my case, get an electric bike or a ride or drive Irish draught. I’d have to plan my life more carefully as I make mainly short local journeys but I would manage fine

This is something I’m dealing with at the moment, not because of vertigo, but because of glaucoma and cataracts, which have affected my peripheral vision. The DVLA are aware, of course, and at the moment are renewing my licence annually, down from the three years it was before my eye problems. I’ve had surgery and my vision is much improved, but I still have to do the tests and wait for the DVLA to say yes or no and so in the meantime I can’t drive. It’s about three months that I’m off the road when this happens. The DVLA response times aren’t quick at all.

It’s difficult, but manageable for the most part - I work from home and can get most stuff delivered, so I don’t need to get to shops, and I walk a lot (I have a dog, so that’s nothing new). The times I do feel limited are if I have hospital appointments - there is no public transport to any of the hospitals I have to go to and taxis are £40+ each way. Getting the dog to the kennels is a pain too - not all taxis will take a dog.

I have to be realistic about it though, and accept that one year my licence won’t be renewed, and that’s likely to be sooner rather than later. The thought isn’t a pleasant one, I really value my independence and have been driving for nearly 50 years now - it’s going to be a massive change. I moved to the house I’m in because the bus and train services were relatively good, but the buses been cut by half and I’m going to have to think about whether I need to move again.

No neither was I

It would make things more complicated but not impossible. It's coming up to 9 years driving for me, while the job I'm in now isn't as convenient to travel to without the car as the job I was in then it just means I have to use public transport. No big deal.

Day to day public transport isn't too bad. I did pop to the shops today, whereas I suppose I'd need to rely on delivery, but it wouldn't be a big deal.

Would barely make a difference. I can drive fine and really like driving so I’d miss it but it’s also inconvenient and expensive and for many journeys a PITA. I’m quite happy getting everywhere in other ways. Id have more money and more space in my garden if I didn’t need the drive. Win.

Am I Being unreasonable to think lives should be planned around possibly being in this contingency, when choosing homes, jobs schools etc?

Yes, you're being unreasonable and very silly.

If I lost my licence, I could walk to work - I do it occasionally, although it is not a nice walk (it's nearly 4 miles alongside a very busy road). And I could collect my child from school easily, as that's very near. But my job involves driving and operating heavy machinery, so if I lost my licence, I'd not be working. Lots of people have jobs that they couldn't do if they were also unfit to drive. It would be absurd for most normal people to plan their lives around the possibility of things changing drastically.

I'd be fine (59, living 5 minutes walk from a train and bus station). I'll caveat this by saying that I've never driven (dodgy eyes) and have nearly always had a financial services job that was either in London or commutable (live in SW).

I probably started working from home one or two days/week in early 2000's.

DH owns a car, but he has a similar lifestyle. He used to walk to an office. Nowadays he tends to work from home or compress hours and rent or stay in an hotel.

I've always had that "be within walking distance to important stuff" mindset, after growing up a hefty trek to the nearest big shops/cinema/sports facilities.

I’m on a medical driving licence that is renewed
every 3 years due to a neurological condition. I feel on edge as the time to renew approaches. My life would feel impossible if I didn’t drive. My mobility is limited so I’m reliant on cars. I would make it work but life would be much harder. My car is my freedom.

It wouldn't change anything

We’d be fine if I couldn’t drive.

I’ve suffered from vertigo in the past, as I was symptom less when I wasn’t walking (apart from when I first woke up) it had zero impact on driving.

And my last attack was in October and I sent my medical form to the DVLA in January.

You cannot be insured to drive within 6 months of a vertigo attack, and both friends had attacks out of the blue in their early 40s - one only ever had one serious attack and had her license back in about a year - the other has never since gone 6 month between attacks, and has sold her car now

I'm really shocked to hear this. I had 2 vertigo attacks last year, 6 months apart. On both occasions it came on gradually during the night and I woke up with the room spinning, feeling nauseous and spent the day in bed.

I had to renew my driving licence recently and this prompted me to tell DVLA about the vertigo attacks. I got a letter back saying they were happy for me to continue driving.

youd Get a free bus pass if you lose your licence on medical grounds.

id use bus and train.

I’ve had my car since 2017 & driven 33000 miles, so 4,700 each year. Mostly linger trips, I drive 120 to see dd and have done 5 trips this year - but I could do it by train.

I drove to Portugal last year, I could go by train or plane

It would be devastating to me, as it would have a massive impact on my life.

However, I think YABU with this
Am I Being unreasonable to think lives should be planned around possibly being in this contingency, when choosing homes, jobs schools etc?

Statistically, it is unlikely to happen.
I know one person who had a stroke in their 40s, however, I know thousands of people who didn't have a stroke in their 40s. You can't completely live your life covering every possible thing that might possibly happen to you, even though it is statistically very unlikely.

Plus, I do actually live in a City, near bus routes, and near a train station and we have ubers and lots of competing taxi firms, plus shops, Drs, Dentist and a High Street I can walk to. I'm not sure what better place I could have chosen to live without a car, but as I do have a car, I currently choose to do some things I can only realistically do with a car. It gives me lots of options I would lose.