to bevery disappointed that only 63% of women can DRIVE!! ffs

[JunoWatt]

its like saudi arabia here
ONLY JUST OVER HALF OF US! GET A LICENCE LADIES

God alfriggingmighty what humourless twonks.
The Saudi thing by the OP was clearly tongue in cheek.

Ooh - also I think too many people drive who prob shouldn't.

I don't drive. Really don't care enough to bother either. Until recently I lived in London where it was far easier (and cheaper after parking etc) to get around on public transport, and now I wouldn't be able to afford to run a car anyway.

I'll be back on a bike once the kids are old enough to not need to accompany me most places. Now that's liberating

Motorbike, I should probably specify. I'm too fat and lazy for actual pedal power.

Someone said that apart from being medically not allowed, there was no reason not to have a license?

So my friend who has failed 18 times should keep on going even though common sense should dictate that maybe she's just not meant to be a driver?

I have failed four times. It has cost me about £4000K so far in lessons.

But hey, I should just get a license ffs . I'm just so, like, anti-feminist for being shit at driving. How very dare I!

I can drive, as can DH.

In my case, this translates to hiring a car once per year to get to a nice farm I like to stay at in Devon. That's it. And we could just go elsewhere for our holiday. If I had not had a pizza delivery job while at uni, my getting a licence would have been utterly pointless. As it is it was just mostly pointless, as I spent way more on the lessons than I made and I take no pleasure in driving.

In DH's case, it means that he passed his test age 17 and has never driven since. He would be a danger on the road and cheerfully recognises that. He takes the navigator role instead. He has lived in cities/places with good transport links all his life and notes that he was fortunate enought to be born with functioning legs and should therefore make use of them.

I personally see no need to have a car If I had always lived where I do, I would never have bothered to learn to drive - I'd rather have saved the cash. We have three local taxi firms, everything we need is in walking distance and the ambulance station is about 200 metres away.

YABU.

I have no interest in driving, DH cannot drive, I feel liberated (in regards to transport and I do not rely on anyone for lifts. If public transport cannot get me there I'll combine it with bike.

Totally agree with bikegrrl. Bad driving has just become so socially acceptable.

I don't drive. Keep taking lessons but there's always something that makes me have to stop then I never get round to taking them up again (about to give birth, then when I finally got round to taking them again about 3 years later I broke a bone and had to give up again! {grin]
I'll get round to it again one day (maybe )

Shimmery - interesting your DH learned to drive and basically never drove. I think I learned when I was 19, failed once then passed and then drove 500 miles in total and then didnt for about 18 years after that and knew I would be a danger and asked DVLA if I could send my licence back.

The lady at the DVLA didn't have a procedure for dealing with that request.

i think everyone should learn as a compulsory gcse

too many cars here in greater london, it's tin city

Not everyone wants to or can afford todrive OP, I need to drive to do my job and I do like the freedom that it gives me. I find women who say they can't drive long distances or that they can't drive on the motorway strange though.

Who would pay for a driving gcse?

Interesting that quite a few couples on here where both people dont drive. Never met another couple in RL who don't drive apart from my deceased Grandparents. Maybe non driving people just attract each other - it is a very definite lifestyle choice.

I've got to say I'm with OP on this. I think it's kind of avoiding taking responsibility for yourself, just vaguely imagining that someone else (i.e. a man) will always be around to do it for you. Of course not everyone wants the bother or expense of a car, but being able to drive if necessary is an important life skill imo.

Why would you think the 'someone else' would be a man? Driving is nothing to do with gender. I don't get it.

Silly motherofpearl. You can do your whole life without needing to get into a car. And taking responsibility for yourself is more relevent when you dont rely on a car to shift yourself half a mile but walk or use public transport. Before we got the motability car we hadnt travelled by car as a family in over 7 years. You cant get a lift when your in a powerchair.
I have also backpacked round the world several times with no cars involvex. Its easy.
Its a luxury life skill that isnt vital and many people cannot afford

Scuse typing. On phone

I am with the OP too.
Apart from not being able to drive/not needing to drive/not wanting to drive, there are also for more women my middle-aged age and younger who 'won't drive on the motorway'/'only drive my own car'/won't drive at night'/'won't drive abroad'.
Maybe men just don't admit to these kind of insecurities? But you never hear a man saying 'I cannot come to XYZ because I'd have to drive back in the dark'...

Look, the OP was not about the Right or Wrong of travel by individual carriage powered by a combustion engine, but about the discrepancy in woman and men drivers.
And yes, there might well be a generational thing going on. But still...

yes but maybe if men were as honest as women and admitted that they didn't feel confident to drive in certain situations there wouldn't be so many accidents? My MIL has never learnt to drive thank god, she would be an absolute menace on the roads and knows it so sensibly has never tried. Some people have no spatial awareness whatsoever, should we force them to spend a fortune trying to achieve something they are never going to?

For me personally it's a case of don't know what you've got till it's gone. I'm 29 and passed at 17, we live in a rural area with 3 children under 8, DH is a shift worker (mornings, noons and nights) and I am honestly not a petrol head, but at the same time I like being able to drive.

I was recently diagnosed wth epilepsy and told "don't drive or swim at the deep end". Now I really miss the car and the convenience it brings, I can't get lifts as all my friends have kids and we just won't fit in the car, there's no local bus and it's just a total pita to be honest. Having to rely on my mum (who is a total god send) and begging lifts for the kids to Brownies etc, it cheeses me off!

Having said that, I'm sure I would feel differently if we lived somewhere bigger with a bus route and stuff within walking distance. I think it's just one of those things I suppose. You do or you don't and it's entirely down to personal preference and not a lot to do with sex.

I drive, DH doesn't/can't (he started lessons when young but preferred his motorbike). So re OP's comment 'its so LIBERATING, you arent beholden to anyone' I'd say not exactly - I have to drive us anywhere we want to go. Including the 4 hour trip to visit grandparents. I don't mind as I enjoy driving, but it's not always liberating!

Give me the decent eyesight I need to be ALLOWED by LAW to drive, and I'll happily do so. Until such time as you can do that, YABVU, some people are not allowed to drive due to medical reasons.

Interesting how many people on here mention getting around on a bike - DH and I both cycle commute and I think that is very liberating (and cheap!). I'm lucky, my route is mostly along a canal path - rain or shine I love it. Would HATE to drive every day, but may have to once we move as we may end up somewhere that has v little public transport... that won't be liberating at all .

I've never felt the need to drive. And my brother doesn't drive either. Is that as shocking as me not driving- or is he allowed to do what he wants because he's a bloke?

Dh only got his licence a couple of years ago because he needed it for work. And though his firm is getting increasingly dependent of out-of-town work he still has a number of workmates who won't drive because they are nervous- funnily enough, they are all men though.