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

MintyMoo, am with you totally. I am dyspraxic plus I have no peripheral vision in my left eye. I am much safer off the road. I'm also happier on public transport because I can read.

As to countryside access, isn't that what feet and OS maps are for?

Dyspraxics against driving. Yeah!

Dyspraxic Fantastic over here

My theory is that we, like the lovely Sheldon Cooper, are too evolved for driving.

Plus on public transport I can listen to my ipod, play solitaire, read the paper, drink, eat etc. If I tried to do that and drive it'd be a disaster.

I dont miss the countryside and never venture into it. Its not accessible anyway.

we would be able to avoid those pesky public transport social situations if we drove though... and be real hermits (my also dyspraxic DH's dream).

by pesky public transport social situations, i mean telling the driver where you want to go and handing the money over. My DH refuses to do this, so i get pushed forward to hand over the change...

sigh.

I live in the countryside. We have no car. We use the bus.

20-25% of households have no car. That is mostly the poorest households. Most poor households are headed by women.

What is the point of them learning to drive when they can't afford to run a car?

It is true that sometimes non-car owners need to use a car, and that some of you feel they might need to hire one. I have heard that there is this amazing service where you can hire a car and a person comes with it to drive you around. I believe this novel service is called a taxi.

but millyr - apparently taxis take 45 mins to turn up and are just useless in a medical emergency!

Not here milly. Unless you want a wheelchair one. And a medical emergency rates an ambulance. Even though we now have a car. I find administering oxygen and meds tricky while driving.

I have heard of this other incredible invention designed for medical emergencies called an ambulance. Also, you probably shouldn't drive if you are bleeding from an artery or cannot breathe.

I feel so futuristic with my knowledge of taxis, buses, trains and ambulances that is should be clear to everyone that I actually travel by jet pack, and have no use of a car.

Soon as buses have 2 wheelchair spaces we will ditch the car and save dds DLA for more useful things and save petrol money. I can barely afford it to be honest.

Milly

Sorry, xpost.

Juno - YABVU!

I am in the 1 in 17 men who have no driving licence. I had one but gave it back.

I learned to drive, hated it beyond measure and strongly suspect mild dyspraxia. I can control a vehicle perfectly but can't do that and find my way or handle other drivers. DW can't drive either as she has Menieres disease.

We just live where we can get taxis or public transport or walk or get shopping delivered. Most people only need a car because they choose to live miles from work, school, shops. We designed our life around not having a car and it works really really well.

I can well see why a woman living in an isolated place needs to drive but not otherwise. We are car obsessed in the Western World and look how many wars over oil we have had.

I didn't learn till I was 30. Thought i was crap. Did the whole "I don't need to learn to drive" crap.

I walked, I took buses, I got lifts of friends. However, Ds started school and was wanting to do after school activities, getting invited to parties, friends houses, it became a logistical nightmare sorting out transport.

I now LOVE being able to drive and the total independence and freedom it brings, and urge anyone who can to do it.

My mother can not drive. She is a widow and she is stuck. Falls to me to visit her. Nightmare.

I meant I am 1 of the 17% of men who have no driving licence.

My husband has dyspraxia and has a license to drive a mini bus. He wanted to drive like nothing else and he did not let his disability stand in the way! He has never, touch wood, had an accident and has a completely clean record for the past 14 years. So it can be done! He had a reader and extra time at both theory tests and extra time on the road tests. But he passed both. He had only 3 minors on both the regular road practical and the advanced. No errors on theory tests.

He worked extra shifts to pay for the lessons and I sold some stuff to help pay for it (his work paid for the advanced stuff).

Hmm. I see all the arguments for why individuals can't/won't drive, but am rather sceptical for them accounting for the discrepancy between the sexes, which is the point of this thread, no?

I find it astonishing that for my age group, and the one below, there is still a fairly big difference.

Expat - we are not saying that dyspraxics can't drive at all - but for some it is impossible. As with all disabilitys, it effects people in different ways and to different severitys. Well done to your husband for passing, but i don't like the idea that the dyspraxics who can't drive have let our disability stand in the way.

The discrepancy between the sexes is because most poor people are women and many poor people can't afford a car.

For the same reason, most people who can pilot their own chopper are usually men.

I don't drive (30 in July) and see no need for it. I lived in London when I was younger, Guildford town centre in my late teens and now just 10 mins walk from the town centre where I live. I like using public transport so I can look out of the window and relax. I can get my shopping delivered from all major supermarkets or via Amazon or wherever if there's not a local shop. I like not having to worry about fuel or it's cost on a weekly basis. I like the fact I don't have to pay for a permit to park outside my house when there are rarely spaces anyway. I don't fork out for MOT, repairs, road tax or (if you are that way inclined) cleaning costs or parking tickets. In my mind you'd be mad to get a car in this current financial situ - you were born with legs and arms for a reason and I don't need to pay for the gym :)

I also notice that the report says that the proportion of people in the youngest age group who have a full driving licence has actually fallen. The main reasons being cost of lessons, cost of buying a car and cost of insurance.

Compared to older people, young people now face a mountain of student debts, poor job prospects and very high costs of housing. No wonder that learning to drive has slipped down their list of priorities. Car driving is a luxury the 'baby boom' generation foisted on the world and we need to wean ourselves off it and make driving somethng we all do less. I friends who gt in their car to drive 500 yards. MADNESS!

Nothing against car drivers or cars. I just think the OP has demonstrated the blind unthinking dependence on cars our society has.

Very nicely put MoreBeta

"Nothing against car drivers or cars. I just think the OP has demonstrated the blind unthinking dependence on cars our society has"

I know quite a few people with dyspraxia who can drive and who drive well. But I know many more who cannot. It all depends on the severity of the dyspraxia and which areas are affected.

One of my friends has Dyspraxia, he is brilliantly creative and is clumsy but only mildly clumsy. I would never have thought of him as clumsy until I told him I had dyspraxia and he said he did too. He's not as academic as me as he also has Dyslexia and struggles to read, when he was at school he didn't get much help and it put him off schoolwork. He did his degree in a photography as it utilised his creativity.

Whereas I do not have Dyslexia with my Dyspraxia, I have Dyscalculia and struggle with maths. I am much more clumsy, I spent half my childhood on the floor. I have near falls up to 10 times a day. I am constantly bumping in to things, grating my nails in the cheese, peeling my thumb skin etc. My spatial awareness is much worse. As I'm also hypermobile that makes me clumsy as well, plus fibromyalgia causes spatial awareness and clumsiness issues - I got a hatrick! I went down the academic route as I was hopeless at everything else, I can't do maths, I can't do music, sport and dance are a no no, my teachers always said if only I had the ability to balance because my body is so flexible (I can kiss my toes standing up) I'd have been a great gymnast. Running's out as I hand flap and don't appreciate the 'spaz' comments I get when I run. So I embraced the fact I'm a ridiculously fast reader and went down the social sciences route :)

At least I'm fucking ace at thumb wars though, I'm short but no bugger can pin my thumbs down, not with the places they can go

As the statistic says, and Juno misunderstood, the discrepancy between the % of men and women driving is negligible for the 2 first age gaps and very little for the next 2.
It is only between the 60+ and the 70+ that the difference becomes huge.

YABvvvvU to wants to put all the elder women on the street.

Plus I agree with the "lentil growers, hemp weavers" no car is good.