To wonder why people 'don't drive'

[ZX81user]

..medical conditions aside.It is such a useful life skill.
I think it is part of a parent's responsibility to get their teen througj their test.

All those claiming they never ask for lifts... what do you do in an emergency? I’ve frequently had to bundle kids or friends into the car when they’ve been ill or injured and get them to a&e. If I’d had to sit and wait for a taxi I would have gone crazy.

It takes less than 5 mins to get a taxi or uber where I live. And given that at a&e in zone 1 & 2 there's nowhere to park, you'd end up dumping someone out at the hospital on their own, then have to drive around for ages to find somewhere to park within a mile or so's vicinity - it's significantly more practical to get a cab.

How do non-drivers manage without ever going to the tip? We're always down at the bloody tip, with huge great bags of prunings, grass cuttings and general garden detritus, old household crap, packaging that's too big to go in the recycling bin and other stuff.

Don't have a garden or loft, the council take large bin bags or household appliances: the one time we needed a tip run when we were moving house, we paid for a bloke to come and collect it. I take clothes and textiles to the recycling bank that's 7 mins walk from my house. When I had a car I never went to the tip once, so don't miss it now I don't

Environment - a moot point

Not true.
My concern is air pollution in London, which is heavily linked to diesel cars. Also a big problem in other cities in UK.
This can be changed if people drive less, and most people do not need a car in London for journeys within London.

Definitely not the responsibility of a parent to provide driving lessons. Can't think why it should be?

Surely if it's an emergency and you need to get to A&E quickly you'd call an ambulance? If an ambulance isn't needed then I wouldn't class it as an emergency. In that case public transport will do fine.

I've only ever needed to go to A&E once in my life when I was 15. Never needed to take DS. If he had a bad accident or was very ill I'd be calling 999.

As for shopping, I get the bus. There's just me and DS at home and I go every week, usually only a maximum of 3 bags which I can carry easily. We don't need an enormous amount of shopping for the 2 of us. I meal plan for the week so I buy everything I need in one go and then I don't need to go back, the only thing I'll need to pick up midweek is milk which is only about 10p more at the Tesco express near me than the big one in town. When you don't have a car you learn to be organised so you don't need to be making unnecessary journeys.

All those claiming they never ask for lifts... what do you do in an emergency? I’ve frequently had to bundle kids or friends into the car when they’ve been ill or injured and get them to a&e. If I’d had to sit and wait for a taxi I would have gone crazy

Well, the same as you'd do as a driver if the illness or injury happened to you (I'm assuming you wouldn't attempt to drive yourself to hospital if it was serious enough to need A&E). Taxi, if not bad enough to need an ambulance. The parking at my local hospital is terrible, anyway.

I don’t drive due to a disability - which doesn’t outright prevent me from being able to, but I feel it’s better for me and safer for everyone else that I don’t.

Never really been an issue, tbh. I have a commuter rail pass, we do our shopping online, and I have a fairly flexible idea of what is ‘walking distance’. The only difficult bit is tip runs; I try not to generate too much garden waste.

Location is key isn't it? When I lived in Cirencester a car was almost essential. The last bus out of Ciren was about 6pm if I remember correctly. The last bus in from Cheltenham leaves about 7pm. A taxi from Swindon or Cheltenham would be about £30-40.

Absolutely. Although we have a station with good service to London (about an hour), the station is 1.75 miles away and the last bus home from there leaves at 5.40 - no bloody use to anyone commuting. The last bus used to be at 7. When they cut the last 2 buses, the increase in traffic at the station was really noticeable - loads of people driving to pick up their partners from the train. Although it's walkable, it's a 300ft climb to where we live and the last thing you need at the end of a tough day and a long commute.

I used to walk into town quite often, but since I got arthritis, I find it's really painful. And the minimum fare in a taxi was £5.75 last time I got one, and that was at least 3 years ago. The fares go up every year.

I find people who bang on about this tend to be those whose parents paid for lessons and a car for their seventeenth birthday. They have zero comprehension of the advantage they had over peers who did not have this level of financial support. It’s really hard to earn enough at a young age to fund driving lessons and a car, especially if also paying rent. Then by the age people can afford to learn often their ability to do so lessens.

I'd like to be able to drive. Up until now there's been several reasons why I haven't learned, but largely due to the expense.

When I was a teen my parents couldn't have afforded it (certainly not for me and siblings). Before university I was saving for university. At university I couldn't afford it. I lived in London for a few years and I did do a few lessons but I was essentially paying a ridiculous amount to sit in traffic which was too stressful. Now we could probably spare the money but as I'm still up several hours a night with the baby I don't feel I'd be safe to drive.

I take clothes and textiles to the recycling bank that's 7 mins walk from my house

Our nearest recycling bank is ... at the tip!

It depends where you live. Where I live you can't manage without a car. People really struggle unless you can drive or have family to drive you, if you live in London a car is a huge expense and you can't get anywhere anyway, you're better off with public transport. The way things are going we will soon be sharing driverless cars but where would put all my stuff my car is full

Our nearest recycling bank is ... at the tip!

Yes. So it makes sense for you to have a car.

The same way it makes sense for someone in Cirencester to have a car

That's fine

You asked how people survived without a car when it comes to going to the tip. Lots of us manage quite well because we live in places where it's very easy

If we found ourselves having to leave the city and move out into a commuter town shoot me now then it would quite patently be very different to living in zone 1/2 border where everything is on our doorstep

You're the one expressing astonishment that people manage without a car

I don't see anyone expressing astonishment that people might need a car where they live

Having a large mature garden generates a lot of waste for the tip, also we cleared out our loft of come in handy sometime but never actually do earlier in the year which was 3 or 4 trips, stuff like carpet remnants, spare wallpaper, furniture and some old camping equipment and a large caravan awning were up there and a lot of DHs rubbish. Our council also doesn’t take bagged waste just furniture and white goods and we do use this service if we have few pieces of furniture to dispose of.

I drive very infrequently. I have a car, passed my test at 17 (I'm 44) spent 20 years as a stressed out sales rep on the road driving day in day out. Then had a frozen shoulder which meant i was unable to drive for a year. This combination of factors has led to loss if confidence with driving. I'm happy to drive short distances but driving in towns and on motorways frightens me now. DP gets a bit frustrated with me, understandably. It seems I have come to have bad associations around driving...

I don't see anyone expressing astonishment that people might need a car where they live

I once had a terribly fervent poster telling me I wasn’t trying hard enough because I use my car to get to an early work meeting every week. Even when I said I would have to set off at 6am, travel on 3 buses and wouldn’t have childcare I was “unimaginative”

It totally depends where you live. I CHOSE to live where I do because I don't and will not drive (now for medical reasons, previouly for "oh shit I'm going to kill someone" reasons).

Living in leafy suburbia between a city and a large town, 6 min walk from work, 3 min walk from bus stops (buses both ways every 7 min go past doc +dentist etc), 10 min walk from supermarket and takeaways, small shops, hairdresser etc - having a car would be a millstone of expense. I can afford a taxi when I need one and a skip/man with a van for tip runs etc. (because I don't have a car to run)

On here being able to drive, running a car seem to only have advantages. But they cost a lot of money, pollute, make people lazy too.

I can drive but haven't had a car for about 3 years,couldn't afford to get it through the MOT,so scrapped it.I walk or get public transport - that's what it's there for.
One day,money permitting,I may get another cheap runabout,but in no rush.

I just worked out the logistics of going to visit MIL by public transport.

To get to her house between 1& 1.30, we'd have to leave the house at 10.20, walk to the station (30 mins), get the train, then the tram, then walk another 15 minutes. The train alone would be just under £25 each return, and the whole trip would take close to 3 hours.

By road, it's 37 miles, takes about 1.25 hours and costs about £11 in petrol (I have to have a car to do my job, so don't count fixed costs like insurance and tax).

Total saving, £38 minimum and about 3.5-4 hours. And they wonder why there are so many cars on the roads...

I had a break from driving for a few years, due to financial reasons. Now I have a car again. I do sometimes miss being able to chill out on the bus on the way to work, but the downsides far outweigh the advantages of public transport.
Its fine to choose not to drive, it just annoys me when a minority of people expect they can rely on others for a lift because they don't/can't drive.

So howdo you ever go away for a weekend to a holiday cottage for example? Or a holiday park (if that's what you are into) where you need transport to get about. You choose somewhere you can reach by train and offers the hire of bikes?

How do you move stuff about if you can't hire a van? You hire Men with Ven.

It really is possible to do stuff without involving a car.

Where I live it’s currently £28-£31 an hour for driving lessons. Unless you’re getting your parents/spouse to give you most of your practise as an accompanied learner, that gets pretty expensive pretty quickly.

DH learned at 17 - he had wanted to get his own car from as young as he could remember, so he made a priority of making sure he had a job at 15 to save for an 18 year old Ford Escort and his own lessons when he was old enough. He loves driving, and will go out to drive for fun if he’s bored of an evening. At the same age, my priority was saving for university, where we were discouraged from taking cars - so I didn’t see the point in paying for lessons when I wouldn’t have access to a car for at least 4 years. I’m learning now at 28 (mostly being taught by DH at the moment to save money), because I want to have my license for when I return to work, even though we have no intention of having two cars for the foreseeable.

Lakie. You would just meet MIL somewhere convenient to you both.

You asked how people survived without a car when it comes to going to the tip. Lots of us manage quite well because we live in places where it's very easy

And a lot of people seem to have councils that do things like reasonably priced bulk waste collections. Despite having one of the highest council taxes in the country (consistently in the top 10), they are, frankly, pretty bloody crap at most things.

You're the one expressing astonishment that people manage without a car

Not astonishment at all, I totally accept that if you live in a large urban area it's pretty easy to do without (used to live in London, I haven't always been a country bumpkin). What has surprised me is how fab some councils are at collecting things like garden waste and old fridges, and I'm starting to wonder if the reason we have a fly tipping problem is because the council are so crap.

How weird that the people are justifying having a car so they can go to the top of all places

• tip

Lakie. You would just meet MIL somewhere convenient to you both.

Lol, that would be Gatwick airport then - it's about the only place we could both get to easily by public transport. (Actually, she'd come to us that was the case, she's besotted with my dog, gets lovesick if she doesn't see her every month or so, and I don't think the dog would be welcome at the airport.)