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.

I can only assume all these people who couldn't function without a car are not as accident prone as me, i regularly injure myself and can't drive for some reason. In Feb i broke my thumb and couldn't drive for 4 weeks and a couple of months before that did something in my neck and couldn't turn my head. Another one of the reasons i don't live somewhere where i'd have to drive.

Agree MrsFrumble - My parents recently moved from London to a village where they need a car. They are in their 70s and my mum doesn't like to drive at all. They seem to think they will be there forever and wont acknowledge the possibility that Dad may have to stop driving or may die first. Pils lived in (literally) the middle of nowhere. You would take an hour at least to walk to a shop and there wasn't a neighbour for miles. Only Fil drove and he got dementia and became dangerous but they couldn't consider him stopping driving as they relied on it.

They don't mention that on Escape to the fucking Country do they!

But user lots of non drivers are no trouble to anyone. Just as incapacitated drivers would also be. Surely what you speak of is he personality type and not whether somebody drives.

the*

Never passed my test, then moved to London, so didn't need to.
I only ever want to drive when I want to take a British holiday. Otherwise I gave to check local public transport options.
I like the bus and train anyway. I can read whilst getting somewhere, or watch Netflix.

Saving if none drivers are saying there’s great transport links than they are talking about themselves. Obviously if somebody lives miles from any civilisation (increasingly rarer these days with new housing estates popping up everywhere, increasing population and added bus services/routes) than they would certainly be better off driving.

I agree absolutely Pass that lots of non drivers get on with it and are no trouble.

But what I'm talking about is the indignation of some non drivers on threads like this, who insist that non drivers are never ever a problem for anyone. Because lots of non driver are, but you never see them come onto a thread and say 'well yes, I do expect my sister to drive me back to London every weekend' or 'well I suppose my sibling does have to drive mum to all her hospital appointments and take time off work, because I can't drive'. It's always 'oh no, no. Non drivers never need lifts or never impact on anyone else.' Because often they do, but you never see that admitted on a thread like this.

I choose not to drive as I have two perfectly working legs.

Again though user that’s down to personality and not whether they drive orbit. There are drivers with injured legs for example that expect chauvered around everywhere too (my sister fitted into this category a couple of years ago after she’d had an ankle op.) There are non drivers who would take their elderly relative in a taxi and accompany them to appointments and drivers who are ‘too busy to do it.’ It’s down to the given person and whether they’re a selfish AH or not and not whether they hold a driving license to be honest.

or not* that should say

How do you define "off the beaten track", saving? I can think of plenty of great places that you can't get to by car, either because there is no road or because there is no parking. Some of our best holidays have been in places like that.

I can't think of anywhere I couldn't get to by public transport, and then walking. I must have a limited imaginiation!

Just got back from East london and the roads were awful, they are every day now. Going home there was an accident the other side and long tail backs and an accident this morning although that didnt cause much disruption luckily. my son drives for work all over and its always terrible every day. no wonder people dont bother - if i could get up and around on public transport and it didnt take over 2 hours one way to do about 30 miles then i wouldnt drive much , but have no choice at the moment - relatives do not live close enough to us and they need us.

Cory yes the kind of places you find by chance like a quaint little country pub you have to walk through lanes to or a beach you have to access through a field of cattle (don’t ask.)

They are the best kind of places too

Depending on the off the beaten track situation I would either get a taxi from the nearest station or walk.

I did DoE. I’m great with a compass 😂

‘dam compass said east, why am
I in the middle of a large Forrest god dammit!?!’

Starmix, I see your country pub and raise you 6 days of mountain trails through "roadless land" in the Arctic (we got there on the train).

'Quiet', secluded out-of-the-way places are often marred by people roaring about in their cars.

Cars are a force of good and evil! It’s been made that we rely on them so much.
Good tax revenue for the government too.

I think the issue a lot of people have with these threads user is that there's invariably so much focus on the problems non-drivers cause for drivers, with none at all about the problems drivers cause for the rest of us. The health problems caused by poor air quality in built up areas are rather more important than someone's sister being cheeky about lifts or someone's mother having to get a taxi to a hospital appointment instead, but you never see that admitted by any driver on a thread like this. Instead, the people who are making the more environmentally and socially responsible choice are framed as the problem. And yes, I know some of you have no other option. Plenty of you do though.

user148etcetcetc

To bee fair, you also never see drivers on threads who say 'Well I learned to drive but to be honest I'm a bit shit at it and I probably shouldn't be allowed on the road on account of my bouts of inattentiveness and tendency to aggression.

Yes Cuntinuous.

Lol notagainyoda. There are always people who say they learned but no longer do it/try not to do it because they're shit. But not one of the pro-driving posters on threads like this is ever amongst the cohort of drivers who should really be removed from the roads for their own and every one else's safety and yet continues to drive despite that. Funny, innit?

I agree it's a useful life skill.

I didn't learn until I was 26 which was when I could afford to pay for it myself and it didn't come naturally (7 tests!) but I got there in the end.

I still prefer to walk or cycle if I possible, and often get the train too when I can. But the world is much wider if you can drive and opens up so many possibilities.

There are many wonderful places I have been (mainly rural) that are just not accessible without a car.

@corythatwas that train journey sounds wonderful