@MrsTophamHat
I’m also always amazed by the number of people who expect others to plan for a life they don’t have - i.e. ‘Oh, it’s all very well not being able to drive if you live in London, but what would you do if you lived in a tiny rural village or a little market town? It’s so limiting!’ Why, given I can’t drive, would I move somewhere like that? Didn’t it occur to them that I might have factored it into my choice of location?
You've not convinced me with this answer! The main reason being that I can only assume that many people who live in London really don't realise the lack of public transport even in other cities. You don't have to move to a remote, rural location to find yourself without decent public transport in this country. I live in a city and I can't use public transport to get to my workplace, my daughter's nursery or my in-laws'.
At the age of 17, when most people learn to drive, you don't know what your future holds and where you might end up living. It would seem like a sensible skill to 'bag' when there's no pressure, as learning when you're older is harder.
And you haven't convinced me with this answer, I live (just by a few feet, granted, but it gives you an idea) inside a large National Park. In a village. That doesn't have a shop, does have a pub though.
I've never been unemployed, my DD has managed to get through school and now college, we both ride horses. The local bus service actually has improved in the last couple of years, it's quite a deprived area despite the beautiful coast line and countryside, and many can't afford cars or to run them, it's also a very beautiful area and popular with tourists - there's a decent bus service, even at weekends, the only days they don't run are Christmas Day and Boxing Day, and there's a fair few local taxi's who are reliable and not extortionate when booked in advance for work trips, and as I've been working 27 years, it's not a new thing. The nearest shop is the same place I work, there's a few shops actually, and I get my bits from there.
There are, of course, other villages nearby that don't have the same service, but then I don't live in them and wouldn't choose to, a lack of driving license doesn't mean I have a lack of common sense and would go and get myself somewhere to live I couldn't get to and from either on public transport or my legs.
And I'm a few hundred miles away from London.
I walk to work - most people who drive are horrified by my 20-25 minute walk to work. I don't understand why though, it's healthier, it's cheaper and better for the environment, and many people have up to a couple of hours commute which I don't think I'd like, though I do understand that everyone is different and they've arranged their lives around what they want and need the same way I have. I have commuted by bus to local towns for work etc, it was ok, nothing majorly bad or inconvenient, but then I didn't make a big deal out of it, I was just going to work, like everyone else.
I've just started getting online deliveries, but didn't starve before that, and it's been a personal choice rather than anything else.
We go on holiday, we both have a social life (well, mines pretty much non existent but that's because of work, not that I don't drive! I turn down more invitations because I'm working than because I can't get there!)
I find your last paragraph interesting, that the only pressure is the one to learn the skill, what about paying for it? I left home at 15, was working ft from 16 and my parents couldn't have been less interested in helping me get a driving license. I paid for lessons and tests myself - and have failed 6 times, in the last 20 odd years. I have decided I'm not throwing any money money at it. Probably in the region of a grand a time, £6000 is a lot of money to me, and I've wasted it. Instead I've evolved my life to take account of the lack of driving and made it work, in the same way other people make their circumstances work for them.
I am encouraging DD (I have saved money for her) to learn, and I truly hope she does better than me because it is a good skill to have, but if she doesn't then so be it, it's not the end of the world and it's not essential like some people make out, it may be essential to their life, but it's not to mine.
And other than Boxing Day when I got a taxi home (long shift and quick return) I can't remember the last time I was in a car, actually after my knee injury when I needed an x-ray and scan - and as I couldn't bend my leg so even with a license, driving would have been impossible, and I've had a few appointments since that one, physio etc and managed them all under my own steam.
Tbh, I don't have time to sit around waiting for lifts, or the patience, if I want or need to go somewhere then I go, either on foot or by public transport.
I understand people value driving, I do realise I'm limited in some ways, but it's simply not true that no where outside London isn't do-able without a license or scrounging lifts constantly, and I find that people rather than be interested or even surprised either ignore the experiences of people like me and the pp's here that post, or tell us we're kidding ourselves or lying. That attitude is far more restrictive than not having a driving license imo.