How would you manage if you lost your driving licence tomorrow?

[tomorrowisanotherdate]

For example, vertigo is a common one, I have had several friends develop vertigo and lose their license,

You cannot be insured to drive within 6 months of a vertigo attack, and both friends had attacks out of the blue in their early 40s - one only ever had one serious attack and had her license back in about a year - the other has never since gone 6 month between attacks, and has sold her car now

So suppose you have a vertigo attack out of the blue tonight, and can't drive for 6 months, starting now, how would that impact on your life?

Am I Being unreasonable to think lives should be planned around possibly being in this contingency, when choosing homes, jobs schools etc?

I’m on a medical driving licence that is renewed
every 3 years due to a neurological condition. I feel on edge as the time to renew approaches. My life would feel impossible if I didn’t drive. My mobility is limited so I’m reliant on cars. I would make it work but life would be much harder. My car is my freedom.

I'd be fine (59, living 5 minutes walk from a train and bus station). I'll caveat this by saying that I've never driven (dodgy eyes) and have nearly always had a financial services job that was either in London or commutable (live in SW).

I probably started working from home one or two days/week in early 2000's.

DH owns a car, but he has a similar lifestyle. He used to walk to an office. Nowadays he tends to work from home or compress hours and rent or stay in an hotel.

I've always had that "be within walking distance to important stuff" mindset, after growing up a hefty trek to the nearest big shops/cinema/sports facilities.

Am I Being unreasonable to think lives should be planned around possibly being in this contingency, when choosing homes, jobs schools etc?

Yes, you're being unreasonable and very silly.

If I lost my licence, I could walk to work - I do it occasionally, although it is not a nice walk (it's nearly 4 miles alongside a very busy road). And I could collect my child from school easily, as that's very near. But my job involves driving and operating heavy machinery, so if I lost my licence, I'd not be working. Lots of people have jobs that they couldn't do if they were also unfit to drive. It would be absurd for most normal people to plan their lives around the possibility of things changing drastically.

Would barely make a difference. I can drive fine and really like driving so I’d miss it but it’s also inconvenient and expensive and for many journeys a PITA. I’m quite happy getting everywhere in other ways. Id have more money and more space in my garden if I didn’t need the drive. Win.

It would make things more complicated but not impossible. It's coming up to 9 years driving for me, while the job I'm in now isn't as convenient to travel to without the car as the job I was in then it just means I have to use public transport. No big deal.

Day to day public transport isn't too bad. I did pop to the shops today, whereas I suppose I'd need to rely on delivery, but it wouldn't be a big deal.

No neither was I

This is something I’m dealing with at the moment, not because of vertigo, but because of glaucoma and cataracts, which have affected my peripheral vision. The DVLA are aware, of course, and at the moment are renewing my licence annually, down from the three years it was before my eye problems. I’ve had surgery and my vision is much improved, but I still have to do the tests and wait for the DVLA to say yes or no and so in the meantime I can’t drive. It’s about three months that I’m off the road when this happens. The DVLA response times aren’t quick at all.

It’s difficult, but manageable for the most part - I work from home and can get most stuff delivered, so I don’t need to get to shops, and I walk a lot (I have a dog, so that’s nothing new). The times I do feel limited are if I have hospital appointments - there is no public transport to any of the hospitals I have to go to and taxis are £40+ each way. Getting the dog to the kennels is a pain too - not all taxis will take a dog.

I have to be realistic about it though, and accept that one year my licence won’t be renewed, and that’s likely to be sooner rather than later. The thought isn’t a pleasant one, I really value my independence and have been driving for nearly 50 years now - it’s going to be a massive change. I moved to the house I’m in because the bus and train services were relatively good, but the buses been cut by half and I’m going to have to think about whether I need to move again.

I don’t think you should plan your life incase something happens. But you can think if I couldn’t drive I would, in my case, get an electric bike or a ride or drive Irish draught. I’d have to plan my life more carefully as I make mainly short local journeys but I would manage fine

This is from NICE guidelines on BPPV

If you read my OP, you can see I am talking about "spontaneous", and "unprovoked", - which is actually not at all unusual- but either way, you're insurance is likely to be invalidated unless you have been properly assessed.

Perfectly fine since I can't drove to begin with.

I’ll answer because I don’t drive so do plan my life around this. I get the bus and train to work, walk wherever possible. My husband drives the kids to/from school.

I would have to move if it was a long-term thing. We live rurally with no public transport at all. I could work from home but school run would be impossible (12 miles) and our nearest shop, doctors, etc is over 4 miles away.

I could potentially get by in the day job, lift from a colleague and lift share with DH. But then I would need my mum or sister to get DD from nursery/child care as we can’t be in two places at once.

Would be more of an issue with my second job to be honest, but I’m not willing or able to change that so I’d have to try and work around it.

If you follow the thread, a PP did talk about BPPV, however.

I live within 15 mins walking distance of 3 tube stations, 2 rail stations, 1 bus garage, multiple schools and within walking distance of my office, mum, siblings and aunts, GP, high street and supermarket.

I wouldn't because I need to work and can't wfh (teacher).

This happened to me. I had a brain MRI and within 1 hour was told not to drive after they found mets in my brain, unfortunately three years later I am still unable to drive. It has been one of the worst things about having stage 4 cancer. You lose your freedom in an instant, and in my case it has also caused redundancy as I am no longer able to travel for work. I also now realise how crap public transport is if you’re not in a big urban area.

I would be ok.
It would affect my ability to help others but I would manage.

@tomorrowisanotherdate insurance really isn't the end of the world your making it out to be, a large number of people drive whilst technically uninsured. It's a problem the government needs to address (3rd party cover as part of fuel duty would be a good way to start). The issue would be if you got caught after an accident and it went down the dangerous driving route vs uninsured.

That's before the people who don't go to doctors for minor issues so continue to drive. There are very few notifiable conditions where it's a must not shouldn't.

Honestly it makes me want to consider a Tesla for the pure it practically drives itself. We would cope but it would be a massive hassle vs the risk that would drive me bonkers (yes I'm very risk based not fear based).

I've never learned to drive so not an issue for me. If DH lost his licence we'd be fucked though as he's a bus driver.

I occasionally get vertigo but I've never seen my GP about it. I'm suprised your friend went after just one attack.
They are incredibly deliberating (and not just a bit dizzy) but I wouldn't dream of getting into the drivers seat mid attack (getting to the bathroom is enough of a challenge, I'm confined to bed for the day). Mine happen every couple of years, I wake up with it and an attack usually lasts around 12hours or so (I can usually get up gently in the evening). I'm surprised to hear you can loose your license for that.

I'd be quite screwed initially, I'd loose my job (teacher so no wfh opportunities). But I'm sure I could find something else more accessible. I like on a good bus route, close to dcs schools, and food and shopping can be delivered so not the end of the world. But I'd really miss my freedom and late night trips to the beach etc

Thankfully we'd be fine. We deliberately chose to live near work and school and family. We only use the car to help elderly relatives and shopping. So taxis and online shops would be our biggest change.

I normally cycle to work so that would be ok. If the weather is awful I can get a train easily. The pain would be for meeting friends for lunch at weekends.

Apologies as haven’t read the full
thread but this happened to me when I started having seizures and was diagnosed with a benign brain tumour.
I worked in a remote area about eight miles away and Access to Work paid the majority of the cost of taxis. I had a regular driver, thank goodness, as I had an absence seizure in the taxi one day and was completely safe with him. I know I’d have likely been safe anyway but you’re vulnerable when you’re out of it.
I then moved to a different job only a mile or so from home and caught the bus or walked, but neither is fun in awful weather.
I relied on supermarket deliveries unless it was just essentials like bread or milk I needed.
I got the bus to my DM’s care home which was a major factor in us choosing one which was local and on a bus route.
My sisters were great in giving lifts to hospital appointments, and friends came to see me rather than me go to see them.
The dog had to put up with being walked around the housing estate most of the time but didn’t seem too bothered.
I particularly missed the car when there was a need to get to hospital quickly eg DD in labour or when the cat needed to go to the vets and I had to get a taxi which would take pets.
My car was literally rotting away on the drive so I ended up loaning it to a friend.
After nearly two and a half years of not driving I got my licence and my car back a few weeks ago, after having the tumour out and being seizure free for a year, and I appreciate it every single day.
I’m not so tired now but I’m putting on weight as ddog sadly died in the new year so from walking her every day and walking ten mins each way to the bus stop I now do barely any walking.