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 would be fine. I didnt drive until my 30s and have specifically chosen to live in a place where I don't need a car at all with 24/7 public transport, shops and parks nearby. I would miss visiting my favourite garden centre though.

Years ago my new child minder had to change her epilepsy meds, which resulted in the first minor episode she had in years. So no driving with two under two year olds. Luckily she lived in a city renowned at the time for cheap excellent buses. Downside, she lived at the bottom of one of the hills the city is also renowned for. She joked that her epilepsy meant that she lost weight and was fit as a butchers dog.

How would anyone know your licence had been revoked? I have been stopped once for speeding (34mph in a 30mph zone) in my 40 years of driving. He did let me off when I mentioned my profession, but I did later consider what it would mean to me if I lost my licence; the answer is, absolutely nothing. I would carry on driving. Seriously, if Katie Price can continually break the law on the road, so can the rest of us.

I’d have to move, very little public transport here and I am 2 miles from the village, 8 miles from a supermarket.

vertigo is a common one

Your definition of common is very different to mine. Got some stats to demonstrate how regular this is? I've never heard of anyone getting it!! Only people I know who have lost licences had strokes in much older age.

It’d occasionally be a nuisance*, but generally I’d be OK, we have very good public transport which I use a lot anyway.

*E.g like the time I needed to take 8 litres of homemade soup 60 miles, for the Gdcs’ school Christmas fair!

id be fine, we’ve chosen a lifestyle which isn’t car reliant, for environmental reasons.

Same I did the epley manoeuvre on myself and got some tablets from the dr for sickness and that was it. No one mentioned anything about driving. Plus with BPPV once the crystals are back in the right place in your ear you’re ok.

I'd be fine but my children would be lost. Both v sporty and we are in a complicated roster of lifts for training and competitions, some of which are inter County. I can get public transport to work but I'd be completely reliant on others for them and I'd hate it. Im the only driver in the house

I only learned to drive last year, so I'd be fine and my life would just be less convenient. We live semi-rurally but have a train station on the doorstep and have always had our shopping delivered. Once my son is grown up, losing my license wouldn't really inconvenience me at all, and if I lost it right now it would mostly be fine just things would take longer.

I'd be OK so long as I could still bike just about, assuming the local community bus (which goes to the next village up) keeps its funding. If that stopped I'd struggle but be OK for basics (can work from home) but it wouldn't be fun.

Given how shit public transport provision is in many areas of the UK, its not realistic to plan your life around this happening necessarily! Is it really a good call to live in a shitty bedsit in the city when you could be in a nice 3bed with a garden somewhere more rural, just in case you suddenly are unable to drive?

You would have no insurance for a start. And I wouldn’t hold yourself up to Katie Prices standards if you were any sort of decent human being. I had a friend whose family was wiped out by a driver who had been told not to drive on medical grounds, including his unborn child.

You might be stopped again for any number of reasons and asked to show your licence. If you're in an accident and your medical records are checked your insurance may be invalidated.

That is often not true, if the crystals go straight back in, they often come straight back out again. What is more common is for them to gradually resettle, and for attacks to happen sporadically while they do. And the Epley manoeuvre can be great, but it has to be done at the right time and in the right direction. If you are not completely clear which side is affected, and you do it in the wrong direction, then symptoms double rather than decrease.

Again, declaration is your responsibility. Not anyone elses. And if you have not been assessed as safe to drive, then you are driving with no insurance

well, you only have to read this thread to see how many people on here get severe vertigo!

I think people are misunderstanding me. I am not saying don't drive, don't take jobs that require driving, don't live in places where driving is necessary.

I am just saying shouldn't people have a plan B in case they do lose their license ? Because it could happen to any of you today.

I’d manage fine I think. I live fairly centrally in a city. Shops in easy walking distance where I can get the essentials as well as good public transport.

It would be a complete pain in the arse but the school run is walkable, just would take about 40-50 minutes instead of 15 in the car.
Shopping would have to be delivered.
And I'd have to put up with my dh's driving on days out 🤦‍♀️
But things like getting the kids to cubs, swimming etc would be such a pain, that I don't want to even think about it 😬

I would be absolutely fucked. We live waaaay out in the sticks, DH works all the time so wouldn’t be able to chauffeur me about and there’s nothing within reasonable walking distance with a toddler 🤣

I’d be pretty stuffed without my car as I have a round 50 mile trip, 5 days a week to get to work and back.

At a push I could bike to our nearest train station, we’re quite rural so buses only run every hour, so biking would be more favourable, catch the train to the town I work in and then catch a bus to work, although I’d have to fathom out times etc. Have just checked and the train departs every hour from our station to work destination, taking 40 minutes. It’s doable but would be a complete pita.

I would be fine, have only had a car for a month. We purposefully decided to live somewhere where we can cycle and close to a station (and no, we don't live in a shitty bedsit like a previous poster mentioned). DH rides a moped to work, honestly the amount of money that has saved is great.

I couldn’t drive (or cycle) for much of the last year due to an injury, and it was a nightmare. I live rurally, with no public transport, and few local amenities. My family and nearly all of my friends and social activities are varying distances away. I’d already been planning to move to somewhere better connected, and am now speeding up that process.

I could get a lift to work. My teen will be shortly taking his test and I would consider insuring him on my car for other necessary car trips. That may be expensive though if I'm not also on the insurance?

I had my first vertigo attack last year (as others have said, it's not a dizzy spell - feels like really bad sea sickness and can last a couple of days). I was amazed when I told people about it how many said they'd had the same or knew others who had.

I had this with a medical condition a few years ago. I was off the road for about 10 months (DVLA mega delays). I'm retired and live in a village with a dreadful bus service, which was much better when I moved here 10 years ago.

I familiarised myself with buses, subsidised taxis, village minibuses, trains and got on fine during the day. Predictable and plannable travel was fine. The difficulty I found was travelling in the dark and locally. I'm disabled so can't walk hugely far so my mate a mile up the road was too far to walk and I didn't want to use my electric trike in the dark on narrow, windy roads.
So in short, if you could plan and it was daylight, fine. Short journeys to friends in the dark became impossible.