To be constantly surprised that people 'don't drive'?

[MissEloiseBridgerton]

Every day on here, and on my own social media, I am shocked that soooo many people don't drive. My local FB group is constantly people asking for favours because they don't drive, they want a dump run, or someone to deliver second hand stuff to them. On here, the barriers to work, to childcare, to anything is so often that they don't drive!

For me growing up, learning to drive was just what you did. I don't have any friends who didn't learn to drive at 17. Most had cheap runarounds or borrowed parents car.

I totally understand it's expensive and costly to run a car but I don't think I realised how many people never learned!

Of course I personally would. Im a Londoner, I only ever knew PT

Out in rural areas we have people well into their 90's still driving when they really shouldn't be, because otherwise they would be house bound.

We ( me and him indoors) are already looking at where we will be moving to because we know in another 15/20 years, we will be struggling with the driving and we will be needing more services , so we will have to sell up and move to a town

We can barely keep a government sat around a table, trying to get them all to agree on a long term plan to improve public transport?? Im not holding my breath

So far their idea of improving things - make three hubs - so I can get to Belfast, but I cant get to my work by public transport unless I travel down to Belfast and come back out

I have a free travel pass as a senior since last August - used it once

Perhaps - I passed on my 6th attempt though. Purely due to test nerves. I was fine driving outside a test situation and have had no incidents in many years of daily driving since then.

I also think about how people insist on driving everywhere cope when they come to a city where public transport is easier? Do they need lessons on how to take the tube ;)

I'm probably a danger to myself and to others behind a wheel although I sure wish I could drive myself around to save waiting for buses / someone to take me somewhere. I hate relying on people who drive but it is what it is.

Fair enough, but the poster we were both disagreeing with was banging on about “the small privileged minority who live in cities not understanding the lives of the vast majority of people who only have one bus a week”. And even 35% of people isn’t “the vast majority”.

Nobody is saying you personally don’t need a car. We are saying lots of non-drivers really don’t need a car. I can drive, but sold mine about 7 years ago because I was using it so infrequently (every 6-8 weeks) that the battery kept going flat. I could buy another one but it would be a colossal waste of money.

There are lots of threads from people saying they are planning a trip to London and asking how tubes work, and posters right now on a thread about teenage independence saying they drive their 18 year olds to and from sixth form college instead of “risking” them catching a bus and being murdered by a marauding rural pensioner. So yes.

I thought Eloise Bridgerton was supposed to be intelligent

That’s hard. Sorry to hear.

I’ve never had an employer even ask. If you don’t need to drive in the course of your job (and most people don’t), I can’t really see why they would care either way as long as you turn up on time.

Why do you think people should try to learn if they don't want to?

I don't have a disability. I could afford to have driving lessons. I just don't want to. I genuinely don't feel it is a need for me and my lifestyle, so I'm not sure why it would be anybody else's business.

It's highly unlikely that when my children (eldest is 14) are of an age that they can learn to drive that I will be able to afford driving lessons for them, and certainly not a car, especially as I have four of them, so they'll have to wait until they can afford to buy their own.

I learned to drive when I was 21, and only because my dad was training to be a driving instructor at the same time so he could teach me, and then gave me his old banger of a car.

My boyfriend doesn't drive. His one arm is paralysed and to learn in an adapted vehicle is too expensive.

This.

Check your privilege.

Thank you. It really was. Am v proud of myself for getting out of the situation they dumped me in at 16!

Living in London with good public transport is hardly some niche way of life, roughly one in eight people in the United Kingdom live in London.

People who are used to driving everywhere from a young age, in my experience, are actually often a lot less independent and streetwise.

OAP here, I can get about my town by bus and get to London, Oxford or Birmingham in an hour by train. I can't think of anywhere else I want to go to.

I can drive, and I would hire one if I really needed one.

I passed my test aged 50. I love driving and the feeling of freedom it brings. I’m so glad I finally did it. I had a lovely instructor who didn’t once comment on my age, which was a huge relief. I didn’t want to have to cope with ageist comments. He instilled confidence in me and I passed first time.

Bloody hell.

Driving is pretty much the only activity you can do where you've a fairly good chance of accidentally killing or maiming another human being, even if you do everything right. I think it should be much harder to be allowed to drive.

Yep. Plenty of people are flabbergasted that I “make” my children walk to school. The one that’s a kilometre away. Driving there at 8.30 in mad traffic would take about the same amount of time! 😹

I’m one of those with a licence who then lost confidence after living in a city for too long; about 12 years without getting behind the wheel. Is it sometimes inconvenient? Yes. But we can’t all drive, it would be chaos.

Yes, I agree with this. It seems to be regarded in a rather blase way as a skill you pick up as you go along, a bit like baking a sponge cake or something, 'oh you'll get better at it the more you do it'. New drivers have virtually no experience on motorways which is astounding.

It's ridiculous isn't it. I used to walk two miles to school and home again in the 1990s! My mum didn't have a car and walking was what nearly all my peers did anyway.

Love your perspective. Some people just think life hands you things don't they?!

Now quick question...

Is becoming blind an excuse?

I have a very severely disabled child who will almost certainly never be able to drive. I did very clearly label my post specifically at people who don’t pursue it due to finances and in particular their parents/families lack of finances. Whilst my post didn’t explicitly say ‘disability is excluded from this’ I’d argue it was clear enough that you’d really have to be reaching in order to be offended.

Fair enough, and I'm sorry about your child. That must be tough - I hope you've got support. But, you're advocating a laissez-faire attitude that enables right wing governments to flourish. Just because you succeeded, and while it's admirable you did, many can't be for a multitude of reasons such as poverty but not least disability.

I’m glad for you that you could do that, @cookingthebooks. I didn’t earn enough. Given I couldn’t always afford food, and lived in London with good public transport, I made the right decision for me. Even us povvos didn’t all have the same abilities / options etc!