Comments on: Non-drivers

By: Benjamin Rosenbaum

Benjamin Rosenbaum — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 07:45:21 +0000

I drive when forced, but I relocated to Switzerland so I could bike instead.

By: caitlin

caitlin — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 01:47:06 +0000

Yay! There are more out there like me! I don’t drive though I’ve had a learner’s permit twice and gasp yikes actually taken the road test once. Horrid teary experience. I live in Seattle’s Cap. Hill/d.t. area so having a car would be plain silly.My nephew turned 16 last week and he’ll be driving before I will. Non-drivers rock!

By: sylvia_rachel

sylvia_rachel — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 23:42:13 +0000

I don’t drive, either. I am 34 years old and have never driven a car — or, indeed, passed a Learner’s Permit test. My husband knows how to drive, and has a licence, but we don’t have a car. He belongs to a car share for the few times a month that we need the use of a car, and the rest of the time we use public transit and our feet.

Fortunately, I live in Toronto, where this behaviour is considered mildly eccentric rather than, as in some other places in North America, certifiably insane.

By: Jennifer

Jennifer — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 17:21:21 +0000

Another non-driver here. This is considered horrendously bad in California. I live in one of the few towns where one doesn’t have to drive, but it still causes me a lot of problems. The entire state is not set up for non-drivers. If I want to go out to the nearest city, I’d better only want to go during working hours (and not at night, the cops were called the last time I took a bus at night), and I can only get so far as downtown. The town I live in has a great bus system…but again, not on weekends, and not at night during the summer. I moved to the middle of town to make things a lot easier.

But I haaaaaate driving. I have panic attacks behind the wheel. The last time I drove (age 21) I crashed the car. I scare the crap out of people in a car with me. I don’t think my non-driving status is changing any time soon. All I do is think, “If I screw up, people die.”

By: Tim Pratt

Tim Pratt — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 16:47:14 +0000

I deeply hate driving, but have to do it four days a week to get to work. My job is in the Oakland hills and buses are, shall we say, erratic up there. (There is a bus, that gets close to my office. A couple times a week, anyway. At useless times.)

I could bike, if I were in better shape, and if the hills weren’t so ungodly steep, and if I didn’t have a baby in tow a couple of those days. I hope to go carless someday.

By: cestmoi

cestmoi — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 16:36:59 +0000

Can drive but don’t. Live in US, not in a big city. Still don’t.

In my experience, even in a supposedly-transitless city like Detroit, Denver, or L.A. if you don’t want to drive you can usually find a place to live that’s near transit.

By: Sali

Sali — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 11:03:44 +0000

My partner can’t drive. I’m being evil and making him learn. This is because we relocated to a different city and he works somewhere hard to get to on public transport. So we have to live within walking distance as he also can’t ride a bike. I used to have a 20 min commute on public transport. My new commute would have been 1.5 hours and so I drive. I don’t want to drive. Therefore he has to learn so we can move. He would be driving in the opposite direction from the rush hour traffic and I wouldn’t have to drive to work. Driving to work is rubbish.

By: hillary!

hillary! — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 00:41:47 +0000

ALAS! I live in a town where it is beneficial to know how to drive, and I do not. Correction! I can turn left, right, and, on occasion, I can stop.

By: Jessica

Jessica — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 22:15:48 +0000

I’m 21 and don’t drive, though it’s getting to be more and more of a pain.

By: little willow

little willow — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 21:21:02 +0000

Me neither!

By: Liset

Liset — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 20:28:02 +0000

oh you guys already discussed this… I got ahead of myself -_-

By: Liset

Liset — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 20:26:38 +0000

an apocalypses = needing to drive?
NO WAY!
I’d say I’m a Pro when it comes to living through an apocalypse
(cause it’s my favorite genre of course, I could totally survive with just a hammer against a mob of zombies!)
and a car would be a disaster!
You need a bike!

Good thing I don’t know how to drive a car!
But then again I don’t know how to ride a bike either…
hmmm?

By: Jessica

Jessica — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 20:02:00 +0000

I don’t drive. I’m scared to.

I’m glad in a way i don’t. How many cars on the road do we need?

By: Patrick

Patrick — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 17:20:03 +0000

It’s true that zombies do ask Elvis trivia and only eat those who cannot answer.

By: Justine

Justine — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 14:19:25 +0000

Since the apocalypse is going to start with a bacteria that destroys all petrol and petrol based substances, the ability to drive a car is irrelevant, not to mention deadly.

However, I am at peace with the fact that no matter what flavour the end times comes in I do not have the skill set to survive. Not unless people are desperate for a good story teller by the fire, who’s good at cooking with garlic scapes and ramps, and knows quite a bit about Elvis Presley.

By: Winchester Grey

Winchester Grey — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 12:48:48 +0000

I technically, probably, kind of know how to drive… I had some lessons 20 years ago when I was 17. So in an emergency, I could work a car, I suppose. No license, though. Nope. No, ma’am.

Three cheers for cities and public transport!

By: Merrie Haskell

Merrie Haskell — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 12:41:48 +0000

re: driving during the apocalypse

Not knowing how to drive will work for a little while during the apocalypse. Driving an automatic transmission car when the only other people are on the road are squishy zombies is a piece of cake.

However, come day 600 of the apocalypse, what if you have to select a manual transmission car to push down an incline and pop the clutch because the battery–all batteries–are dead from disuse and you left your well-maintained car a thousand miles away when you trekked to Las Vegas to defeat Randall Flagg? And there’s no Murphy’s Auto anywhere near by?

That’s going to be the day when the drivers–specifically the ones who know how to shift gears and have ever had a dead battery–will win at apocalypse.

Just sayin’.

By: Ellie

Ellie — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 06:07:47 +0000

I have my license but only because my parents made me get it. Now I just refuse to drive anywhere I’m too scared to drive I hate doing it. The only trouble is that there is no decent public transportation where I live so I have to beg for rides a lot. One day I will be able to move.

By: Christopher Miles

Christopher Miles — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 03:59:00 +0000

I don’t drive. Apparently this makes me a burden on society. I figure it’s the other way around, but what do I know.

UK comedian Ricky Gervais doesn’t drive. I think that’s down to laziness rather than anything ideological. Which, if I’m being honest, is probably my excuse. That, and fear.

Amusingly, ex-New South Wales premier Bob Carr doesn’t drive. Which is funny since his name is ‘Car’, with an extra ‘r’, probably taken from ‘Vrrrrrrrroom’.

By: Lizabelle

Lizabelle — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 02:50:34 +0000

I don’t drive, despite, um, several attempts to learn. *blushes*

I’m perfectly happy as a non-driver most of the time, but I would like to be able to drive occasionally, if only to give my boyfriend a break.

By: Cat Sparks

Cat Sparks — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 02:20:32 +0000

I cannot drive. My parents never drove either so I figure its genetic.

By: scarlett

scarlett — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 02:00:22 +0000

o!
nor, for that matter,
was
the basset
hehehhehheee

By: scarlett

scarlett — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 01:59:19 +0000

heeheeheeheheh

Rookwood Cemetery was never the same..

By: Dan Goodman

Dan Goodman — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 01:53:14 +0000

Caroline — I don’t need a license for ID. Minnesota issues a state ID for non-drivers.

By: doselle

doselle — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 01:28:29 +0000

Cultists!