Simple: I fucking hate driving. I hate the smell, I hate the noise, and I hate the stress. Thr environmental impact isnt exactly a plus point either. You could say that I’m lucky to live in a place with good public transport, but I actively sought out a place with public transport because I didn’t want to rely on a car.

Final nail on the coffin: I developed Menieres disease, so I am prone to intense vertigo attacks at short notice - I couldn’t get a license even if I wanted one.

We have good public transport and I believe reading something on the way to be a better use of that time.

I just don’t need one, so never bothered with it.

Cars are expensive to buy and maintain. Also I don’t think finding a parking spot and then parking is a fun activity. Also the metro can in many cases be faster, and I can use my phone while I’m in it.

I’m personally baffled at how many are killed in automobile accidents. 44,000 Americans every year. American KIA numbers for the entirety of the global war on terror is around 5,000. That is roughly only one month’s worth of automobile deaths.

Americans dead in Vietnam is around 58,000 over ten years. That’s only a year and a half worth of automobile deaths.

Even in WW2, over 4 years, 416,000 americans lost their lives, around 104,000 per year. Even during the deadliest war in history, automobiles today still kill 44% as many year to year. Granted the war did not touch America as much relatively but are still mind boggling statistics.

It feels as though learning to drive is merely fueling the cycle. More cars cause politicians to invest further in road infrastructure instead. More people giving up on public transportation further starves it of the funding it deserves and desperately needs.

I have a license, but never use it. I’m Dutch. My work and the train station are less than 10 min by bike, the supermarket is a 5 min walk. I can do almost anything by bike and sometimes public transport and it saves me hundreds of euro’s a month.

I have a license. I enjoy driving as a leisure activity.

But I hate driving to work. I just take the shuttle and enjoy listening to my podcasts. We have a decent public transport system as well, so it helps.

I had no access to or use of a car until I was around 23. Up to that point I lived in a country where you could cycle for most of your daily routine, take the bus a couple of times a month and the train sporadically.

I moved to a country where cycling was for the poor and foolhardy, me for several years, and public transport was atrocious.

Public transport has marginally improved, my bicycle hasn’t been used for 20+ years and our household has one car.

Learning to drive is a process. It takes time. Just like learning to fly a plane takes time. If you have a need to drive, learning how is step one. In my country even when you pass your test, you are required to keep a logbook for at least two years and drive in a variety of conditions before you can actually upgrade your probationary licence.

According to medical checkups, I am fine, but I know for a fact I am not a safe driver. I have bad attention span, sight, reaction, field of view, and tiredness issues. I am ideologically repelled by cars. And it looks feels dull to me to drive and also to study for an exam.

Basically, confidence. I don’t have enough confidence to drive a car. Heck even riding a bike gives me anxiety that I’m going to collide with somebody or get hit by someone.

I don’t want to get a license only to forget everything because I won’t drive.

I see having a car as a necessity only. For me, it’s only acceptable if public transport/bicycle is not an option. Unfortunately, the latter is almost never an option due to how everything is built car-centric, but the former very often is.

Also, I don’t know anything about cars, I don’t have to think where to park that huge piece of shit, I don’t need to be my own driver, I don’t need to do any maintenance, it’s more ecological and even cheaper than just gas.

!fuckcars@lemmy.world

I don’t like driving…

I don’t need to drive

Owning a car is stupidly expensive. And its an expense I don’t need to pay.

Cars make people lazy and entitled and create divisions between them. When you’re driving you’re not around other people like you would be on public transit. They’re bothered.

I got my license at 18 before I moved out, but my parents made the entire ordeal a nightmare. It was more anxiety than it was worth to get my required miles in with them as the instructor. People living in large cities often never get the opportunity, it’s high stress and taxis are readily available. Car ownership is expensive and public transportation is available, as well as biking. In uni I taught several Asian students how to drive because countries like Japan often have expensive training programs, and insurance is painful for testers. European cities are often designed for micro mobility and bikes and smart cars are preferred just because of size.

As an experienced driver, highway driving is much easier, and relaxing, then street driving.

Familiarity breeds contempt of course. But genuinely, on the highway there are less variables to account for so it’s easier mentally

I love driving, I find it very relaxing, opens your perspective to see the world. I grew up driving, my family always drove, everybody I know drove, got my license as soon as possible. That’s what everybody around me was doing too.

I think parts of the world were you see driving as being more luxurious, or difficult to have, or just unaffordable, then driving becomes a status symbol, it’s not as universal, but also the infrastructure is less universal because most people are on foot or motorbikes. In those contexts driving can be more stressful than using the other methods.

I actually had my first driving lesson just a few weeks ago (I’m 18). I ended up quitting after four lessons because 1) I/my parents don’t own a car, 2) it would cost me all of my savings, and 3) I really don’t need a car nor a driver’s license. I live in a walkable European city and the public transit is pretty good. Honestly, good riddance; the theory seemed very heavy and I couldn’t wrap my head around it, and even if I managed to get a license I would still need to get a car. So, sure, I might miss out on fun independent road trips; on the other hand I’ll be able to appreciate trains and ferries even more for what they are.