It’s kind of strange to admit this, but I, a 30 year old person who’s lived in urban areas most of his life now, have never driven a car. I don’t even have a proper license, just a Class 7 (i.e., learner’s permit) that’s been expired for five years now.
I suppose I’ve been lucky enough to have never really needed one. Buses got me to all the important spots, I didn’t really travel a lot or have to go far to hang out with friends, etc. Heck, where I live right now, I’m within walking distance of my office, a supermarket, the whole downtown core, an LRT station, lots of smaller stores… There have only been a few occasions where having a car would have been really helpful, such as carrying larger packages, travelling to less-popular parts of the city, and such, and even then there were alternatives available.
There are other factors at work to a certain degree as well. A bit of fear, since it can be a risky business after all. A bit of doubt, as without access to a vehicle I’m not even sure how to even develop driving skills before fully committing myself. And certainly a bit of laziness.
Still, it would be nice to have a bit more flexibility. If I ever get a house, I don’t want to be severely restricted in where I can be located. It’s unfair to drop all the transportation arrangements on friends all the time. Relying on my passport for id is a pain, I’ll have to get the license renewed eventually in order to renew the passport, so I may as well go all the way anyway.
Now where do I start? :-P
Depends!
I’m not sure how it is up there. To get my license here, you had to pass a driving test, both written and physically driving. There are lots of places that teach you how to drive. Kind of pricy, though. A friend can show you all that crap, if you have anyone there that’ll let you get behind the wheel. It’s not hard. Just a little nerve wracking sometimes with the traffic. Once you’ve been doing it awhile, it’s no big deal.
I rather doubt it’s the least bit of consolation, but if it hadn’t been for that last-minute “whaddya-mean-nobody-told-you-you-HAD-to-have-a-license?” garbage I went thru at Syncrude, I *still* wouldn’t have one.
I hate driving. With everything I’ve got. Now, thanks to not only being forced into it, but also on some of the most dangerous “roads” known to man (yes, that friggin’ NorthStar Energy / Dover-SAGD Project hellmouth just off Supertest north of McMurray, as well as the road out to Shell way north of Fort McKay — might as well ‘ave driven all the way to Fort Chipewayan), the only thing I hate more than driving is letting other people drive…
It’s a no-win scenario. Avoid it as long as you can. It’s expensive, and rarely worth it.
And I don’t mind chauffeuring you, tho it would be nice to have a vehicle that *works*… don’t you think? :-)
call young drivers of canada. they’re fun, informative and even let you slalom & drive like a crazy person as part of the lessons.
my in-car instructor was so sweet. he would take me on the highway as often as possible because he knew i liked going fast. he even let me smoke while driving although it was seriously verboten by their regulations. ahh, the good ol’ days.
Yeah, I’ll probably wind up going with one of the bigger organizations like Young Drivers or AMA or such, not Chan’s Discount Driving Place. :-) I’m going to need the best in-car instruction available due to not having access to one on my own.
Heh, back when I was looking for jobs through the co-op program at the UofA, one of the things they warned us to look for was that some of the jobs in northern Alberta had a driving requirement, especially for field work.