Topic: If someone doesn't drive, do you believe they are penalized in the United States?
Trinculo
Ex-Member
posted
I don't drive because I have an illness-major depression. Major depression is known to cause mood swings. I do not want to drive in a car when a mood swing occurs. I might become violently anger and do an action that could harm myself or others. I have experience "road rage" on my bike. This is as close as I wish to get to the driving experience. From my perspective, the United States penalizes those who don't drive. You are forced to live in the downtowns of large, populated cities where the crime is high, the pollution is horrendous, employment is scarce or in jobs that don't pay well, and shopping for food is very difficult. Does anyone else have an opinion?
IP: Logged
posted
I totally understand.... I'm 20, and my mother still won't let me get my license. I live on a college campus, out in the middle of the woods, and I can't get out to get medical treatment, or food, or anything. I have to rely on my friends driving me, and they usually aren't available. It's like being trapped in a gilt cage ... you're still trapped!
------------------ There are people who one loves immediatly and forever. Just to know that you exist in the same world together is sufficient. Till I loved, I never lived - enough.
posted
Jubilee, since you *are* over 18, you could just get one... with or without your mom's knowledge or permission...
There I go again, being a shitstarter... ;-)
About the only place I've lived where I didn't need a car was Manhatten. Other than that, public transit is just not good enough to get you around if you don't drive. In California, this has become a real problem as highways are not adequate to the new level of traffic... and over 90% of the cars on the road have one person in them.
posted
Trinculo, I'm not sure where you live, but there are cities with well established public transportation systems. My personal favorite it the BART system up in San Francisco. When I head up there to visit a friend, I can go almost anywhere in the Bay Area with the BART. It's so cool.
However, where I currently live, Los Angeles, they recently killed our attempt at a real subway system and the bus system is rather strange to say the least. I live roughly 45 miles away from downtown LA, which is where I work. Now, during the day I could take the Metrolink trains to work since there is a station in Fullerton and close enough to my apt. that I could easily ride to get there. However, the trains stop running at night, and I have a night shift job. So I have to drive.
I totally understand that aspect of the LA experience. You have to have a car to live here.
------------------ To make an apple pie from scratch, we must first invent the universe.
posted
Yeah, you are penalized if you don't know how to drive. But, to be fair, it's a large, spread out country -- you just can't build major public transportation systems for every suburb. If you decide to live outside of a metropolitan area, you have to take the good with the bad.
And living in a big city is not as bad as you make it sound, Trinculo. There are many advantages; here in New York, almost everything I need (including food -- I'm not sure what you mean about food being difficult to shop for) is within reasonable walking distance from my apartment. And of course, you don't need to drive. In fact, I'm 21, don't have a license, and have never driven a car. But that's mostly out of fear -- I've had so many bad experiences as a car passenger in this town that I've developed a genuine fear of driving, and of cars in general. My dad has been pressuring me to take driving lessons this summer. He knows (and I agree with him) that when I start to work full time, that I'm going to have to know how to drive. It's just one of those things we all have to deal with.
------------------ Lawrence Boucher "Half this game is ninety percent mental."--Yogi Berra "Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning."--Albert Einstein
posted
One would definitely be penalized if they lived in Houston and didn't have a car... here is Austin, it's not bad if you arre a student, because all public transit is free. Even so, being able to just hop in my car and go wherever I want is much more convenient, especially if I want to go hang out in another city for the weekend or something, or if its 4 am, I'm hungry, and the only place open is IHOP which is well-beyond walking distance... =)
posted
You definitely need a car in a city like Houston. Hell, even downtown isn't pedestrian friendly! The sidewalks are so tiny compared to a city like Boston or so. Fortunately for myself and my carless friends, I do have a car.
------------------ "Some people call me the Space Cowboy. Yeah! Some call me the Gangster of Love. Some people call me Maurice. Whoo hoo! 'Cause I speak of the Pompatus of Love!" - Steve Miller Band's The Joker
posted
It may be due to the topic name, but I'm surprised to see so many people not having a license, not having a car or not needing a car. Living in a continent and a country where everything is a lot smaller (still a bit larger than in RW-lands), the car may be even more important, since the highways are excellent throughout the country, fast driving is allowed, major cities are only a few hours away, and taking a plane is too complicated and too expensive, moreover there are only few airports with regular traffic. Only fuel is much more expensive. Even in the big cities (speaking of Germany, I'm not so sure e.g. about Paris) most people do have a car and use it regularly. I forgot the railway, it's mostly rather an alternative than the plane.
posted
I know for a fact that here in WA, where I am, and leading the life that I lead, if I didn't have a car to get me to my day-to-day things, I'd be totally screwed! After my car got totalled we ran into this problem several times before we were able to get me a new one, and on the days when I didn't have a vehicle because Dad needed it (I was driving his truck... a BIG diesel truck... what a monster!) I hd no way to get to where I needed to be. The public transportation system here until last October was virtually non-existant, and even now with all of the changes and additions that made to it, getting to where you need to go in many cases is virtually impossible.
I don't think that it's like this in all areas of the country, but here it is, and that's kind of sad when you think about it. I think that as Americans we need to look into making the country more accessable through public transportation in our cities, if for not other reason than the fact that our ENVIRONMENT needs it! Where I live, we were recently ranked as having the 3rd worst air quality in the nation... that's sick, and it's something that we COULD try to help with... but having a car is a right of passage here in America, and getting people to change from that mindset and convincing gov'ts to put out the money needed to creat better public transporatation systems will take a lot of time and energy... so for now I guess, we have to deal with what we've got, though it's difficult. Pleh.
~LOA
------------------ "DollyWood, here I come!" ~LOA '99
posted
I think it's fair to say that both Aust and the USA are lands of distances. Over here due to much lower population density and therefore less need for public transport (and less funding) it's rather essential to drive. If you want to go via public transport you have to go into the city (via a direct train) and then out again, which can be tedious, and very time consuming.
Until I got my license, I never understood just HOW annoying public transport was.
posted
As a Canadian my country is far more vast and less densly populated than your other examples, but I still have no need for a car. Public transit is adequate, but we have a good bike path system here that allows me to get anywhere with little difficulty.
IP: Logged
posted
So then, what excuse does a city and general metropolitan areas like here in Los Angeles and the surrounding communities have for not having a competent public transportation system?
It sure isn't the population density problem. There quite a few people per square mile around here. It doesn't seem to be a cash problem. There's lots of cash to build sports stadiums downtown.
Hmmm...
Ah, there, ignorance, that's it.
------------------ To make an apple pie from scratch, we must first invent the universe.
Orion Syndicate
He's not the messiah, he's a very naughty boy!
Member # 25
posted
It's not just in the large countries where you need to drive. I am very lucky in that I only live about 2.5 miles away from university so I can just walk, but the people who live further away are just screwed if they don't have a car. I got my driving licence two years ago, but as a student hace been unable to afford a car (for obvious reasons). I agree that life is always much easier for people who have cars.
Non-drivers are penalised in this way, but drivers are also penalised because the costs of maintaining a vehicle, the road tax, MOT, petrol all adds to to extortionate amounts. It therefore works both ways.
------------------ It is absurd to divide people into good and bad. People are either charming or tedious.
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