Culture I'm 41 and don't know how to drive. People make fun of me, but I'm better off without a car.

GARY NUNN
JAN 24, 2024, 17:29 IST


Gary Nunn prefers to cycle and will never learn to drive. Courtesy of Gary Nunn

• Gary Nunn is in his 40s and has never driven a car or had the desire to learn.
• He lives in Sydney and prefers cycling everywhere. He takes public transportation when necessary.

When I tell people I'm 41 and have never learned to drive, reactions vary depending on where they're from.

If the person was born and bred in a big, well-connected global city (except car-obsessed Los Angeles), they might shrug at the idea of not driving. As the cost of living keeps rising, not owning a car seems sensibly frugal. Plus, since Uber and other ride-hailing apps came along, owning a car has become less of a necessity.

But as I get older, people I meet seem more surprised by the fact I've never taken a driving lesson in my life and have never once driven a car.

One former colleague in Australia asked if I had a disability that prevented me from driving (I don't). Since there are vast distances between places in Australia and public transportation can only reach so far, driving is a big part of the culture.

Maybe if I had grown up in Australia, I would've taken lessons. I grew up in Medway, Kent, in the UK, and most people where I'm from learned how to drive, so I was in a minority there, too.

When it was time to learn, I chose school instead​

When I was 17 and others were taking their driving tests, I remember my dad saying he could either chip in to help me go to university or help with driving lessons, but he didn't have the money for both. Nor did I on my meager Saturday job wage, so I chose university.

After that, I always lived in well-connected cities. I often move around and split my time between London, Sydney, and Buenos Aires. I'm currently in Sydney, which has many bicycle lanes.

Some of my friends like to poke fun at my non-driving status​

One of my friends took aim at my diminutive stature (I'm about 5-foot-six) and asked if I don't drive because "I can't reach the pedals."

These jibes don't bother me — they amuse me. I'm actually quite proud that I don't drive because I don't congest the roads and the environment. I can also skip leg day at the gym because my calves are huge from all my cycling.

I've been borderline obsessed with cycling ever since I was a boy. I always prefer it to public transport, unless, of course, it's raining.

I do love to go-kart. My 30th birthday was spent go-karting with friends, and I've done it several times since. I enjoy the thrill of the speed and the novelty of being behind the wheel since it's rare for me.

I have my boating license, though, and I take my friends and family for trips on the harbor. I don't own one, but I hire the same boat whenever I want to do this.


Nunn driving a boat. Courtesy of Gary Nunn

The main reason I don't drive is pure economics​

Driving is expensive — outside the cost of the car itself, you have to pay for insurance, parking, registration, and gas. It just seems indulgent to me.

I spend maybe $20 a month on public transportation. I love taking buses and seeing the world go by while safely using my smartphone. Status symbols like cars don't impress me.

I also don't drive to prevent myself from being lazy. If I started driving, I'd miss my bike too much.

Because I adore cycling and being outdoors, I even made it my job to cycle by becoming an e-bike courier as a supplementary job.

I feel safer this way​

I can count on one hand the times not driving has been an issue. On a long drive to a festival, my friend got tired and I felt guilty I couldn't just jump in and help out. It'd sometimes be nice to be a designated driver when my friends want to drink, but I can call them an Uber instead.

I've been in a car when there've been some nail-biting close calls. Once, after a night out in Mykonos, a friend and I ended up in a slightly dodgy unlicensed "cab." Our villa was at the top of an extremely steep hill. The driver's gear crunched on the hill, and the car began rolling backward, gathering terrifying momentum.

I remember the glistening sea getting closer and closer in the back window as my friend screamed her lungs out. We threw the doors open and jumped out of the moving car just as the driver put the handbrake on.

Getting in a car is sometimes unavoidable, but I don't need one. I'm healthier, have more money, and can bike, take public transportation, or jump in an Uber to get anywhere I need to go.

Source (Archive)

 

[._.]

Even among 'pod dwellers', people in cities like NYC and Chicago, wherever else, LA of course, people will tell you that even if they dont have to, they know how to drive, own a car, kind of appreciate it just because its more convenient to have your own car and be able to just pop out and go on your errands or to the park or whatever without having to plan or anything.

Im someone who grew up in a neighborhood in a city that became 'well connected' (or at least a very convenient, nice area in the city) so I understand and kind of like the idea of a 15-minute city but even then I think shit like this is stupid and detrimental to the acceptance of the idea of building more 'walkable' neighborhoods and shit instead of subdivisions and 'developments'.

 

[Doseferatu]

I was terrified to drive when I was a teenager. My eyesight was not great (even with corrective lenses) and I feared my tendency to daydream would get me into a car crash where I could hurt others.

I overcame these obstacles and became a pretty good driver - it's a skill that has kept me in good stead in the wake of certain career developments and, if I ever need to drive for an emergency, I can. I finally learned how to drive when I couldn't inconvenience others to drive me.

This guy is insecure enough to try to prove through an article why he shouldn't have to learn. Sucks to be him.

 

[PaleTay]

He's 5' 6", the game was rigged from the start.


What job does he have? If he bicycles from home to a local McDonald's to work that explains his frugality in taking public transit, but if he relies on a bicycle to get to a big-boy job he's fucked if things change.

There's plenty of teachers and nurses who bike to work.

 

[JambledUpWords]

>doesn’t drive
>still has to rely on other drivers anyway

I don’t get why he’s acting like this is some sort of brag. Arizona might be more bike friendly than many other states, but there’s limitations there too, as it will get way too hot to bike in peak summer conditions. You pretty much have to live in places with year round temperate weather to just bike all the time.

 

[Not Really Here]

There was a time when a person keeping themselves ignorant of a basic skill would earn derision, a punch, and probably a "lol retard."
Retvrn to the traditional ways.

 

[VargReallyDidNothingWrong]

I have owned multiple cars in my life but I've never been well off enough to rent a boat at a marina, and especially not so well off I actually have a favorite yacht to rent "when I feel like it".

This dude doesn't not own a car because of economic reasons.

Just another smug self-absorbed retard feeding his narcissism by "saving the planet".

When it was time to learn, I chose school instead​

When I was 17 and others were taking their driving tests, I remember my dad saying he could either chip in to help me go to university or help with driving lessons, but he didn't have the money for both. Nor did I on my meager Saturday job wage, so I chose university.

Ah yes and there we are. I never learned to drive because I prioritized going to university. Even in Europe, the land of atrociously expensive licenses, you typically won't pay more than 1500 at most to learn to drive and get your license. How is $1500 being used as the deciding factor between going to university and not?

 

[Billy Bob Dick]

people who ride their bikes everywhere should be banned from indoor spaces. They're basically just walking clouds of swamp ass

 

[BlaireWhitesBottom2]

I make my wife drive everywhere because I hate it. Do I get a faggy little article written about me now?

youre the type to have his dog do calculus too right?

 

[Cheesegirl78]

Cars aren't that expensive to run, that is if you or someone you know is mechanically savvy enough to help you pick out one that will have a low total cost of ownership.

The problem is the people who get suckered into impulse-buying a complete lemon. That's when it gets expensive.

But no, your answer is Uber, so instead of learning to drive you decide to help this bottomfeeder company continue their quest to pilfer every remaining dime of equity out of the cars of poor people.

Also what the fuck is with the backhanded sneeding at LA that this schlong vacuum just had to throw in? Do any of these people who complain about cars in LA even realize just how gargantuanly massive the LA basin is in reality? You can fit Rhode Island and Delaware inside of LA county and still have room left over.

I love when idiots like this guy talk about how good Europeans or Aussie or Japan's transit systems are, forgetting you can fit the entirety of the British Isles in California with room left over. Fuckheads, all of them.

 

[Watcher]

This entire article is just one long cope about how insecure he is that he has to rely on inefficient means to get around because he was too lazy to get his driver's license when he was younger