3 ms·

growing up i remember sorta envying the kids who got hardship licenses at 14, allowed for teens to drive to work and contribute income to their family, complete

growing up i remember sorta envying the kids who got hardship licenses at 14, allowed for teens to drive to work and contribute income to their family, completely ignoring the familial/financial situation borne of that. in that small, mostly suburban city, everyone drove, and everyone got their license by 16 (unless you failed your test a bunch of times). imagine my shock when i went to college with a bunch of kids from “the city” (nyc) who never got a license in the first place and many didn’t even see the point of it. truly mind-blowing. now i live in LA and haven’t owned a car for years (but still have a license). it’s great! the weather makes this the perfect city for mass biking/scootering, if only we could convert even some of our abundance of street parking into bike lanes.

ghaff 7y ago
If I lived in Boston--as opposed to a fairly far out exurb--I could imagine not owning a car given that I mostly work remotely. Though I probably still would so I could get out to mountains, etc. for the weekend. In any case, I would certainly want to be able to drive so I could do various vacations and sometimes necessary work driving. Some of this is less common in Uber days but certainly not non-existent. My point again isn't about owning or not owning a car but being able to drive a car when needed.
- mjmahone17 7y ago
  When do you need to? If your family never drives, you wouldn’t see a need to. It’s almost like asking “well wouldn’t you want to be able to go camping?” Sure, if you grew up camping you might know you want that. But if you didn’t, why would you even think about going camping? Similarly, if you’ve only lived in a city where you can hire a driver (cabs, moving vans, etc) as needed, why would you ever think you need to be able to drive? What is the situation you’ll be in where you need a license?
  - vinay427 7y ago
    I've lived without a car for years but I still find a license invaluable for the few times I'm moving or helping someone move. It's much (much!) cheaper where I live to borrow a car from a friend or car share service than pay a moving service. I aim to never use a car except when moving or visiting family inaccessible to public transit.
  - ghaff 7y ago
    Leaving aside that one office I do go into sometimes is in a suburban office park (but I suppose I can take commuter rail/Uber when I needed to go in). I have lots of friends scattered around the area. Most do not live in the city. It's very usual for me on weekends to go to the mountains/shore/skiing/etc. all of which need cars. (And the handful of people I know who live in e.g. SF without cars use Zipcar and rentals a lot to pickup things, etc.) When I travel in the US, I go places like national parks which all need cars to get to. I would absolutely not be fine with living in a city with no real way to get out of it.
- clairity 7y ago
  agreed, having a license is still useful for renting cars as needed, which i do periodically myself.

ghaff 7y ago

If I lived in Boston--as opposed to a fairly far out exurb--I could imagine not owning a car given that I mostly work remotely. Though I probably still would so I could get out to mountains, etc. for the weekend. In any case, I would certainly want to be able to drive so I could do various vacations and sometimes necessary work driving. Some of this is less common in Uber days but certainly not non-existent. My point again isn't about owning or not owning a car but being able to drive a car when needed.

mjmahone17 7y ago
When do you need to? If your family never drives, you wouldn’t see a need to. It’s almost like asking “well wouldn’t you want to be able to go camping?” Sure, if you grew up camping you might know you want that. But if you didn’t, why would you even think about going camping? Similarly, if you’ve only lived in a city where you can hire a driver (cabs, moving vans, etc) as needed, why would you ever think you need to be able to drive? What is the situation you’ll be in where you need a license?
- vinay427 7y ago
  I've lived without a car for years but I still find a license invaluable for the few times I'm moving or helping someone move. It's much (much!) cheaper where I live to borrow a car from a friend or car share service than pay a moving service. I aim to never use a car except when moving or visiting family inaccessible to public transit.
- ghaff 7y ago
  Leaving aside that one office I do go into sometimes is in a suburban office park (but I suppose I can take commuter rail/Uber when I needed to go in). I have lots of friends scattered around the area. Most do not live in the city. It's very usual for me on weekends to go to the mountains/shore/skiing/etc. all of which need cars. (And the handful of people I know who live in e.g. SF without cars use Zipcar and rentals a lot to pickup things, etc.) When I travel in the US, I go places like national parks which all need cars to get to. I would absolutely not be fine with living in a city with no real way to get out of it.
clairity 7y ago
agreed, having a license is still useful for renting cars as needed, which i do periodically myself.