# Who doesn't drive?



## Northerner (Jan 26, 2016)

I took my test a couple of times and failed, and I haven't driven a car for over 25 years - have never really felt the need, and as I have never had one I've never missed it. The traffic I see on the roads now makes me glad I didn't pass, or my life might have gone down a different path where I needed to drive/crawl through rush hour traffic every day - an horrific thought! 

I know quite a few other people who are my age and don't drive. However, I was trying to sign up to the government's new 'Verify' system, whereby your identity is verified by another agency, such as the Post Office or Experian, and failed! Reason for failure? I couldn't provide them with details from my Photo-ID driving license - since it doesn't exist! I had provided details from my passport, but apparently that wasn't enough and they couldn't verify me without a driving license.

What a load of bull!


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## Stitch147 (Jan 26, 2016)

Thats mad!!! I dont drive either. My OH is always saying that I should learn to drive, but I just dont feel that I need to. I work in central london, so commute by train and foot everyday, I certainly wouldnt want to drive in central london. I get free travel on anything run by TfL (thats who I work for) and get discounted travel on mainline services. My OH drops me at the station in the morning and picks me up in the afternoons, other days I will walk to and from my local station. Our high street is only a 20 minute walk, and parking is limited and pricey. Why would I need to drive There are already too many idiots on the road without me adding to them!


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## Flower (Jan 26, 2016)

I drove for years until having my licence revoked due to sight loss. I wish I had never been able to drive because I have found having that freedom and spontaneity removed very frustrating especially when people tell me just to pop along to see them, or say somewhere is only down the road. Most places may as well be on Mars if you rely on public transport and are on crutches! 

It was much easier to cope when I lived in London as the bus/tube/trains were fantastic - well done Stitch and TfL  - and ran all week and most of the night but moving to a more rural area where my bus service has been cut back to once every 1hr 40 mins really does make planning my life and remaining independent a challenge.

It is frustrating when you are asked for photo id from a driving licence for proof of who you are and explain you don't have one, I renewed my passport recently otherwise I would have been all out of photo id and scuppered!


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## Northerner (Jan 26, 2016)

When I left home to go to Uni I went to Sheffield, and at that time (1977) public transport was subsidised on the rates. There was a bus to go anywhere, any time, often less than 5 minutes apart, and it cost pennies (highest bus fare was 14p which took you out into the Peak District - fares rose once you crossed the border into Derbyshire). So for most people it was simply uneconomic to drive, which meant fewer cars on the roads and well-used services. Thatcher decided to deregulate buses in 1986 and fares rose by 2000% (not a typo!) overnight  Result? Gridlock as everyone turned to their (now cheaper) cars. Public transport services suffered because of the price increases, became less well-used and services declined. There was never any reduction in rates due to removal of the subsidy, it was an utter disaster. Only London retained a subsidised public transport system. 

Now we have a country where practically the whole population is tied to their car (or cars, as most of my neighbours appear to have at least two cars per household). I appreciate that cars are useful, and often essential to a large number of people, but to see those interminable queues in the mornings does make me wonder how much longer it can go on!


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## Flower (Jan 26, 2016)

Ah, the brilliant Sheffield bus system  I think we have reminisced before about how beautifully it worked at 2p a ride with the free bendy bus circling the city. I loved living there with such great public transport. I was there until 1989 and can remember it being dismantled and destroyed by deregulation with massive fare increases. My present service is under threat once again as fewer and fewer people use it the more the service is cut


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## AlisonM (Jan 26, 2016)

Same here, I passed my test in 1976 but rarely drove as I didn't have a car and didn't really need one. Once I moved to London, I definitely didn't need one and haven't driven in more than 30 years. No idea where my licence is as I haven't seen it in thirty years either. 

The public transport system in Inverness is total pants, it doesn't run in my part of town after 6pm and is so erratic I could be waiting at the bus stop for an hour, if I'm lucky, before one shows up. Maggie Thatcher and Brian Souter have a lot to answer for. Some areas of the town aren't covered at all while others are over-serviced. It's madness. But I can't drive now, even if I wanted to, so I'm reliant on the kindness of friends and taxis.


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## pottersusan (Jan 26, 2016)

??? What is this thing called public transport??? I see these things called bus stops, but rarely a bus. Ahh! the joys of a semi rural life


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## muddlethru (Jan 26, 2016)

I learnt to drive in Malaya in '67 then on return to the UK drove on an international licence for a year, then sat my UK test and passed. While abroad my husband injured his leg when he ran backwards playing cricket and fell down a monsoon ditch. We lived on the edge of a jungle at the time so I was so pleased I could drive or we would have been stranded to a certain extent. We drive to Scotland quite a bit and share the driving. I think more women should learn to drive as I find a lot of my friends miss the car when left on their own and wish they had learnt to drive years ago. We have a lousy bus service so it doesn't encourage one to give up the car.


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## Caroline (Jan 26, 2016)

I don't drive and never have. I am the wrong temperament and would be a danger to myself and others and my spatial awareness is abysmal to say the least. I also don't have a passport preferring to take holidays in the UK.

A lot of stock is placed on the photo ID but it can be faked and forged. I think things like a retinal scan would be better as no two people have the same patterns in their eyes and it is difficult to forged. Many people would say it is an invasion of privacy, but it seems a better way than something that can be forged.


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## Sally71 (Jan 26, 2016)

I drive, and can't understand why the government can't see that the only way to get people out of their cars is to make public transport a lot cheaper and more convenient, why would I walk for 15 mins to my nearest bus stop and then wait goodness knows how long for a bus when I can just jump in the car?!  Traffic isn't always nose to tail!

Having said that though, the Nottingham tram service has recently been extended in my direction, doesn't come all the way to my town but the park and ride is rather good, not quicker but certainly cheaper than parking in the city centre!

I don't have a photo driving licence though, I last renewed it when I got married and that was about a month before they stopped issuing paper only licences.  Haven't needed to renew it since.  So if I need photo ID I also have to use my passport!


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## Northerner (Jan 26, 2016)

Sally71 said:


> I don't have a photo driving licence though, I last renewed it when I got married and that was about a month before they stopped issuing paper only licences.  Haven't needed to renew it since.  So if I need photo ID I also have to use my passport!


You'd be stuck as well trying to use the government verify service then, since you need a photo license!  It's the same sort of nonsense where government assume that everyone has a smart phone - there are a significant number who don't!


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## Sally71 (Jan 26, 2016)

What is the government verify service for?


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## Austin Mini (Jan 26, 2016)

I am glad I drive. Last year we drove a camper van around the north island of New Zealand. We had the roads to ourselves and not a pot hole to be seen. This year we are saving to drive around the south island. In a years time I will have held a licence for fifty years car and motorcycle.


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## Northerner (Jan 26, 2016)

Sally71 said:


> What is the government verify service for?


It allows you to access government services online using one registration (things like self-assessment, which is what I was going to use it for)


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## AlisonM (Jan 26, 2016)

Northerner said:


> It allows you to access government services online using one registration (things like self-assessment, which is what I was going to use it for)


Bl**dy short sighted as usual.


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## Pine Marten (Jan 26, 2016)

How utterly stupid. I learnt to drive and passed first time years ago when the first Mr Marten (aka hubby) was terminally ill and died. I used his car for a few weeks but only to drive to the kids' school (10 minute walk away) or shopping (12 minute walk), or church (another 12 minute walk!) so I sold the car to my neighbour as it wasn't worth it. I got the tube to work (two stops) and relied on public transport or walking.

The current Mr Marten sold his car years ago, and as we are both now old codgers we use our Freedom Pass and senior rail card


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## Matt Cycle (Jan 26, 2016)

I drive and it is very useful.  However I live in a smallish market town and can walk from one end of the town boundary to the other in about 30-40 minutes.  Most of the time for local things I walk or cycle.  It's the rest of the bone idle population of the town whose only form of exercise is walking from the car to whichever shop they're going in (and have to be as close to it as possible) that's the problem.  There is little provision here for easier cycling on the road or better access for pedestrians - the car is king.  Any talk of using car park space for something else and the local paper is full of letters from infuriated drivers who can't be arsed to walk a few hundred yards.  And local traders who think it will close their business. 

Slight digression but talking of Sheffield buses above here's one for you from the good old days.  I used to get on the 75 Bradway.  This is on Cumberland Street at the bottom of The Moor.  It looks like it's taken in the 80's.


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## AlisonM (Jan 26, 2016)

That reminds me. I went to the shop yesterday and one of the neighbours was pulling out of his drive as I passed, nearly knocked me down again. When I got to the shop, he was already in there getting some stuff. He was back in his drive way when I passed on my way home. The shop is all of 50 metres away from his house, less than 100 metres from mine. This is the third time I've seen him do it. It beggars belief.


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## Northerner (Jan 26, 2016)

Haha! I recognise it!


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## Northerner (Jan 26, 2016)

When I worked in the town centre, 2.5 miles from where I live, I used to run home from work. My fastest time was 18 mins 5 seconds, door to door - never managed to break that 18 minutes! However, quite a few of the people I worked with also lived on my street but used their cars for work. They would leave their cars in the multi-storey at goodness knows whatever cost, then drive home in the traffic - it usually took them at least an hour!  Even when I lived in Sheffield and was 4.5 miles from home I would run home and easily beast anyone in a vehicle over the same distance. The trouble is nowadays is that kids (and their parents, given that I'm now old) are so used to being driven everywhere they never use their legs!


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## Robin (Jan 26, 2016)

I went shopping this afternoon. Our local bus is hourly at the moment, but under threat from withdrawaI of subsidy, so we are all being encouraged to use it or lose it. But I drove 6 miles to our nearest Market Town. Went to M&S, drove on to Lidl which is in a different part of the town, a mile from the other shops, came home via our local garden centre which is half way between town and our village, and was gone from home 2 hours. I worked out it would have taken me 4 hours if I'd done all the legs by bus.


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## Northerner (Jan 26, 2016)

Robin said:


> I went shopping this afternoon. Our local bus is hourly at the moment, but under threat from withdrawaI of subsidy, so we are all being encouraged to use it or lose it. But I drove 6 miles to our nearest Market Town. Went to M&S, drove on to Lidl which is in a different part of the town, a mile from the other shops, came home via our local garden centre which is half way between town and our village, and was gone from home 2 hours. I worked out it would have taken me 4 hours if I'd done all the legs by bus.


That's the problem when public transport is inefficient. I've never forgiven David Blunkett for spending so many years in government and never establishing a coherent strategy for the country as a whole, given that he was in charge of Sheffield City Council and then MP for Sheffield Brightside and therefore fully aware of the advantages. Another advantage was that low-paid people could take jobs that they probably couldn't afford to now, because the travel costs would take too much of their wages  Competition doesn't work in public transport, because there is very little or none - just one or two companies.


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## Pine Marten (Jan 26, 2016)

I live in a part of London that has two tube lines, an overground line and bus stations all at the same location about 5 minutes' walk up the road. In other directions are more tubes and buses. For all the frustration of living in a noisy, dirty, busy part of town we do extremely well for transport links, and can be (for example) in the West End in 20 minutes or so. I realise that we are very fortunate in this - when I stay with my friend in Herefordshire we have to time outings very carefully if we're using buses or trains, not to miss the last one back!


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## Sally71 (Jan 27, 2016)

I do try to do the school run on foot as much as possible, there are times when it doesn't work out though and I have to use the car. I do always park legally and have to walk down the road a bit, it's amazing how many people park on the yellow lines though, and the school have had various complaints from residents about their driveways being blocked!  It's not that hard to find a legal place to park which isn't interfering with anyone else.  Sometimes they have a special police officer outside moving people on, shame he can't be there more often.

Many years ago when I lived in Leicester I decided to go shopping in the city centre one weekend.  There was a queue around the block to get into the Shires car park (the one underneath the shopping centre) which was obviously full and was only letting vehicles in one or two at a time as others came out (and you then have to drive around for ages trying to find the one space!).  Blow that, thought I, and I drove round the corner to another car park under a traffic island, and found it almost empty, I got a space on the ground floor easy peasy.  Unbelievable that so many people would rather just sit in a traffic jam for goodness knows how long, wasting time and fuel, than walk a couple of hundred yards extra!


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## Stitch147 (Jan 27, 2016)

Pine Marten said:


> I live in a part of London that has two tube lines, an overground line and bus stations all at the same location about 5 minutes' walk up the road. In other directions are more tubes and buses. For all the frustration of living in a noisy, dirty, busy part of town we do extremely well for transport links, and can be (for example) in the West End in 20 minutes or so. I realise that we are very fortunate in this - when I stay with my friend in Herefordshire we have to time outings very carefully if we're using buses or trains, not to miss the last one back!



Gotta love the tube! (well most days, but I am biased!)


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## AlisonM (Jan 27, 2016)

the nearest tube station to me was Brixton, but the bus and train services were brill. Bust stop right outside the door twos tops from the terminus so there was always a seat and about 9 million buses all going in the right direction so I rarely had to change. Ace. I miss that.


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## Northerner (Jan 27, 2016)

AlisonM said:


> the nearest tube station to me was Brixton, but the bus and train services were brill. Bust stop right outside the door twos tops from the terminus so there was always a seat and about 9 million buses all going in the right direction so I rarely had to change. Ace. I miss that.


See! Good public transport systems work!


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## AlisonM (Jan 27, 2016)

Northerner said:


> See! Good public transport systems work!


I rarely had to wait more than 5 minutes for a bus either.


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## newbs (Jan 27, 2016)

I drive and personally can't imagine not being able to, living in Cornwall the public transport isn't brilliant and there isn't any public transport to my work so I would be a bit stuck (or have a long walk) without my car.  I absolutely love driving though.  My parents never drove so we pretty much walked everywhere when I was little, and my brother never passed his test either.  I tried to pick a parcel up for an elderly neighbour a few weeks ago, took a bill for proof of identity with me but they didn't want to give me the parcel without seeing her driving license.  I told them she doesn't have one and ended up in an argument before they finally relented.  People should realise that not everyone can/would like to drive!


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## Northerner (Jan 27, 2016)

newbs said:


> People should realise that not everyone can/would like to drive!


Precisely my point!


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## Mark Parrott (Jan 28, 2016)

I live in the middle of nowhere (the Fens).  Not being able to drive isn't an option.  To walk to the nearest bus stop would take about an hour & a half and that one is only two buses a day,  Still, I love being in the sticks.


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## Cowboy Bob (Jan 28, 2016)

I passed my test when I was 17 but went travelling and then to university and subsequently never owned a car due to finance restrictions. Nowadays I work in London, but would never live there, too dirty, so I'm out in Cambridgeshire but in a train hub with direct trains to Liverpool, Manchester, Nottingham, Norwich, Birmingham and London. Never felt the need to get a car, besides, given that I haven't driven in 25 years I guess I'd be a danger to myself and others.


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## Mark Parrott (Jan 29, 2016)

With the cost of driving these days, wish I didn't have to drive too.  But as I run a business that involves needing a van & volunteer for the ambulance service, that won't happen


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## Redkite (Jan 29, 2016)

One of my good friends doesn't have a passport and has never gone out of the UK.  She and her husband choose to go caravanning in England & Wales, and so she's never needed a passport.  Gives her a few problems when ID is required though!


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## Northerner (Jan 29, 2016)

Redkite said:


> One of my good friends doesn't have a passport and has never gone out of the UK.  She and her husband choose to go caravanning in England & Wales, and so she's never needed a passport.  Gives her a few problems when ID is required though!


My passport expired a couple of years ago (I've renewed it now). My Dutch stepmother was appalled that I didn't have ID, and that there was no requirement to hold it her in the UK - they have to have something!


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## Mrs Mad Ronin (Jan 29, 2016)

I don't know drive. I leave that to the other half (my chauffeur), i did have lessons but stopped as it was really making my hip worse (i was 20). Plus given my anxiety i don't think it's a wise idea now, i get anxious in the car now because of the stupid drivers on the road. If i was driving god knows what state i would be in when i arrived at my destination haha


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## Andy HB (Jan 29, 2016)

I don't drive but I do have a provisional driving license! I doubt I will ever learn, but the driving license is useful for reasons of proving identity and address.

Andy


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## runner (Jan 29, 2016)

I drive and live in a rural area where the bus service is poor (and expensive).  I also had to drive to do my former job (social worker) visiting foster carers all over the county and attending meetings in their homes or local schools in small villages.  Work from home now (doing something completely different!), so don't use the car anywhere near as much, although I can't imagine carrying huge bags of chicken feed home on the bus/on foot!  My FIL decided to apply for a bank account because it had a good offer on, and was refused because he's never had a credit card or credit and had no credit rating, even though he has a bank A/c already!!  Crazy!

Hope you manage to get to their service eventually Northe!


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## Mark Parrott (Jan 30, 2016)

I'm rural too so I need to drive.  And chicken feed is heavy.


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