“Why Don’t You Drive?” — The Question that I Keep Having to Answer
I don’t drive, in case the title didn’t make that clear. I, as a 19-year-old man, don’t have my driver’s license. The most non-video game driving experience that I have is from hopping on a go-kart and giving myself whiplash.
I don’t even have an excuse. If I had knuckled down and learned to drive, I likely could have found a cheap car that wouldn’t have broken my budget. I got my permit, my parents were happy to teach me and I was willing to learn; at least until I nearly crashed a few times and gave up out of embarrassment.
Ever since, I’ve endeavored to live in such a way where I don’t need much skill in driving. I could probably do it in a pinch, at such a time where laws didn’t matter like a zombie (or really any kind of) apocalypse, but for the time being I’m staying off of the roads.
Part of living this way means finding alternatives. Luckily, I make my home in Fort Collins, where there are plenty of suitable alternatives for getting where I want to go. However, they aren’t always 100% convenient, so at times I find myself faced with the question that’s followed me since everybody else got their licenses in high school: “Why don’t you drive?”
When I started actually looking around for the reasons, I figured out that I wasn’t alone.
Jerry Kennard, a psychologist and member of the British Psychological Society, wrote in 2012 in an article entitled “Driver Stress: Causes and Cures” that “Our bodies are designed around a simple fight-or-flight mechanism; ideally we use one or the other to dissipate stress when it occurs. Sitting in a car is incompatible with stress build up. …We can’t fight and we can’t run, so tension simply builds with no obvious outlet.”
Stress rings true to me as a possible reason that I avoid driving. I feel stressed out just going about my day, why would I expose myself to more when I can get around it without too much hassle? This may just be an avoidance tactic based on my own personal experiences, but this article suggests that it’s somewhat common.
However, regardless of the reasons behind them, many Americans just aren’t getting driver’s licenses any more. A study conducted in 2016 by the University of Michigan found that less teens and young adults were obtaining drivers licenses compared to the past. While USA Today suggested that this was purely a millennial issue, The Atlantic noted that while drops in licensing across nearly all age groups were present — though it was especially prevalent in the teenage and young adult demographic.
A survey conducted by the researchers on young adults who did not own licenses found several trends: the majority surveyed suggested that they didn’t have the time to invest in working toward a license, and the reason that came in as a close second was the price of buying and maintaining a vehicle.
Both of these reasons are my go-to answers whenever the question comes up. I’m a busy college student, I don’t have time to learn. I’m a poor college student, I don’t have that kind of money. Taking these into account, I can certainly rationalize and explain my decision.
Then again, maybe I’m too worried about potential stress in my life to just shut up and drive.
