Is it really worth anything to learn how to drive?

Here's a confession....

I don't know how to drive...

...and I want to learn.

I thought I found a good driving school but I found they don't pick up in DC(where I live) I am really starting to have second thoughts. I mean all the great stores albeit a bit overpriced are here. I can get delivery on anything and I have a good bike. Also I live in the most stable job market in the US. So should I just forget the whole affair.

Let's also not forget the high ass gas prices, the maintenance, insurance and the god awful traffic in DC. Actually I am not planning on owning a car just knowing how to drive. Also cars seem to have lost some mystique as they have been demarcated into just another appliance. Just convince me to go ahead.

DC has decent public transit iirc so i mean, depending on where you live, don't push yourself to get an automobile. but, being able to drive is a good skill to have. it comes in handy! and just having the license doesn't mean you have to spend the extra dough on ownership, if you decide it's not for you. but it lets you borrow cars from friends, rent a car, zipcar etc.

put keyboards on top of the dashboard

^lool

Driving a car is fucking awesome.

For increasing numbers of young people in DC, no

I am too much of a car guy to give up owning a car, and even if I couldn't own one would still want to know how to drive and be licensed. But it's becoming increasingly feasible for suburbanites not to drive.

Yeah, there's no need to have a car if you live in DC, but you should definitely take driver's ed and get a license. Even when I was living in a big city and didn't own a car, it was real handy to be able to rent a moving van every once in a while.

If you live in DC and stay within the radius that WMATA serves, probably not. OTOH if you want to go hiking in Shenandoah, it's nice to grab a Zipcar and head out, because Metro will only get you as far as Vienna.

iatee to thread

shhhhh!

This has been on my to-do list for years - I don't expect to need a car any time soon but it seems like a useful skill to have.

not being able to drive closes off whole industries to you in terms of employment and... why would you do that?

Why not learn? It's like not knowing how to swim or ride a bike (I met someone the other day who knew how to do neither of these things). It's an important life skill that can't help but to come in handy. Learning to drive does not mean you must go driving. It's just something to know that also happens to be intrinsic to the way society works.

Learning to drive is entirely separable from owning a car. It is a personal skill, not a piece of machinery. So, to answer the non-musical question in the thread title: yes, but only if you can imagine using this skill to make your own or someone else's life a bit easier or better.

For example, when visiting others who live in a place where driving is a necessity, you could offer to assist with the chore of going places. Or, imagine you would like to spend a vacation in a rural area (e.g. almost the entire north american continent); if you know how to drive you could rent a car and see places you could not access any other way. And, as was pointed out above, many jobs require that skill, and those jobs, while not usually well-paid are somewhat numerous and can tide you over a rough patch of unemployment.

I'm about to properly learn in the UK as it's getting harder and harder to live my life without it. Over here plenty of people get by without learning until they're in their 20s at least (most of my friends don't drive and I'm 30). In the US I had to explain to some people three times that I had never driven/had a driving licence/owned a car. It really seemed like a foreign concept, even in a city where taking the car tends to take longer than the public transport.
It is a lot easier (and cheaper) in the US, I took my test with no problems but I feel I'm only about 25% of the way to actually knowing how to drive anywhere else in a manual car.

almost 40 and don't know how to drive. managing.

I passed my test and owned a car in my late teens and early 20s. Then I moved to the city and didn't need a car. About 15 years passed. A while ago my mother was over an injured herself and I felt pretty useless that I no longer had the skills and confidence to drive her to the hospital. She wasn't ill enough to warrant an ambulance. I took lessons again recently and now drive my wife's car about once a month. I can't foresee using a car to commute again soon but I'm glad started to drive again. It's a useful skill. I'd never say that city driving is fun, it's frustrating.

I think I will learn how to drive. Thanks for encouraging me. This thread was started because I had a disappointment involving a driving school. They didn't pick up in DC so I was mad. I wish I had friends that would let me practice on their car. I will go and get lessons.

And to that person who said I should stick a keyboard on the dashboard. I think I will take your suggestion. I will place a DX-7 on it so if I crash I will get a face full of memory circuits and FM generation chips shoved into my body. I want the laws of physics to shove sound cards into my chest. I may also place an ESoniq MQ-80 so I could get a fill of metal, LFO chips and that flourescent display

i wish you the best of luck, the startrekman! the roads can only be better with you on them ; )

I learned to drive in my thirties and I kind of regret now that I didn't drive when I was younger and unburdened with kids etc. I could have had much more awesome holidays and weekends in the country and all that sort of stuff.

driving is rad. cars are rad. I LOVE CARS I LOVE CARS I LOVE CARS

n.b. i'm a native californian who learned to drive manual at age 15 1/2