Reply to What do you think of adults who never learned to drive?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]My mom grew up in NYC with six sisters. They all moved out to the suburbs and she and 3 other sisters learned to drive in their 20s.

The three sisters who didn't learn how to drive also did not take much agency over their lives - they were homemakers or secretaries and their husbands picked them up and dropped them off, they did not have a lot of outside hobbies or activities.

Those 3 sisters (out of 7 girls) are the only ones to suffer from dementia in their 70s. One passed away, and the remaining 2 are quite advanced.  The other sisters are all pretty healthy cognitively in their 80s.

I'm not trying to say not driving = cognitive decline, but certainly, I see a correlation in my own family between low personal agency and declining cognitive health. [/quote]

It feels like the women who never learned to pay bills, get a bank account, or manage whatever money they have.  I guess it's a generational thing at this point (I hope?).  Is it still common for women to just not learn to drive?[/quote]

It depends. You’re asking a group that leans towards UMC — so they likely had access to available cars and ongoing instruction and opportunities to practice; who, despite the name of the site, tend to live very suburban lives.  
As a former New Yorker, there are lots of us who never learned to drive — because we had other available options.

What’s interesting is that thanks to public transportation, I had a huge amount of freedom from the time I was about 12. I used public transportation for school — and pretty much everywhere else that I wanted to go. That’s possibly a few years earlier than the kids who lived in less urban areas who relied upon their parents for transportation.  [/quote]

I grew up in a flat city where everyone biked. My elementary school had three massive bike parking areas. My preschool even had a tricycle parking area where I parked after getting myself there aged 4. Everyone biked to high school - four miles with a headwind in both directions.

Beyond school, I biked downtown, to sports practices, to friends' places, to work, to university... It sounds a bit the same as your public transportation experience. I was in no rush to get my license because I was commuting wherever I wanted to go young. [/quote]

Yes, I think it IS very similar.  “Driving” for us isn’t linked with having the ability to get where we want to go.  And having that ability and independence also didn’t require waiting until we were 16 and able to get licensed, or having the resources to have access to a car.

I am absolutely bowled over by the adorableness of an official preschool parking lot with trikes.  [/quote]

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