Is it normal not to have a drivers license?

I had never encountered an adult who didn’t until I met my sister-in-law. My brother had to teach her how to drive. She is from Chicago where there is ample public transportation. She used to say she didn’t need to drive, but when they moved to the north burbs that changed. Since then I have encountered two more through my son at college. His girlfriend and one of his room mates didn’t drive. His room mate is from Cleveland and I assume there is a lot of public transportation there. His GF is from nearby Columbus, Oh. but she claims to be a very poor driver and is trying to be ‘green’. Alas, she has poor William driving her all over the place. She gets pretty indignant when I point that out. My son asked me not to do that any more. His roomie has since not only gotten his license but works for an auto dealer. GF still won’t drive despite my son’s trying to teach her. I will probably buy a hideous beater and take her out to the field and let her driver around to help build her skills.

Similar to @majorrich, I did not have a driver’s license until after my 25th birthday, I grew up in the Bronx, my parents did not drive and after college I lived in Manhattan. No need to drive until i needed to get a license for my job.
My wife did not learn to drive until our first child was born and we moved to a suburb outside of New York City. She was 33. Small town girl, went to College in New York City, stayed and never needed a license.

I have a childhood friend who renews his license every few years but has not been behind the wheel of a car in many many years. Another boy from the Bronx still living in Manhattan

SRM

What country is in question, because the percentage varies based upon that answer.

If it is in reference to the US, here is an interesting article from The Washington Post that only addresses the younger generation and why they aren’t bothered to get one. Take into account that people in the US are living longer and (have to) give up their licences while still alive, the count drops even more.

The last twenty years the number of people that have a driver’s license has dropped. In some regions of North America it is only 67% Another indicator: The portion of Americans aged 16 to 24 who have driver’s licenses fell to 67 percent in 2011, its lowest level in roughly a half-century.

@Pied_Pfeffer Canada.

There are lots of folks here without driver’s licenses. But we have a fairly solid public transit system. The town is only 7 by 7 miles with a population of around 800,000 (and unfortunately climbing). There is(or until recently was) a large population of old and disabled folks in the town & senior fares are dirt cheap.

It’s normal in New York City. My aunt has never had a driver’s license. My grandma got one in her 50’s when they moved to the burbs. My mom didn’t get one until her 20’s when my parents moved to the Boston area. My dad had to push her to do it.

Thanks for the clarification @talljasperman. The number of Canadian residents holding a driver’s license is dropping as well. So the answer is probably, yes, it is normal, but it isn’t a stigma not to have one. As long as one can live a healthy lifestyle and get the job done without one, it doesn’t matter.

What everyone does need is some form of ID that proves that they are a citizen of that country that will be accepted in order to make certain purchases, vote, etc.

Amongst those of sound mind and body, it’s rare to not have a driver’s license. There are many people, often city-dwellers where traffic is harsh and parking is scarce, who don’t own a car or make much use of their ability to drive, but they still know how.

That said, not all people are of sound mind and body. There are the obvious ones; people with vision impairment, motor control issues, or any sort of seizure disorder are actually prohibited from driving, so they may never bother to learn. But there are more subtle abnormalities that would also keep one from learning to drive. Of those, most I’ve seen were people with anxiety issues who were prone to panic attacks even without sitting in a huge metal box roaring along at 60mph while surrounded by other big metal boxes whirring around them. There are some people who just aren’t psychologically capable of driving. It’s not wrong, but it isn’t normal.

The most likely to not learn to drive or get a license are those who were born and raised in an urban area with a good mass transit system. Removing the necessity of driving lowers the likelihood of them having a driver’s license. Between having a job within easy biking distance of home as a teen and not having any place to keep a car when I was in the Navy, I had no need for a license until I was about 25.

In short, it’s not normal to lack a license, but it’s not exactly abnormal either. It definitely puts you in the minority, especially outside of urban areas, but it’s common enough that you aren’t considered a freak for never learning to drive or get a license.

Looking at my fellow motorists, I wonder if there is any relationship between having a license and actually knowing how to drive, but that’s a whole other question; one that anyone who has ever driven on the freeway likely has some strong opinions on.

A close relative of mine has lived in NYC since college. She’s now 60 and is very proud of the fact that she never had a license. A car in NYC is a burden, and can easily cost 1k per month to garage, or you can play the “alternate side of the street parking” game and go out at all hours of the day to move it around and drive around looking for spots. So to second what @JLeslie said, in NYC it’s normal.

My bf’s daughter doesn’t have one, she’s 29–30 I think.

I think it’s weird to not want to know how to drive. I understand about living in areas with mass transit, but I feel like people should at least know the basics of driving…kind of a “just in case” thing.

My husband’s 80 yr old grandmother never felt like learning how to drive, and has always relied on other people to run her around. That seems really selfish and rude, to me. We don’t get around much via mass transit here.

@jca Boston is much the same. I’ve had family members that never drove; they spent their whole lives either taking the T or hitching a ride to anywhere they couldn’t walk. Cars really are a burden in a city.

Also, given the number of times I’ve been almost killed in Boston for holding a spot for my mother as she went around the block, I can safely say that there are quite a few people that consider the life of a small child to be worth less than a parking space. If NYC offers parking spots for only $1k/month, then parking in NYC must be relatively good.

Around here (Western NY) I do not know anyone over 18 without a license. There is a definite stigma. The feeling is that the person either has a medical problem or the license was taken away by the court.

@LuckyGuy In FL we have a system to report people who should have their license taken away. Part of it’s creation was for adult children to anonymously report elderly parents.

I don’t know if other states have it?

In my area (southern rural NY), a license is a necessity. There’s a train but it’s about an hour walk on narrow, windy roads, and there’s no bus service in the vicinity. Even in the cities around here, bus will take you an hour to go what a car will do in 15 minutes.

My impression is that there are a greater number in a large city where there are other forms of transit but I can’t see it being a very large percentage even there.

Here in Texas it is uncommon for a person not to have a license. Cars are a way of life and even in the large cities mass transit is not that available and the cities themselves are spread out; designed for individual transport, not people.

I do not have one, and I see no reason to.
But a lot of reasons against it.
Lessons are expensive, the exam is expensive, car costs money, plus petrol, maintainance, insurance, taxes.
Also congestion caused by traffic, road construction, accidents.
Other obnoxious drivers.
With the train you get: ample leg room, ample head room, you can walk around, you have a toilet, you do not have to watch the traffic, you can take a nap, read, listen to music, watch a movie, play games, you do not have to worry about congestion, taxes, maintainance, fuel, insurance.
Just get in, relax, get out.

@ragingloli Suppose that you worked somewhere 15–50 miles form home that was nowhere near a train station (or just had hours that required you to wait in the station for 4–6 hours every day for a return trip), and you could neither move not get a different job closer to home. Would that change your opinion?

Before you answer anything other than yes or no, if you think that situation is unrealistic, then you don’t know America. And if you claim you would never be in that situation, then pretend that you were an American and thus forced to for the sake of survival. For many, the expense and traffic are necessary evils, the alternative often being utter destitution. And I personally am a bit jealous, especially after so many trips on I-5 Northbound that turned a 45-minute commute into a 2-hour clutch-pumping crawlfest.

@LuckyGuy @jca It’s amazing how that changes once you leave the city, isn’t it? NYC? Bustling metropolis. The rest of the state? Largely rural where driving many miles just to get groceries is not uncommon.

I think that, at this point, we are pretty much to where we have to define “normal”. It seems that where one lives has a dramatic effect. For some, cars are unnecessary; for others, they are on the top five list of things needed for survival, not too far from oxygen and nutrition.

@Pied_Pfeffer That’s an interesting article, and it certainly matches my experience. Nobody I grew up with could afford to get a car. It seems like wages haven’t kept up with inflation over the last few decades. Maybe in the past, people could pay for a car, gas, and insurance with teenage-type jobs, but not today.

I got my license at 22 when I inherited the old family beater. I finally bought my first car four years later. By that time I was working full-time and earning a salary. Many of my friends would like to have cars, but can’t afford it. Between my car payment, insurance, gas, and parking, not having one would save me at least $500/ month.

@Haleth Now you know why my cars have all been older, high-mileage rigs I bought private sale. The car that lasted me the longest was a $300 Corolla that needed $500 worth of suspension work; I got ~4 years out of it for $800. Second place goes to another Corolla that was $500 outright, no repairs required. And third goes to my current Corolla at $1,000. Note the lack of payments?

When I was in HS there was a plentiful supply of $50 beaters to be had. Dad and I spent a lot of time in the barn repairing my beaters and I learned a lot about automobiles. I didn’t buy a car from a dealer until after I graduated from college. The $50 beater from then is now the $500 if it didn’t go away in the Cash for Clunkers debacle.

I have relatives who live in California and I know from speaking to them that at least at one time the state had a means by which you could get a non-driver’s license, which was simply a convenient photo id card. It seemed like a good idea and it means there must have been a fairly good number of people who were not drivers.

@LostInParadise Sure, states have photo non-driver IDs, but in some states they cost about as much as a license anyways. For instance, here in WA it costs $54 for either, though there is a $35 fee for testing for a first license while non-driver IDs are no extra. (I got out of that fee and the test by handing over my valid non-WA license.) If you’re going to wait in line at the DMV just as long and pay just as much, why not get the card that comes with privileges?

I am curious though… was that in a major city like LA or San Fran? I know that when I was stationed in San Diego a lot of people lacked a license, but their transit system kicked ass.

@jerv, My relatives live in a suburb of LA. They all have driver licenses. I am not sure what brought up the topic of non-driver ID’s.

Walking in LA…..nobody walks in LA…

@jerv: If someone is not going to ever drive, then to have a driver’s license just for the sake of ID, when it requires a driver’s test and probably a safety course that’s a few hours long (more money for driver’s permit, driver’s test, renting or borrowing a car for driver’s test and fee for safety course), would be kind of silly.

Where I live, the cost of getting a drivers license is at least over 1000€, and that is if you pass on your first try.

Even people without a license might know how to drive, and could do it in an emergency. How often do emergencies like that come up? God forbid. Not enough to bother getting a license when you won’t use it the other 60 years you’re alive.

People above are right, you have to take a test, get your eyesight checked periodically, why bother if you don’t have to?

I’m moving to Ohio. I haven’t checked yet if I have to take a test again. Ugh. Although, I kind of remember Ohio has some unusual rules, so no matter what I will read the handbook.

@ragingloli I suspect that our cheap licenses are why Americans think nothing of driving in ways that risk getting their license pulled.

@jca That depends where you are. I got mine with no courses required, and since the DMV was too far away to walk (especially the highway it was on) I just used the car I got a ride in. Oh, and no learners permit required since I was over 18. Sure, some places are as hasslesome as you say, but some aren’t. My opinion that it’s no added cost is based on personal experience, though I should make more accommodation for the possibility that my life is more improbable than most.

Correction: I should have written even some people without a license know how to drive. My aunt couldn’t drive to save her life I don’t think. She’s almost never in a car, and even more rare for her to be in the front seat to even observe a driver.

@JLeslie How do you think I passed my road test with no lessons? I have quite a few friends that were driving as young as 12, though only on private land in a vehicle with agricultural plates. Those who play certain types of video games can often figure it out too.

On the flipside, you have the people I see on I-5 who have licenses but never learned to drive, so this really is two entirely different questions; having ability and having legal permission.

@jerv Exactly. I’m just saying for a lot of people there is no point to getting a license just in case.

@JLeslie True, and all I’m saying is that for some people there’s no point not to either. “Normal” is highly subjective here.

@jerv: Here, the learner’s permit is for when you want to drive on the street but don’t have a license, Also, while you have the permit, you’re taking the safety course etc. That’s here, in NYS.

@jca And in NH, anyone over the age of 15½ can drive any non-commercial vehicle on public roads so long as they have either a parent/legal guardian or a licensed driver over the age of 25 in the front passenger’s seat. That’s it! No permits, no paperwork, and those over 18 don’t need classes either; just have a qualifying person ride shotgun and go!