I was never good at spatial reasoning, and when walking, I tend to back away from approaching people so instinctively I bump into things behind me, and things like that. Combine this with holding my first and then second jobs, only to do the math and realize that I would need a whole extra job to support things like:
- The purchase of a car
- Car insurance (especially if I ever had any accidents)
- Car maintenance
- Gas
And I thusly learned how to get around with a lot of walking, and to tangle with bus systems and taxis for longish journeys (and trains and the grayhound bus for longer ones). I had some initial assistance leaving where I grew up (a small town in Texas, where such transit systems didn't exist) via someone who drove and helped me move to Washington (an airplane was also involved).
But since around age 20, I haven't lived with anybody that could drive, and I never learned to either. Since that time (I'm 28 now), I held four different jobs, once traveled from Bremerton, WA, to Portland, OR on my own via ferry and train, moved to New York (which was regretable, but not for transportation-related reasons), and have generally gotten around without having a car, nor depending on anyone else who did.
I suppose that's a little off-topic, but, I guess it's a useful example of how cars are not always required, depending on where it is you live. (As mentioned, escaping that particular small town in Texas wouldn't have worked so well otherwise). I don't have an actual opinion on the enjoyment of driving though, except that it seems really scary to me and I'm pretty sure I'd mess it up somehow. Messing up in a car is a lot more likely to get somebody seriously injured than by walking around, so I think I prefer not driving, even aside from the practical reasons.
That said, I can certainly understand the appeal, and enjoy fictional take-offs on it such as videogames or stories with characters who drive cars. Nephrite looks pretty cool in his Ferrari, for example. I also think certain cars look very cool, especially Deloreans (yes it's partly because of Back to the Future, but I also like plain, real Deloreans, not just the time machine version. I always wanted to see an old-style Cylon Centurion step out of one, wielding Darth Vader's lightsaber...).
Riding in a car can be a little fun, but I prefer not to do it too often as I fear the possibility of car crashes (though this is still a factor when walking near cars, and I find myself plotting how best to get out of the way in case somebody suddenly veers off the road at me). I absolutely hate thicky-packed fast freeways, and overpass bridges, and have had weird nightmares about dying in a car going off the side of a bridge. So flat, empty country roads, or very slow low-traffic residential roads, are vastly preferable experiences.
Edited by Mitsukara, 14 October 2017 - 02:43 PM.