I would rather live somewhere where driving was less necesary. It's getting slightly more possible. If I had a job downtown and a bike, I would only use the car for shopping. The rail line has made not driving, at least in south and central Dallas a little more possible- except for of course now, when its 110 outside.

She was 9, and had to jump off the seat onto the clutch with both feet, but she could drive that damned thing

Wow. I think I was 10 or 11 or so before I started driving tractors. (I was average height for a boy back then, believe it or not.)

If I didn't have a driver's license when I was 16 (and I had to wait 3 months after my birthday to get it, since I was taking driver's ed when I turned 16), I would have had very few options to get to school, and work would have been right out of the question. My parents were divorced (Dad lived on the other side of town), Mom worked, brother was in college in MN, and sister had her own job/friends/things to do other than ferry me around town. Since the bus system back then (early '80s) between Joliet and Shorewood really sucked (two buses going to Joliet in the morning and two coming back in late afternoon, and that was it), driving was the only option.

I did get in an accident that first year (pulled out onto a busy road without looking to see if anyone was coming--got my front bumper torn off) and also drove into three-foot high water (2:00 am, street lights were out, couldn't see that the road was flooded) so I had to wait for the engine to dry off before I could finish bringing my play castmates home, but other than that, my dumb driving moments were relatively minor.

I have moods where I want to require passing a maturity test before anyone can do much of anything "adult."

When I was 16 and driving, my parents were waiting for the day that they would get the phone call that I was dead or had killed someone because I was such a jackhole driver.

The only call they got was when I flipped a minivan with my car pulling out of a gas station and not paying attention to the oncoming traffic to my left.

I think the relative price of driving is part of the reason for the differences, too. Cars are pretty expensive here, but insurance is even moreso, especially if you're under 25. I know one 19 year old boy who paid two and a half thousand euro to insure his one thousand euro car. Petrol prices make a difference too. The boy was pretty shocked at the price of petrol here when we rented a car a few weeks ago.

I don't think that the necessity of having to drive, often sooner rather than later, due to the lack of consistant public transportation and the low priority to provide same in most of the US is eye-rolly; just the whole car thing in our culture. It's a tool. It gets me from Point A to Point B. It is not an extention of my personality, a validation of my financial sucess, or a valid excuse to authorize my government to support my driving cheaply by any and all means.

When in Europe, the thing I loved the most was not needing a car to get to practically anywhere on the continent. I came home determined I would never own a car. I did, of course, end up needing to own several, and the stress and anxiety it caused in me was legion. I'm profoundly grateful and lucky that I don't need a car to get to work or to do many of my daily necessary errands, I can walk easily or take public transportation. But still, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't relieved we have the old crappy reliable Escort to go to Target, grocery shopping, the farm, visit my parents, etc.

Anyway.

I was 11 when my granddaddy taught me to drive a tractor and a truck. I promptly dented his truck while driving too fast down a little country path to the Back 40. I don't think I was allowed to drive again until I was 14.

This reminds me, when I was driving up to ABQ with the family last week, my brother regaled us with tales of the death defying stupid shit he did in high school (some of which I already knew, some not.) Involved cars a lot. Later, mom said she knew he'd been an idiot then, but how in the hell had he survived?!!

I had to laugh. What she doesn't know (still) is some of the stupid shit he pulled even after that, while in the Army. With guns and things that go boom and fast cars and nitrogen boosters and ...

He's much more sane or, I guess, more mindful of the mortality thing (when he races his car now , it's after practicing with a professional driver at a licensed track with safety equiptment and EMTs and fire extinguishers and other professional drivers, not highway 82 at 4 am with no headlights and a bunch of inebriated punks driving daddy's dream car or a junker with a monster for an engine.)

Huh. I was 11 when my dad had me drive the pickup to the Back 40. The truck had an automatic and a fast idle, so I was a little freaked out by it going 25 mph without me touching the gas. I did OK, except I parked it on a hill and left it in neutral. (Luckilly, it didn't roll anywhere.)