On No Longer Driving

Although I got my first driver's license at the usual age, I postponed regular driving well into adulthood because, frankly, I was phobic about it. I haven't got the world's best hand-to-eye coordination, to put it mildly, and I was afraid I'd get myself killed. When I moved to Wisconsin in 2002, though, I had to get into the driving groove, because otherwise there was no way I would be able to get to a job every day. I obtained a new license and bought my first car. Although I never became a great driver, and had a couple of fender benders, par for the course for a newbie, I didn't kill myself, and came to rather like driving. It was probably a good activity for me in some ways - it focused my attention in the moment. Small-city Wisconsin is a fun place to drive, with plentiful parking (I loathe parallel parking) and jam-free highways. When I moved to Nevada and bought an SUV, driving really started to be a blast, because the size of the vehicle suited my 6'2" frame; I had room for my legs and no longer hit my head on the roof, even when wearing a cowboy hat.

However, even as I enjoyed driving more, I never lost sight of two facts:

1. Most drives are solo drives. Almost all of mine were. As someone once said, to expend the energy required to move 4,000 pounds (the weight of the average American car) in order to move 175 pounds (the weight of the average American) does not make any sense.

2. Owning a car has got to be one of the worst money-sucks ever invented. I figure that between the installment payments for my (always used) cars, gas, maintenance, and insurance costs, the vehicle was eating up about a third of my take-home pay. In a big city with gas and toll costs, negligible in Northeast Wisconsin, it would have been worse. The car doesn't support the American lifestyle; the American lifestyle supports the car.

When I moved to Korea to teach English in mid-2010, I sold the SUV (but I am, however, still paying it off, and will be until the end of 2013). ESL teachers seldom have vehicles on their international assignments; that is one of the main ways they save money. One Texan I knew in Korea felt completely deprived without wheels and did buy an SUV after cracking up two motorbikes (!), but it was not a sensible move. I would not drive in either Korea or Mexico, because I really would get myself killed; it takes going abroad to appreciate how generally polite, patient, and rules-obeying most American drivers are.

Free of cars again, I can't say I miss them that much. As I approach retirement - I turn 54 this year - I doubt I will ever be able to afford one again; and as I plan to work the rest of my career internationally and to retire internationally, my days of regular driving are probably behind me. Cars are the irrational American obsession, and giving up that obsession becomes much easier when you live in an environment that does not require it of you. By 2020, ordinary people around the globe, including the United States, are probably not going to be able to afford the automotive lifestyle anyway.