Welcome, Janine!

I am a few months past my 42nd birthday and don't even know how to drive! We had no car for me to learn on when I was a teenager, and being on a pre-college track in high school, I took classes like calculus instead of driver's ed.

After I came to San Francisco to go to college I didn't need a car to get around the city, and I had a couple of friends with cars to take me on the occasional road trip. In time I came to realize that the world would be a much better place without personal automobiles. (And most television programming, too, but that's another tribe!)

I am also very concerned about the harm that I might cause to myself and others with two tons of steel moving at 60 miles per hour. People thought 2000 dead Americans in Iraq was front page news, but what about the 40,000 Americans each year that get in their cars and never come home?

Eventually I married a woman who drives, then we had a couple of kids and bought a mini-van, but I am still a white-knuckle passenger who would rather go by bike, bus or train.

The hardest part about not driving is not my inability to transport myself or heavy things around town, but rather the nearly unrelenting pressure to learn to drive from those who think that they know what is best for my kids and me, including my parents, my wife and her mother.

What this country needs is a $10 gallon of gas to finance free mass transit!

I'm 60 years old and don't drive. Except for a few anxiety ridden times decades ago, I have never driven. I hate it. And yes, I was nagged for years by relatives but have managed to avoid the bullet. Unfortunately I now live in an area that is miles away from a grocery store and the roads are too rough for bikes. Too many logging trucks, etc. Plus, I was never a good biker either. My husband doesn't mind driving or grocery shopping so we get by. I wish horses would come back in style.

Wow! I always thought of Austin as this place where everybody rides bikes everywhere...Granted you do have a bazillion hills.

If you're packin' they tend to give you all the room you need. Mind you, I carry cap gun in my holster and I've been stopped by various law enforcment-type people that let me slide when I tell them why I do it. It's prominently displayed and looks real. However I DO have a carry permit for a concealed weapon which stays locked up.
My idea, Janine, Is watch out for the fools and give them plenty of room. It's a small town. I cross 1 major hi-way. Granted, there are ass-wholes everwhere. Most of my problems arise from the older shits who shouldn't be driving anyway. "I have never been to Spain, but I kinda like the music." (Sorry, I had to.) Or Austin. If you want to see some really bad drivers, go to Maddkin Mountain outside of Huntsville, Ala. Shudders.