So what if I don't drive!
My husband doesn't drive due to seizures and wants to drive so he have more freedom and not depend on me to take him. Where I live you don't need to drive but you have to live in a area where there are buses that will be available when you go to work and back and when you need to go somewhere and where they are frequent than only run on weekends only or on weekdays during certain amount of time. Other than that, you do need a car to make it more convenient and so you arne't limited to where you can live.
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Son: Diagnosed w/anxiety and ADHD. Also academic delayed.
Daughter: NT, no diagnoses.
It really depends on where you live. In most parts of the country, you will need a car to explore any interests that you have. Without a car you may become isolated. If you live in a city you can take public transport which I would prefer (if I lived in a city) due to the overwhelming traffic. If you live in Nebraska (or somewhere like this) though and don't have a car you will have a very small world. You may eventually need a car for your job depending on where you work and what you do. Cars are expensive though, if you live with your parents they will likely let you borrow their car when they are not using it which will have little to no cost. Remember that you can't take it with you; cars are my savant which helps me justify the costs associated with them.
Wish I could drive a car, however, with the way I act with random thoughts that effect my physical behavior and prevents me from focusing, including stimming, not to mention that a lot of drivers here, emotionally invests in their cars that can get angry, motor bikers who move all over the place, costly fender benders, and impounded cars that could happen, I'm not too sure if I can fit in with the traffic society.
Because people who drive cars can actually go places where they want to go, especially when commuting to a decent paying job that sometimes doesn't require much of a college degree, but more with experience in a certain area.
I've tried mass transit as an alternative when commuting to a day time job, but I happen to find their service inconvenient because their normally buses don't show up on time, where they are either late, or very early. Along with then being very crowded, with sometimes drug addled people showing up at the bus stops as well. So yeah I'm not looking forwards to taking mass transits.
So as for me, I'm gonna have to go through some expensive, specialized training with my behavior if I want to get myself to drive a car, unlike everyone else that can learn with just a parent without a problem.
And with currently being unemployed, and available jobs that don't give good enough pay, it feels like that I am stuck at my parent's home for the time being, feeling frustrated.
52, I have never driven. College towns most of my life, usually worked same neighborhood as I lived (U.City, MO; Northampton, MA), now at Twin Oaks no one owns a car & only a few people drive - they do the errands, shopping, etc. Finally a world where someone doesn't ask, "Hey why don't you . . .?" For the hippies, not driving is an eco-ideological thing, they don't need to know for me it's a "disability." Was a disability.
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ASQ: 45. RAADS-R: 229.
BAP: 132 aloof, 132 rigid, 104 pragmatic.
Aspie score: 173 / 200; NT score: 33 / 200.
EQ: 6.
I have those problems too. Even just walking around I bump into things a lot. I don't drive but when I was a teenager and practiced in my friend's car a few times even though I'm not short I felt like I needed a booster seat and had trouble seeing over the hood and my vision felt so blocked off.
I drive but am terrified every time I drive, get overloads easily, have had meltdowns (steering wheel has had lots of punches), times where I lock up and have no idea what to do and just freeze, etc. I shouldn't be driving - but where I live public transportation is pretty much nonexistent, and I have a lot of music gear I have to bring with me multiple times a week. Almost all of my driving takes place between 7pm and 4am - the time slot that most jam sessions, band practices, and gigs fit into, and also the time which tends to be least busy on the roads. I have a hard time remembering/following many rules of the road, interpreting gestures from other drivers, driving in reverse, parking, etc. When I got my license (only last October), I paid a private instructor to give me the test, and it took place on a military base, at a time of day that was not busy - it was also very tiring and stressful because it drains me a lot to drive that carefully - it still drains me when I drive; it's hard to be as careful as I need to be - and if anyone in the car raises their voice or yells or if some sudden loud noise happens, it makes me lock up and not know what to do, which is very bad while driving.