Just for fun, I decided to check my distances against yours
Here are my walking distances:
Yeah, the USA has huge issues with people straight ignoring road laws… no turn signals, no zipper merging, no yielding properly in roundabouts, “no cop, no stop” at stop signs…. I mean just insane.
Like I said before, I think it’s much easier to learn to drive in an automatic, and move to a manual when you’re better at it, you know got the basics down. Like using a manual if you’ve exceeded the limits of an automatic, as I described above.
I do think driving can be a lot of fun though, even more so in a manual, but that only comes when you have the experience for it to be second nature to you.
No, the USA is filled with idiots who refuse to signal… I’m the weird guy for signaling everything, including in parking lots….
As someone who drives an automatic, I so wish I could have a manual. I much prefer driving them.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m really glad I was able to drive an automatic and get experience first, but once you start really driving a car, you realize how much an automatic limits you. Things like engine braking, coasting, and honestly just staying in one consistent gear when you’re trying to maintain good speed control are much harder, if not next to impossible depending on the automatic.
Learning to drive is going to take a lot of time though, and the fact that everyone just does it and takes it for granted I think really messes with you. Speaking from experience, most people don’t even learn to drive that well, no matter how much they drive. I see people constantly driving off the lines, poor speed control, braking distance, etc. just blows my mind that where I live (USA) there’s next to no requirements to drive.
At my current job, I’m about 45 minutes away by car. Car is also the only option. Before I moved closer, I was actually an hour and a half away, so 90 minutes one way, or 3 hours per day worth of driving.
It’s too expensive to live in the cities themselves, so I have to live further out and just commute.
Closest wal-mart is about 30 minutes away, but there’s smaller stores closer if I dont’t need much.
I haven’t mentioned walking/biking because there’s no point in walking where I live. There’s next to no shoulder on the road, and it’s 45MPH (72KPH) roads with mostly large pickup trucks driving on it, so it’s not safe to walk.
For reference, I live in the American south, so it’s somewhat rural.
Not a typo. There are no buses unless you go to one of the neighboring cities. I live too far from anywhere that has buses. You either have to walk, or… you can drive! Like everybody else in the US without access to any sort of public transportation remotely close to their home…
Edit: Here’s my nearest walking directions to a large supermarket