Driving has made me consider the world in a different way, and that not having driven for the first third of my life has allowed me unreserved psycho-spatial perception. My surroundings as a driver, now, are definite and rigid: thoughts must be controlled and while thinking and driving could be considered as multitasking, the differ greatly from thinking while traveling as a passenger.
Driving only permits short term ideas. For example, a driver cannot write and conceptualize a full video treatment (as a passenger I recently wrote a treatment for the song “Dream Job”). But a driver can form a full thought — that is, beyond “Stay in this lane,” or “Don’t kill anyone.” Like I started this blog post while driving, and (probably illegally) typed it in stages into my BlackBerry at various stop lights.
I would strongly recommend for any city dweller to avoid getting their license as long as possible. Not only is your life’s carbon footprint diminished incredibly (think of the children), but the time you spend waiting will render you closer to yourself: you will have a tighter relationship with your consciousness. And think of all the video treatments you could write?
Another good reason not to drive is that traveling by foot forces you to have a more honest relationship with the place you live. As a result, places with more pedestrian traffic tend to be a lot nicer than places where everyone travels solely by automobile.