Your Editor Will Only Learn to Drive if Vanity Fair Teaches Him How
We’re big fans of Stick Shift, Brett Berk’s gay car blog over at Vanity Fair and while we were chatting back and forth about how in the hell Vanity Fair wound up with a gay car blog, I mentioned the fact that I don’t drive and have never had a driver’s license, even though I’ve lived in Los Angeles for almost five years. Next thing you know, he’s interviewing me about how I manage to survive (it’s possible!) and asking if I’d be willing to take a driver’s ed lesson in a Corvette as a follow-up. Proof that being eccentric and difficult gets you places– just not places that public transportation doesn’t go to.
Brett asks about how you can live in the city of angels without wheels, in his post “Young, Gay, and Unlicensed in L.A” and I’m happy to oblige:
“During his wanderings through L.A., Japhy has been “tapped” by moving vehicles about a half-dozen times. He’s taken up biking and been clotheslined by an opening car door. He’s had his bike stolen. He’s even attempted to sign up for driver’s ed, but couldn’t get the instructors to take seriously the idea that he didn’t need remediative training for getting too many DUI’s but simply wanted a regular class, like that offered to 15-year-olds. “They looked at me like I was fundamentally retarded.”
That’s when he got into public transportation. Unbeknownst to even many of the city’s residents, Los Angeles has one of the most highly used public transportation systems in the country. (Really. It’s in the top 10.) There are buses. The buses have people on them. The buses even have TVs on them. (I happily imagine them tuned to an endless loop of Speed, Five Were Missing, and the tail ends of The Graduate and Midnight Cowboy.) “It makes you see the city on a very different scale. And it gives you a bit of a sense of community. You see the same people on the bus every day.”
The bus TV thing is true, though it’s mainly a series of word games and a bizarre cooking show that’s supposed to be about ethnic cuisine, but features the same two guys wearing different outfits to represent the culture they’re cooking from. Anyway, the whole story is worth reading if you have any interest in finding out how being carless affects one’s dating life. Hint: Your editor is single.
Japhy, I’d pick you up.
/end silly flirt.
I think people really do underestimate the public transportation in LA. I lived in LA for almost four years with no car/license. I’ve never been “tapped” by a car, but have come close… Donald Sutherland almost hit me once while I was crossing the street and then had the audacity to honk at me as if I were in his way!
I didn’t bother to get my license until I was 30. It’s easy enough to [i]survive[/i] in an urban area without one, but being able to drive is convenient. And with Zip Cars and car sharing it doesn’t have to be too expensive either.
Oops, UBB instead of HTML. :)
I’m actually one of those queer queers without a car in LA. I moved here from Chicago where I didn’t need one. After two carless years in LA, I’m planning on buying a car in the next three months. I have to admit that I don’t mind public transit (most days).
I also don’t mind you referring to yourself. As one of the few professionals in LA without cars (on purpose), it spoke to me.
Vanity’s gay car blog is OK from what I’ve seen, but I prefer http://www.gaywheels.com. Then again, if you’re really into cars, go to AutoBlog or Jalopnik.
I admire you for not having a driver’s license especially in LA. Ed Begley Jr. doesn’t drive either, takes public transportation (I assume he’s also driven). But being hit by opening car doors and having your bike stolen doesn’t impress someone who lives in NYC and rides his bike everywhere. I’ve probably had 10 bikes stolen and had at least 50 car doors open on me.
I stopped driving when I turned 25, it was the best thing I ever did. No reason for it in Boston.
My favorite is when buses try pinching me into guardrails. Somehow shouldering the bus didn’t convince the driver I was there…
@Greg Ever: Jalopnik is awesome!