Photo illustration by B. Johnson
by Ellie Shaw
Business Manager
When many students get their driver licenses, they start using their feet less for walking and more for pushing the gas pedal. Many students feel like its not necessary to walk anymore to the places that they used to drive to once they get their license.
Senior Abbey Warner got her license later than her fellow classmates, when she was seventeen and a half, but now loves driving.
“I didn’t really feel the urge to get it any sooner, but driving was really fun once I started,” she said.
Warner enjoys spending time in her car, even for doing banal tasks.
“I love being able to listen to music and just run errands or do other things that seem boring once you are an adult and forced to do them, but that are actually interesting as an 18 year old,” Warner said.
Warner acknowledged that driving is more pleasant when she does not have to consider the economic burden.
“I drive one of my family’s cars and I don’t have to buy my own gas, which I think makes me more eager to drive places,” she said. “At the same time, driving myself saves gas in the end since my parents don’t have to drop me off at and pick me up from everything I do, and recently I have been trying really hard to bike to close-by places instead of driving.”
Warner isn’t ready to retire her alternate transportation options yet.
“Probably the majority of the consumer guilt I feel comes from driving, so I try to mix it up and not rely on driving myself everywhere.” Warner said.
Sophomore Alex Udd is an owner of a license and uses her car as her primary transportation.
Now that Udd is free to drive as she pleases she “occasionally” goes on unnecessary car rides. However, the driving lifestyle was not new to Udd, who “never really walked anywhere.”
Udd knows that a lot of teenagers reach for the car key instead of the walking shoes.
“Most teenagers don’t have a lot of time, and driving somewhere is more often than not shorter than walking somewhere and saves them valuable time,” said Udd.
This is not true for everybody. Junior Hannah Phillips has had her license for almost a year now but is still cautious of how much she drives.
“I don’t have my own car and even if I did I would have to park in the EMP which is about as far away from my house as Las Lomas is,” Phillips said.
Phillips respects her peers’ choice to go straight to the car.
“It usually becomes way to easy or automatic for people to just hop in their car and drive wherever.”
Senior Tim Hafizov wasn’t as eager as most 16 year olds to get his license though he admits to picking up new habits once he got his license.
“Unfortunately, I don’t walk as much as I used to before I got my license,” said Hafizov. “I used to walk all over the place before I was able to drive, but now I don’t walk very much at all.”
Walking has now been relegated to a “leisure activity,” he said.
“If ever I need to go somewhere to do something important, I usually just hop in my car and go,” he said.
Hafizov knew that a driver’s license would grant him greater freedom, but he did not think that he would stop walking places.
“I absolutely agree with the statement that most people stop walking once they get their license,” Hafizov said. “It’s much more convenient to drive everywhere; walking may seem inconvenient and obsolete compared to driving. I, on the contrary, did not think I would stop walking. Even though I find driving to places convenient, sometimes it’s nice to just step out of the driver’s seat and take a stroll to my intended destination.”