Living Car Free - If you have a driving record, is it a good one?

One of my co-workers said that I must be a pretty crappy driver, since I don't have a car. Actually, I had a couple accidents the first year I drove. Since then, I've driven quite a lot (unfortunately) and my driving record is absolutely clean. No accidents or tickets in 30 years of driving. (I still drive about 10 miles a month to take my elderly dad to doctor appointments, etc.)

Not braggin', just testifyin'.

No accidents in 30 years, no tickets in 25.

Over 250,000 miles on Alaskan highways, year round. Never hit so much as a moose. But I'm completely sick of it.

Three accidents in 15 years of driving that were my fault, and one that wasn't (old lady broad-sided me) so I guess I wasn't a very good driver, no. Oh well. At least I'm off the road!

Ah, driving records. Well, according to the odometer on my car, I've driven just over 30,000 miles in 5 (almost 5.5) years. That's not including all those times I drove my parents' cars, nor the time a classmate of mine fell asleep at the wheel of her car while we were heading back to Orange County from San Diego in the middle of the night. I had to take over for the rest of the drive home there.

I had one fender bender with two cars. Some cell phone yakking teenage airhead rear-ended me, causing my stopped car to push forward into the old lady in front of me. The airhead took off (hit-and-run) and the old lady yelled at me and blamed everything on me, despite my showing that I was rear-ended before I crashed into her! Stupid teenaged airheads on their cell phones :mad:

I crashed into walls 2 times, but I didn't let my auto insurance or the DMV know about those, and fixed them with money out of my own pocket. I have a "good driver" discount from my auto insurance right now, but it's still costing me almost $2,000 a year, because I'm under 25 :mad: :mad: :mad:

Oh well. I just have to survive until graduation. Then I'm movin' to Seattle and selling this money sucker :D

I have averaged around 40k a year for the past 11 years, no tickets or wrecks. Before that the last ticket was a bogus one in Prince William County VA. They had just paved the road and the lane stripes weren't in. I got a ticket for driving on the shoulder...it was dismissed. One before that was in 1979:rolleyes:

Aaron:)

My last ticket was in 1983. That's when I learned about radar detectors.

I was in an accident that was my fault in 1975. Too fast making a right turn in the first snow of the season. Skidded right into a town snowplow.

In 1991 I was stopped at a red light and a teenage girl with a three-week-old driver's license plowed into the back of my car. No injuries, I drove home. Her mom's car was toast.

My license expired a year or two after I went car-free in 1999. I'd moved twice and the renewal notice never caught up with me, and I never had occasion to check the expiration date, until I tried to rent a car on a trip. That was embarrassing. And inconvenient.

My license had been expired long enough that I had to start all over again with the written test, learner's permit, five-hour course, and road test. Just got it last year. Still have no intention of owning a car.

Mine is good, but it is kind of a requirement :D

last at-fault accident: 1987, in Germany; no cost, took out a german-shepherd-sized deer, buddies fixed my hood (while i worked) w/o my knowing it.

last ticket: 1977, passed a motorcycle, apparently too close, got slapped w/ reckless driving by motorcycle cop from 3 blocks back.

last car : 2004, engine puked. junked it & haven't looked back.

have been asked a few times about dui, just laugh and tell them my driving record is better than theirs -- i'm usually right.

Nothing on my record since age 20. As a teenager, I had 2 speeding tickets and was T-boned once - not my fault.

Turning 29, clean record for 10 years:beer:

I'm willing to bet the co-worker says rude things like that to others. If it happens repeatedly it is harrassment and can be actionable. If it happens again proceed Verrry carefully.

I got my DL when I was 26 in 1978. Never had an accident. I hope this doesn't jinx me.

No auto accidents of any kind in 44 years of driving cars in Europe and the US. Only ticket in the last 10 years was for running a red light, on a bicycle.

Technically, my record is perfect. I say technically because I got one ticket while driving home from TN that was later removed because of my attendance in driving class... totally stupid really... I was going down the highway in my turbo VW Beetle [which got traded for a Jetta - bad idea!], I reached down to the floorboard of the passenger side (yes, I could still see the road - don't worry!) to get a fast food bag so that I could deposit my used napkin into it. The leaning forward caused me to depress the gas pedal just enough and combined with traveling down a hill - well I got up to 83 in a jiffy!

This happened a little over two years ago. Now I would just toss the napkin into the back seat :)

Clean record. But then I've hardly ever driven in my life... :)

I bought a shiny red Firebird in '72, and immediately went out and got my first and only speeding ticket. I did get my one and only fix-it ticket in the same car in '83(headlight out). Needless to say, the car is now relegated to status of garage queen. I have never received any tickets while riding any of my bicycles.

a couple speeding tickets, no accidents since started driving in 1997.
my tendancy is to drive like i bike - fast as i can while keeping it safe. speeding tickets were on wide-open, deserted roads. no one at risk. The more i bike, the less likely i am to get another ticket.

oddly, i run red lights & stopsigns all the time on the bike, cops have seen me several times and don't care. there's so few bikers in N Texas it's not a traffic issue. i fugure if i get runned over it's my fault - guess they figure the same!

...not my fault.
That what they all say!:)

I'm such a good back seat driver, that I haven't even been a passenger in a car involved in a collision.

I forgot to mention in my previous post:

I've never gotten a ticket before, either for speeding, or for running red lights in the car (and I've done plenty of both, mostly as a teenager). I guess Southern California police are pretty lax about enforcing automotive laws :p

Or maybe I'm just able to spot them before they see me committing the evil deeds. The only time I ever had to deal with a cop in a traffic-based situation was when a CHP officer came in to check if I was okay after the hit-and-run by the blonde bimbo mentioned in my post above. He was very straight forward and kind, compared to stereotypes I've heard about cops before.

No auto accidents of any kind in 44 years of driving cars in Europe and the US. Only ticket in the last 10 years was for running a red light, on a bicycle.
That's the way to go. I haven't received a bike ticket yet, but I've only been riding 5 years. I've run stop signs in front of cops, and gone through a red light (after stopping) in front of one. But no ticket, warning, dirty look... nothing. Makes me feel like they don't care. :( :cry:

No tickets, no accidents. Been a driver for 15 years. I just did the math and it looks like I've driven somewhere around 175,000 miles in my life, though in the last few years, I rarely get behind the wheel.

No tickets in over 30 years of having a driver's license. Only accident was one in which an elderly gentleman rear ended me because he was not keeping an eye on the road, and that happened about 6 weeks after I got my driver's license. I still don't know how I avoided being seriously hurt, as I was waiting to make a left turn and he pushed me right into oncoming traffic. I still have the traffic accident report somewhere in the house!

East Hill

Perfect driving record here. I've never received so much as a parking ticket. I have a perfectly good Jeep Wrangler (and my girlfriend has a new Dodge Neon) so cars are always a turn of a key away. I just prefer to ride if possible.

Not braggin', just testifyin'.

Well, my record is clean. I got my license in 1968. But there have been a couple of incidents along the way. In 1978 I was pulled over for doing 60 in a 50 zone on my motorcycle. Truth was I peaked at 95 before I saw the lights. But we were going over the crest of a hill so he couldn't clock me well. I got traffic school.

In 1988 after a 14 hour day that featured a unique ass-burning as my boss demonstrated that he could remember every single goof up I had done in the past six months no matter how minor, I rolled my VW van. I swerved and in trying to straighten it back out, each time I corrected, the momentum of the van added itself in. Finally the van went over sideways and rolled up to the rain gutter. The sparks from the roof on the road flew past my driver's side window. It was a real E-ticket ride. If I had not have been belted in, I'm sure that the momentum of my body flying around the interior would have pushed it all the way over. The Highway Patrol decided that there was no ticket involved. I didn't tell the insurance company, and the bus was righted and driveable. But one side of the van was completely flat and I couldn't open the engine compartment and the engine blew a few months later.

I bought another VW van and put the best parts of both vans together and then replaced the engine and transmission. But I didn't want it to be too cherry so I didn't put on the back bumper. I didn't want to attract thieves. Then I got a fix-it ticket for the bumper. I fixed it, paid the fine and three weeks later the van disappeared never to be seen.

In the early '90s I got stopped for going over a double yellow line when making a left turn onto a street. Once again traffic school came to my aid.

Length of record 20 y - about 50000 km

Accidents: none

Moving Tickets: One - about a month after I got my licence

Parking tickets: 3-5 a year (I borrow my dad's car, and the parking regulations are such that one gets tickets regularly :()

WOW, nope, they took mine away. Thank God I was a cyclist already!

I'm 22, got my drivers license at 16. I went car lite about 2 or 3 years ago and car free about 1 year ago.

In my time driving, I got 2 speeding tickets. Both removed from my record - one because I was a minor, and one because I took that safety class (forget what it's called). I had an extremely minor fender bender that never made my record either, and was a result of me being a negligent stupid new teen driver.

At any rate, I think I'm a pretty decent driver overall. I became much more safety conscious after taking the Motorcycle Safety Foundation class and riding a motorcycle for a couple years. I think alot of the skills learned with that transfer over to cycling.

one ticket

one ticket

It wasn't me :D

One ticket.


It wasn't me :D

:roflmao: :roflmao: :roflmao:

I got my license at age 16 and 1/2 and have driven a fair bit in the 8 years since. I've been hit from behind once. I hit someone from behind once, on ice, at about 2 mph. They had an old car and neither I nor they even got out of the car, much less called the police. I've never been ticketed for driving. I have had a one parking ticket though.

never had a single ticket of any kind, never got into a single accident (well i scraped my car on stuff a few times in a parking lots) my fault or otherwise.

I have a dream driving record. I do not drive at all so I never have a traffic ticket or been in a accident while behind the steering wheel.

While I don't believe that Roody's intention was to start a poll, I'll go on record; my driving record has nothing to do with my transportation cycling. Ignore the lemmings at work, they just don't understand why you will not claim your Western birthright to waste fuel indiscriminately.

Man I feel weird. I got my license at 16 and got my first car at 18. It was awesome. It would take to the mountains with our freeride bikes, take us to the dual slalom events, take us to the mysterious dirt jumps that were 'just over the hill, left at the second tree, look for old bits of carpet lying around', and completely covered in bike stickers. Ahh, those were the days. I, however, lost my license for too many speeding tickets, including one for running a red light on my bike, which was good for 2 demerits.:mad: But on a positive note, I had just built up my first single speed with a frame I traded for a pick-axe at the dirt jumps. So that 1-month stint with no license taught me the joins of being car-free in a big city. I still have that single speed.

After that, my insurance was far too high as I was still under 25, and I donated my car to the local mountain bike park's trials park. It was quite fun jumping on it with my bike. :D

I do have a car now however, as my wife and I share our car.

I feel like the resident bad-ass or something.

never had a license, i'm 24. i'm gonna try to go my whole life with out one.

never had a license, i'm 24. i'm gonna try to go my whole life with out one.

Good luck ;)

never had a license, i'm 24. i'm gonna try to go my whole life with out one.

Good for you. I recently had to go in and renew mine. Of course I need mine for work, but wondered if I really went car free if I could get my employer to pay for it since it is required for work.

P.S. I am also a Union Trustee ;)

I got in a bit of a fender-bender driving a school bus, that's about it.

license @ 16, now 23. one accident from thanksgiving weekend 2004, poor conditions caused me to slide into another car. but otherwise flawless driving record. my liability insurance would only have been 180/6 months if i wouldve renewed instead of selling my car last october, so i guess i wasnt too bad. considering i use to drive from toledo oh to wisconsin (420 miles - one way) every month to visit my fiancee for the period of about a year. traveled many many miles.

Hey DeputyDog, do u have bicycle cops where yer at? If not, you could start a branch. Here the program is called C.O.P.s (community oriented policing).Tell me that wouldn't b cool. I'm originally from Wayne County, Mi. but don't remember seein em there (of course, they'd have to up their carry arsenal). Here we got em (Pinellas Trail, Clearwater, etc.) and they look like the happiest cops!

No wrecks in almost 20 years and that was when I was rear ended so it wasn't my fault and 1 ticket in the past 15 years (forgot to put on my seatbelt on a quick trip around the block to find a parking space).

Mine's perfect, but not for lack of trying. I drove like a sociopathic idiot for a long time!
Shortly after I got my license, I took an unplanned detour through someone's front yard and ripped the neighborhood's transformer right out of the ground. Fortunately, I'd disabled the passenger door the previous week in another unplanned excursion, or my friend would have opened it into the exposed 24,000 volt lines and fried us both! The pud lost all record of the incident, checked with the police, and they had neglected to file any report. No liability for me.
I went through several cars, most bore marks of pushing just a little past the limits of traction. Guardrails, ditches, curbs, bushes, branches, but never anything that took the car off the road (edit: permanently!). I've always been a fan of really small cars, and I think the limited inertia helped. The last car I drove like that was an externally stock looking and sounding Ford Festiva with a Mazda engine swap, Festiva Motorsports suspension, and stripped down to 1620 pounds. I'm not sure how I survived! Had that thing over 120 mph on the I-205 bridge several times, bounced it off of curbs and sidewalks occasionally after discovering a little unexpected gravel had been kicked out into the turn lanes, and had three kids on three separate occasions in wing-ed Hondas try to ram me off the road after it became clear they couldn't outaccellerate the tiny little box.
Eventually I came to my senses after parking it in the trees on the way to work one day: Heading around my usual SR-500 / I-205 25 mph cloverleaf on the way to work, doing only 65 mph because the pavement was cold, I inattentively allowed my right front tire (the inside rear tire was always slightly airborn on long corners) to touch the fresh, slippery paint stripe. Instant transition from hard cornering to sideways. Managed to get it sliding crumple-zone-forwards before meeting the trees. I was lucky enough to slide between the trunks and branches that would have gone straight through my windshield or radiator, and got away with nothing more than a few "rally stripes", green and brown tree marks where the branches had slid by. Whoopsie. So I sold it and returned to riding and walking to work.
I'm feeling much better now.

It wasn't me :D

My one ticket was in 2005 on 120th and Pierce by a big black car. They spotted me a mile away going 72 in a 55mph

I've had accidents and tickets over ~22 yrs but no penalties either regulatory (on my license) or financial (I have the best insurance rate as far as I know). Can't say it's 'pure', but functionally it can't really be improved.

No accidents in 30 years, no tickets in 25.

Same here..

Mine's perfect, but not for lack of trying. I drove like a sociopathic idiot for a long time!
Shortly after I got my license, I took an unplanned detour through someone's front yard and ripped the neighborhood's transformer right out of the ground. Fortunately, I'd disabled the passenger door the previous week in another unplanned excursion, or my friend would have opened it into the exposed 24,000 volt lines and fried us both! The pud lost all record of the incident, checked with the police, and they had neglected to file any report. No liability for me.
I went through several cars, most bore marks of pushing just a little past the limits of traction. Guardrails, ditches, curbs, bushes, branches, but never anything that took the car off the road (edit: permanently!). I've always been a fan of really small cars, and I think the limited inertia helped. The last car I drove like that was an externally stock looking and sounding Ford Festiva with a Mazda engine swap, Festiva Motorsports suspension, and stripped down to 1620 pounds. I'm not sure how I survived! Had that thing over 120 mph on the I-205 bridge several times, bounced it off of curbs and sidewalks occasionally after discovering a little unexpected gravel had been kicked out into the turn lanes, and had three kids on three separate occasions in wing-ed Hondas try to ram me off the road after it became clear they couldn't outaccellerate the tiny little box.
Eventually I came to my senses after parking it in the trees on the way to work one day: Heading around my usual SR-500 / I-205 25 mph cloverleaf on the way to work, doing only 65 mph because the pavement was cold, I inattentively allowed my right front tire (the inside rear tire was always slightly airborn on long corners) to touch the fresh, slippery paint stripe. Instant transition from hard cornering to sideways. Managed to get it sliding crumple-zone-forwards before meeting the trees. I was lucky enough to slide between the trunks and branches that would have gone straight through my windshield or radiator, and got away with nothing more than a few "rally stripes", green and brown tree marks where the branches had slid by. Whoopsie. So I sold it and returned to riding and walking to work.
I'm feeling much better now.

Dude..you just described my motorcycling days..

I'm no saint either...love speed & engines (all my family worked at the Rolls Royce Engine plant in the UK and all are speed techno freaks). guess thats why i luv bikes too, they're the wonderful machines and we're the engine.. Cheers!

Out of three years (I'm 20), I've gotten two speeding tickets (ticket free for 17 months now :) ) and one minor fenderbender. I drive about 16,000 miles a year on my car and another 15-20k miles on company vehicles.