I Can't Drive 55
It’s difficult for most Americans to imagine, but if you grow up in San Francisco or New York (or Berlin, Seoul, London, Singapore …) it’s possible to avoid driving altogether. Facing the task later in life, long after the hormonal rush of teenage invincibility has drained from the system, can be revelatory — as our own cousin discovered during a brief exile to Southern California. (“It’s all so tenuous,” she gasped.) When Adam Gopnik’s essay
The Driver’s Seat: What We Learn When We Learn to Drive was published in
The New Yorker earlier this year, our cousin’s experience was validated on a national level. Gopnik’s realization that he was suddenly in control of a fast-moving “two-ton weapon” led him to pity all pedestrians and marvel at the very fabric of civilization. His awe was heightened by academic studies of street traffic by sociologist Erving Goffman and brought down to earth by the constant buoyancy of his driving instructor.
— Silke Tudor
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