How many drivers do we have here?

I’ve got a driving licence
I’ve got a driving licence but living in London, it really would be more hassle than it’s worth to own a car. Prefer to cycle to help fight the beer gut! I passed my test in 1993 but have never owned a car. I hire a car when in Portugal or Spain though.

My personal vehicle fleet
My personal vehicle fleet includes five bicycles and a motorcycle. We have a family car and my my wife and kids also have bicycles, with four shared between my two kids in fact. I prefer being on two wheels to four, though I do like driving a good car and have done various track days and so on. I get the biggest kick out of riding bicycles and motorcycles though; more visceral than being inside a tin box (I’ll skip the Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance quotation but if you know what I mean, you know what I mean). When we had kids we bought a car and one of the two motorbikes I had at the time was sold, but I increased my bicycle collection instead.

By the way Gkam – if you’re looking for a motorbike of up to 500cc, the Suzuki GS500, various Kawasaki 500 twins and Honda CB500 models are all pretty good in terms of usability and value for money.

A car will give you more all-round versatility and allow you to take the bicycle with you. A motorbike will be more fun, and a whole lot quicker getting anywhere, as well as using a bit less petrol, producing lower emissions and taking up a whole lot less space on the road (if that’s important to you). It’s not that I drive my motorbike way above speed limits, it’s just that as with my bicycles I don’t get caught in any jams and can filter right past all the stalled cars when I’m on the motorbike.

If you don’t have a family to haul around, a motorcycle is more environmentally friendly and quicker, just less versatile.

As Tony hinted, I don’t
As Tony hinted, I don’t drive. Got a provisional licence when I was 19, had some lessons booked, broke my ankle, cancelled the lessons, then never got round to it again.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not what my near neighbour Jeremy Clarkson might call a sandal wearing, vegetarian, Guardian reading, bearded, car hating cyclist.

True, I’ve worn sandals, once flirted with vegetarianism, regularly do battle with the Guardian crossword and, working from home, it’s a couple of years since I’ve had a proper, stubble-erasing shave.

But you know what? I actually quite like cars. I just can’t drive them (although that’s not an issue that seems to stop others, licenced or not).

For someone who, university apart, lived in London for decades, that wasn’t a problem at all. Moving to Oxford a few years back, with a 15-minute ride to work was a breeze, too. Another house move, a further eight miles out, made things a little more awkward, but there was a bus stop outside the front door with a decent, regular service to Oxford.

Now we’ve moved again, to a market town that lost its railway station to Dr Beeching and where the nearest significant centres of population – Oxford, Stratford-upon-Avon, Banbury and even the West Oxfordshire metropolis of Witney – are a 45-minute bus ride away, it’s probably about time I got round to it.

Although we manage without one, I can see why the RAC Foundation’s reports always cite people from areas such as this saying they couldn’t do without a car.

Don’t get me wrong, the cycling’s great here, but having a car – or at least, having a licence and hiring one now and again – would open up so many more options for us.

So, for now, my sole hands-on experience of motorised personal transportation remains the aged Piaggio Ciao moped I was lent for a few months when I spent a year in Italy, by a friend whose grandfather no longer used it.

To my protestations about lack of licence, insurance, helmet, etc, I was met with a shrug, a brooking-no-reply comment of ‘you’re in Italy now,’ and handed the keys that would let me make the most of my three hour lunch breaks by pop-popping through the rice fields and vineyards of southern Lombardy in search of somewhere nice to stop.

Usually followed by a panicked search for somewhere open to fill the tank up again so I could get back to the office for 3pm.

Happy days, and whenever I return to Italy these days I tend to break into a big, wistful grin at the first sight of one.

We’re all drivers on the
We’re all drivers on the roadcc team,(with maybe the exception of Simon), I don’t drive that much though cos like Stuke it’s quickier and easier, and more fun, to ride a bike. When I was younger I used to enjoy driving more than I do now. If roadcc users are typical of most cyclists then there should be a lot of drivers on here… one of my favourit stats is the one about cyclists owning more cars than the average for the general population.

Passed my test when I was 17
Passed my test when I was 17 (16 years ago) and have always loved driving. Don’t drive much anymore due to cycling the 35 miles a day to work and back as its quicker than taking the car. Still like a good blast in the car early morning or late at night on the weekend though when there is no traffic about. Always been tempted by a motorbike but couldn’t justify another toy to the wife when there is already £3k worth of cycles in the shed