I’ve had a driver’s licence almost 30 years. Yet, I didn’t drive much as a kid, preferring to take the bus, walk, or bicycle.<\/p>\n
Driving requires attention, with potentially serious consequences for not being sharp. Walking requires much less concentration, since it carries much less responsibility. In addition, walking offers more control and freedom than driving – you can walk across a field, for instance, rather than being bound to the road.<\/p>\n
Driving seems natural to people who do it, but I doubt you could train an animal to drive. The decision-making that driving demands, is uniquely easy for a human.<\/p>\n
Perhaps driving precisely mirrors the difference between humans and other animals. Humans have mental machinery that enables them to drive virtually effortlessly. Walking – which almost any land-based animal can do – is much more effort for a human than driving. The reason humans prefer driving to walking is that the human brain is constructed towards thinking, to the point that a human would rather think than put in physical effort.<\/p>\n
An eccentric, I still prefer walking to driving, but less than before. With a twelve and fifteen-year-old, I have to drive so often, it gets more natural all the time.<\/p>\n