It’s never too late to learn to drive
Maritimers taste the freedom of getting their driver’s licence later in life
Ashlee Loney was getting some driving practice in with her boyfriend on a particularly rainy day recently.
The 31-year-old from Sydney, N.S., working towards her full licence, still has a few in-car lessons to go. She was stopped and waited to turn out of McDonald’s. The pavement was slick from rain and the sky was full of dark clouds.
“Make the turn, make the turn, make the turn,” her boyfriend urged.
Loney made the turn, but it was a bit too quick for the weather conditions. It was also too soon for her own comfort as a new driver. Loney swerved as her boyfriend tried to grab the wheel. A short time later, Loney was pulled over.
“We got multiple calls about a drunk driver,” said the police officer.
Loney was sober. She knew the calls were because she looked too old to be a student driver, so other conclusions were drawn. While most people get their licence as a teenager, there are a variety of reasons why someone would put it off until adulthood.
Loney grew up in Truro, N.S., but moved to Ottawa when she was 15 and had access to regular public transit. Getting her licence wasn’t a necessity.
“When I was of legal drinking age, I just bought an Ontario identification card because it was cheaper than getting my licence and, at the time, I was more nervous of learning in a bigger city with high volumes of traffic,” she said.
When she returned to
Nova Scotia and went into school for radio broadcast, her instructors told her she wouldn’t be able to get a job without a valid licence.
For student drivers like Loney, learning to drive as an adult can be overwhelming.
“... As I get closer to finishing, I feel like it’s never going to happen. I get anxiety behind the wheel and frustrated a lot of the time.”
She wondered if it would’ve been easier to learn when she was younger.
“The in-class learning portion was easy because I’m really good at retaining information but I feel like, maybe if I learned younger, I would be more fearless about it behind the wheel,” she said.
She urged others to get their licence as soon as they can.
“I think it just gets harder and harder as you get older.”
BEING SELF-MOTIVATED
Marina Arnusch had a similar experience that led to getting her licence later in life.
After experiencing family turmoil in her teens, she moved in with her father and had access to reliable public transit. But now, driving herself has become a necessity.
The 39-year-old from East
Bay, N.S., recently finished the online in-class portion of driver’s education.
“At my age, you have to be pretty self-motivated, so you get out of it what you put into it.”
YOU GO, GIRL
Judy Young, 59, and LisaMarie Fletcher, 42, both got their licences later into adulthood because they were raised with the message that men would take care of them.
As they got older, they craved independence and the ability to drive became a necessity, said the two primary school workers from Lower Sackville, N.S.
Young, who got her licence at age 37, didn’t see a need for a licence in her teens.
“I wouldn’t have been able to afford a car and I lived in an area where I could walk or take the bus to places,” she said. “Then, when I got to be 18, I dated boys with cars, so they would drive me everywhere.”
Fletcher was in a similar position where her husband drove her, so it wasn’t necessary to get her licence until she left her husband two years ago.
Both Young and Fletcher urge young people to get their licence as soon as they can.
“It’s a whole new sense of freedom; it opened up a whole new world. I don’t care how old I get, you’ll have to pry my licence from my cold dead fingers,” said Young.
Fletcher want her daughters to get their licence as soon as they can when they are in high school.
“I’m breaking that cycle; I’m going to really push that my girls have that freedom and not depend on a man,” she said.