Thinking about how in the USA (and other largely car-dependent places) it’s such a thing in the culture for teenagers to “have their first real taste of independence” when they get a license. I don’t know how to articulate this well but ... I feel like traveling, like literally just HAVING THE ABILITY to go somewhere, is so fundamental to humans in so many ways. Like developmentally, emotionally, physically, socially, it’s important to simply even just have the option. I just really fucking hate that without access to a car, you’re nearly entirely stationary unless someone else forces or permits you to exist somewhere else. It’s extremely ironic to me that cars are touted to youth as the great marker of independence and individualism. To me, there’s nothing more independent or individualist than not being FORCED TO RELY on someone or something else to simply move from one place to another. At a young age where are certainly old enough to be in public by yourself, you do not become independent by having your license and driving -- you are only shifting your dependencies.
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