In Europe there's no need. Got a licence over two decades ago have never needed to drive. Shops in walking distance, public transport anywhere in the country, convenient deliveries, walkable and cyclable cities.
Meanwhile other places have no freedom from cars, locked into expensive car financing, unable to access basic amenities without a car, and motorists have normalised killing millions of people a year.
> And you don't need to have any form of licence to drive one in France!
FWIW, that's wrong: only people born before 1985 ~ (i don't know the exact date) don't need any license. People born after that do require a license, which is much much lighter than standard driving license in France, but still requires several hours (I think it takes a whole day?), which I think is equivalent to what actual driving license in some countries.
Oh man, the whole driving school process in France is so dumb and painful. It is layers of bureaucracy upon layers of bureaucracy. It is the worst in Paris, where you are going to have to wait longer and pay more to get a license. I have an increasing number of friends in their late 20s/early 30s who live in large French cities and don't even have a license - they live and work in the city, so it's not a problem for them.
When they do need to visit family in the more rural areas, they either take the train, or use a carpooling service (the most popular one is blablacar.com, which has been taking off like crazy in the recent years. The vast majority of French people I talk to when I go back home have heard of it- one of the few innovative French startups).
In France, I spent a year and half and about 1500 euros in driving lessons related stuff and didn't get my license. When I first moved to the US (southern state), it cost me something like 30 bucks and 30 minutes of my time. The test consisted of driving around the block, and parking the car (only snag: the inspector by my side, a rather overweight lady, told me that I'd lose points the further away I parked from the DMV's front door. I thought she was joking, but she wasn't).
The conservative French people say that more expensive, stricter, longer times for obtaining a driver license leads to safer roads; but if you compare US driving fatalities to French ones, there's not much of a difference- and people in the US drive way more than they do in France.
Like many other aspects of French culture, it's ridiculous how deeply legislated it is, and how the only ones benefitting from it are the ones making the rules. I find certain aspects of the US driving culture a little too much on the other extreme of the spectrum (learner's permit at 14? the driving test being just a drive around the block? the written test being a multiple choice questionnaire with the answers available on YouTube?), but France is worse by far, and it's hurting young professionals (my brother is without a college degree, and when he was unemployed he found that most jobs in rural areas require a car- but getting a license takes forever and is expensive. So that was a few months where he could do little but wait to get his driving license).
We have drivers licenses in my country too but in our country you can get around fine with just public transport and walking by foot. And it’s a bit expensive to get a drivers license for me, plus time consuming. I want to get one soon, but don’t have one yet. Likewise a lot of other people in my country don’t have one either.
The driver test is super hard and expensive in France. Never got it for this reason even after spending 1k euro on it. Came to the US and got the driver license in a week for like 200$ including lessons lol
The fact that this doesn't require a driver's license to operate is a big deal given how difficult and expensive (around 1000 euros) it is to get a driver's license in France.
Here is my French driver's license horror story. I was an American expat living in Paris for 2 years. Fortunately, I had a Texas driver's license which is apparently one of a few states with reciprocal privileges, so all I had to do was exchange my Texas license for a French one, no class, no test. However, it took me 5 trips down to the French DMV, each time taking a number and waiting an hour. Each time, the clerk would find something else wrong with my application, even though my company had a French attorney assisting me, and I usually had a note from the previous clerk saying all I needed was one thing. Finally, all I needed was a copy of my Texas driving history. Texas does not provide a certified copy since you are able to download a copy from the website. Of course, France did not accept this. So, I wrote Texas DMV and asked them to mail me a certified copy. They sent me basically the same download. France did not accept it, but said the cover letter was certification enough, if I had it translated. Taking a number and an hour later at the US embassy, I had my translated document, which France finally accepted and issued my a license in exchange for my Texas license.
Then, 2 weeks later, I get a letter from the French DMV. They were not going to accept the letter and said I needed to come down and turn in the license they had issued me and bring in a properly certified driving record from Texas.
I gave up. I did not comply with this letter and kept the French driver's license. Fortunately, I was never pulled over and did not have any problems. When I left the country, I went back to exchange my French driver's license for my Texas one. I got a nasty scolding from the clerk, but I just played the dumb American and she eventually gave me my Texas license back.
I have to say, the absurd bureaucracy in France was not limited to the DMV, and I have more horror stories about the government regulations and bureaucracy there.
I would guess that few countries have the type of situation that exists in the US where a driver's licence is almost essential in order to go about daily life.
Many people in the UK don't bother with a licence. It can be prohibitively expensive when you consider the costs of lessons, a vehicle, and of the licence itself.
Compared to what? I've seen much simpler driver's licenses from other countries. Up until recently (2013 maybe) the French driver's license was literally a piece of pink paper with a picture glued to it.
I'd estimate that about half the people I know in Sweden and in Norway, under 35, don't actually have a drivers license. And of those half again have no real intention of getting one.
I am a French dev and I plan to move to the Silicon Valley for various reasons but the driver licence is not one of them.
It is the first time I read such things about french driving exams and I can't remember having to answer inane questions like the car vs tank one.
I guess this is true in many countries (no tests for french driving license holders). I'm french, and didn't have to take a paper test, or a driving test when I got my license in Japan. Which is kind of ridiculous considering they don't even check you know how rules differ between the countries, and there are more than a few differences, the most basic one being default speed limits in the absence of indication.
Anyways, I actually didn't get my french driving license before I was planning to move to Japan, and the reason I did get it is because getting a driving license in Japan is even more expensive than it is in France.
Fwiw, I got my french driving license on the first try after 23 hours of lessons and didn't have any of the problems mentioned. In fact, I had all my paper test preparation with a web site that my driving school was contracting, so besides the freelance instructors, I don't see much innovation in that ornikar thing.
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