A survey of 70 people conducted by The Urban Legend found that only 40% of eligible Urban students have a driver’s license or permit.
According to Sports Illustrated, San Francisco is the second most walkable city in the United States, with New York City taking first place. Due to San Francisco’s walkability and free public transportation for people under 19, some students question if the long process of getting a driver’s license is worth the effort.
In California, taking the driver’s test requires applicants to have completed 30 hours of driver’s education and six months of driving with a permit. Carl Haidamus ’25 said, “I waited six months [to get my license] just because I can get bus routes straight to my house.”
Buses are just one of many alternatives to cars in the city. “I like biking because I feel more connected to the city and to my environment,” English teacher Courtney Rein said.
According to a 2023 article from KQED, San Francisco has over 463 miles of bike lanes and 17 designated slow streets to encourage city biking over driving.
“E-biking is usually the fastest mode of transportation in the city, usually faster than my car,” Arie Kurtzig ’26 said.
Unlike the dense and grid-like streets of San Francisco, suburban areas in the U.S. tend to have more sprawling and open avenues. This makes driving a lot easier. “My favorite place to drive is outside San Francisco in the Marin Headlands, where it’s less stressful because there’s not as many cars,” Kurtzig said.
In the suburbs, some teenagers consider a driver’s license to be a rite of passage and a necessity. According to a 2022 article from New Geography, only 6% of adults living in suburban areas can commute using public transportation. Because of this lack of public transportation, owning a license marks one of the first times that teens can get around independently.
“I grew up in the suburbs, so getting a driver’s license felt very liberating and important,” Rein said. “I could get fast food without my parents.”
A driver’s license can come with new responsibilities. “My parents [typically] hire a nanny or something to drive my [younger] brothers around to [sports] practice and stuff,” Olivia Prime ’27 said. “But once I get my license, they’ll probably pass that responsibility down to me.”
Owning a license is also beneficial for traveling longer distances. “I have to drive if I’m trying to go across the city pretty far. It’s a lot more time-efficient,” Kurtzig said.
While driving in SF might not always be the best way to get around the city, it can still be beneficial to have the option to drive when traveling to the surrounding areas.
“I wanted to start doing things that were far from San Francisco, like going camping with my friends, and I think I began to realize how useful a license is,” Haidamus said. “An hour drive on a bus is like 20 minutes in a car.”
