Anyone else not bothered about learning to drive?

You guys have no idea what you're talking about. You learn from your mistakes and close encounters. Yes, you need to be mature (and racing out of a car park when you've only just passed is totally ridiculous), but when you first pass your test you want to take your mates out, and they inevitably cause distractions you've never had to drive with while you were learning - you might as well get used to them sooner rather than later. It's a cliche but you don't actually start learning to drive properly until after you've passed your test and you're left to drive on your own. There are plenty of us who have never crashed but there are just as many, if not more, who have dented a wing or something, purely through making a simple mistake. We're all human, we are allowed to make mistakes, and ultimately that's why we have compulsory insurance to fall back on.

With such negative attitudes to driving you probably are best off the roads.

Where did that come from? I don't want to start an argument here, but all we were doing is commenting on the fact that quite a few young people experience crashes. In a way you've sort of proven our point. It's understandable that people will want to take their mates out with them, but they could end up distracting the driver through their immaturity. Obviously a good driver would keep level-headed about it, and I'm sure plenty of people can just focus on the road, without giving in to the temptation of messing about or showing off to their mates. If you were older and had just passed however, then your friends are likely to be more mature, and just settle down for the journey instead of causing distractions due to being driven around by your friend for the first time.

Surely it's just down to personal preference?
I stated in my first post that I can't currently afford to learn to drive anyway, let alone get a car and be insured. I wasn't hating on people that learn to drive at 17, just sayin' I'm not so hot on it myself. I intend to learn at some point, and the difference in learning capacity varies a) from person to person ANYWAY, and b) won't change that much in the few years between say 17 and 20.
Go ahead and drive and be merry, I've no issue with it. My brother learned at 17 and hasn't had so much as a scrape, generalising is pointless.

Every single one of my friends seems to have either passed their driving test or are learning to drive and I feel like I'm the only person who's not bothering. My 17th birthday was almost a year ago, and when I finally got my provisional and started driving with my dad at Easter it just didn't feel like all that everyone was making it out to be. I just don't feel like I want or need to learn to drive. I can get buses or lifts to whereever I need to go, it costs lots of money every month which I simply wouldn't want to spend, and at Uni I wouldn't be able to afford a car anyway. People who've learnt to drive can brag on about having the freedom to go whereever they want whenever they want, but I actually feel that I'm better off not wasting my time learning to drive. Please tell me there's more than just a few people who feel this way, I can't think of one person who I've spoken to at school who isn't learning to drive!

See, you're just proving my point. You don't drive so you have no idea what experience counts for when it comes to driving. When you pass your test, all you're saying is that you can control the car and adhere to the highway code for 37 minutes while there's somebody there hovering over a second brake pedal and with minimal distraction. When you're on your own, you have to think for yourself when it comes to situations you've never been in before. If you ever bother to learn to drive, you will see my point. Older learners take longer to learn and don't absorb 'experience' as quickly as younger drivers, so being mature (age-wise rather than mentality-wise, as some of us are sensible on the roads) isn't such a great thing.

It's worth learning so that you don't have to rely on lifts or public transport when you go out, but then again, it is a lot of money, for lessons it's about £20 for 90 minutes, and then £60 for each of your theory and practical tests. Don't waste your money if you're not fussed.

I wish it was that cheap! I've gone privately rather than with bsm etc, but it costs me £36 for 90 minutes and that's normal! If only it was that cheap!

I'm in no hurry to learn. Public transport can only get better and it is greener too.

Plus owning a car is only going to get more expensive as we run out of oil. I think I'll learn when electric cars are cheap enough Tesla Roadster would do ^_^

I feel the same way as you. I cannot be bothered with the cost of the car, its maintenance, insurance, lessons, tests! I might wait until I get to university but until then the bus does me fine (although it is not reliable at all). Besides, I get lifts everywhere and I don't live in a place as vast as London.

I started driving last year and then whilst with my instructor, I crashed the car into a tree and so was suspended and had to fork out a wad of money. Nae amused!