There’re five things I will never do. Driving a car is one of them.

There are very few things I feel I can’t do in this life.

In fact, I can list on one hand the things I cannot, will not, shall not do.

1. Attempt high jump (again).
2. Eat olives.
3. Watch Home and Away.
4. Strip down on a nude beach.
5. Drive a car.

Unsurprisingly, stating my dislike for the above only ever serves to inflame the fans.

“Oh, but high jump is so easy!” they say, “All you need to do is just look over the bar, run up, and jump!” Yeahhhhh… nah. Last time I attempted high jump, I was nine years old. I trotted up to the bar, looked up at it gingerly, and shook my head. Nope.

And so it goes. Those who love olives, preach how delicious they are and how I will learn to love the flavour of them. Fans of Home and Away assure me it’s just a matter of time before I get hooked. And don’t even get me STARTED on nudists.

But perhaps the most emphatic of the bunch are the drivers.

Drivers. Love. Driving.

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“What do you mean you don’t drive!” they gasp, incredulous, like I had just told them I was born with seventeen thumbs.

“Like….how do you get around? How do you go on road trips? How do you…how do you go through McDonald’s drive-thru?!”

It’s usually at this point that their face clouds over, a slow dawning of horror as they realise I am one of ‘those people’. A leech, a parasite on the underbelly of their Toyota Corolla, a “can I offer you petrol money?”, radio-adjusting, car-park-spotting, blissfully ignorant, NON-DRIVER.

That’s when I often choose to sigh, walk away, and make a mental note to never ask them for a ride to work ever again.

I am a non-driver. I have never driven, and I never will. I went to boarding school at an age that most girls were getting stone-faced driving lessons from their dads, and I moved to Melbourne straight after.

(Anyone who's lived in Melbourne's CBD for ten years will tell you; driving isn't a priority. No one drives.)

Fair to say, I missed the boat when it came to getting my license and, you know what? That doesn't bother me. Not one bit.

The people it bothers are the drivers out there, who automatically adopt an attitude of Just-Call-Me-Your-Taxi-Driver-Martyrdom as soon as they discover I can't drive.

After the martyrdom, comes the pity. "Aw, why?" as they scan my face for any obvious ailments such as a wonky eye or nervous twitch, "Are you frightened?"

Nope. Not at all.

The truth is, I can't be bothered.

It's just not a priority. Since I was a teen, I have navigated my way through cities around Australia - and the world, for the matter - on foot. Or on a bus. Or a train. Or a bike. Or, if things were really hectic, in a cab. (Also, I don't know if you've heard of Uber, friend, but they are ON. THE. BALL.)

So no, I'm not scared of driving, nor does it oblige me to a life of isolation; sitting alone in a lighthouse at the end of the world watching the waves crash against the rocks, as I curse the day I ever dared to walk past the Department of Transport without begging for my license.

Lotte Betts-Dean is a woman after my own heart.

She currently lives in London, UK. She was raised in Berlin until she was 10, before moving to Australia till she was 18. Like me, Betts-Dean only ever encounters jokes and teasing about her choice not to drive.

"I have had a few people insinuate that not driving or having a car means I'm not an adult somehow," Lotte said. "I've developed a strong rebuttal! I just say that I grew up in a city where few people drive, and public transport actually works (Berlin). I mean, we never had a car growing up. My mum learnt to drive when she was 36, when we moved back to Oz."

I ask Betts-Dean – an opera singer who has just completed her Masters degree at the Royal Academy of Music – how it makes her feel when people mock her decision not to drive.

"I try to brush it off," she said. "But it does hurt a bit when people appear genuinely shocked that I don't drive yet, as if I've missed some major learning development. I do get defensive about it."

Maybe Betts-Dean should ask people the same question, referring to her international music career and postgraduate education. "Oh, you never pursued higher education? Oh. You should. It's really important, you know...".

One word regularly trotted out when referring to non-drivers is the groan-inducing, eye-rolling term 'millennial'. Millennials, you see, are bone-achingly lazy and unmotivated and therefore unwilling to drive. Right?

Well, not quite.

Firstly, let me point at that yes – it IS true that millennials are less likely to get their drivers license than other age group. According to independent data analysts Charting Transport, millennials (those aged between 18 and 35 at present) are not driving as much as other generations.

But this doesn't necessarily equate to laziness.

Brandon Cook is 23 years old, and he reckons the reason fewer people are driving doesn't have anything to do with age.

"I wouldn't say it's a millennial thing, because that implies there's something pathologically different about this generation," Cook said. "I just think that our priorities have changed, and we're not interested in owning cars. It used to be how you built relationships, because you would go out with your friends, pick them up, go and do this, that, whatever. But now with increases in technology, we can build relationships and engage with one another from huge distances. We exert our freedom differently."

He also notes that as global warming and other environmental problems become headline issues, fewer people are wanting to contribute to the problem.

"I think it's a good thing that there're less people driving," he said. "On a collective level, we're making for a greener planet. Less car pollutants. Less congestion on the roads, more people utilising public transportation. It's cars that are clogging up the roads, not trams or buses or bikes!"

Indeed, among the people I know who are non drivers, one of the only things they have in common is a genuine concern for the environment, which they all give as their #1 reason for never bothering to drive.

Other than that, there is no clear 'demographic' of non-drivers.

I know mothers with small kids who don't drive. Executives who run massive multinationals who've never driven. Creatives, corporates, young, old, city, rural - there are a massive amount of people from all walks of life who fail to see the great attraction of driving.

For this reason, the general opinion of non-drivers being somehow less capable, or less independent, is crap.

Every time my boyfriend (a driver) and I (a non-driver) travel overseas, guess who is able to navigate the public transport quicker? Me.

Every time we're attending an event in an obscure location, guess who's comfortable getting a $4 train, instead of opting for an $80 taxi? Me.

The willingness to get out into the world and find our way around is something unique to non-drivers. I love being able to explore my own city as I people-watch and perv and daydream. I am a writer, and being able to strike up a conversation with kooky folks out in the real world is invaluable. All these things you miss, and more, when you're locked up in your car listening to talk-back radio caw about the latest celebrity gossip.

ICYMI: You can now get your Uber rating. (Post continues after video)

For those who woefully lament my inability to take off on a 'road trip'....well, newsflash. Road trips are the domain of drivers, darlings. Non-drivers? We get a plane. With little snack foods. And climate control air conditioning. And charming flight attendants doling out tiny bottles of booze.

We could also catch the train. Our state's rural centers are now connected with an unreal train network, meaning I can jump on a train in the CBD, and be out in the fresh country air in under two hours.

Traffic, carparks, petrol prices, parking fines, registration, and mystery smells coming from the boot are issues I will never, ever have to worry about.

So, drivers of the world, try and not pity us non-drivers.

With driverless vehicles expected to be on the roads in the next ten years (South Australia has already legalised them!), hopefully this tired old debate will finally be buried.

Although, at that point, we might be able to return the look of pity as you try to negotiate the urban sprawl with someone – or something – else besides you behind the wheel... "Oh, you used to drive? Oh. You should really learn to be a better passenger. It's very important, you know..."

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