Posted on 04/19/2012 1:36:22 PM PDT by Chickensoup
Young Americans are eschewing cars for alternative transport, leaving carmakers to wonder if this is a recession-induced trend or a permanent shift in habits.
For generations of American teenagers, the car was the paramount symbol of independence. But in the age of Facebook and iPhones, young adults are getting fewer drivers’ licences, driving less frequently and moving to cities where cars are more luxury than necessity.
Figures from the Federal Highway Administration show the share of 14 to 34-year-olds without a driver’s licence rose to 26 per cent in 2010, from 21 per cent a decade earlier, according to a study by the Frontier Group and the US PIRG Education Fund released this month.
(Excerpt) Read more at ft.com ...
For generations of American teenagers, the car was the paramount symbol of independence. But in the age of Facebook and iPhones, young adults are getting fewer drivers’ licences, driving less frequently and moving to cities where cars are more luxury than necessity.
Figures from the Federal Highway Administration show the share of 14 to 34-year-olds without a driver’s licence rose to 26 per cent in 2010, from 21 per cent a decade earlier, according to a study by the Frontier Group and the US PIRG Education Fund released this month.
My 20 year old female cousin never took driver’s ed and doesn’t even have a learner’s permit. As far as she’s concerned, she can check bus schedules on her iPhone and stay in touch with friends through Facebook and Skype.
When I was 16, my friends and I would spent Friday nights trolling the mall, ice skating, going out for ice cream and heading down to the beach to drive the strip. Some of had beepers and would hit up pay phones if we needed to make a call (this was just 15 years ago, mind you). Society is on its ear.
I don’t know about the rest of the US of A but in MN - a highly liberal state - a youth cannot obtain a license until the age of 16. Seems to me using a data set that extends to 14 to make a point of license decline is a bit misleading.
First thing PIRG is a leftist organization that is cheering this issue on and has let out press releases about it so it has been covered several different ways.
Next, if the laws were not so draconian and the costs so high, many more young people would be behind the wheel. My son recently put his dirtbike on the trail, and it cost 500 in taxes and insurance (a 2002!) and around here kids are not permitted to ride on trails along or with other kids until they are 16. Amazing, all that time kids could learn how to bike safely off road...gone!
The legislatures seem to be focusing on making driving an expensive and difficult task, like getting a concealed carry permit.
Can Occupy Mobil be far behind?
I chalk it up to sky-high insurance. When I had a teen in the house, the mere act of getting him a license would have caused my car insurance to triple.
This way, Husein can blame Facebook and iphones for a decline in demand for fuel, rather than high gas prices shutting out new young drivers.
In our state you cannot get a license at 16 without going through a mandatory drivers ed program that costs 450 or more dollars. Insurance companies run this state.
This according to my kids.
When I was in my teen years, the county recorder informed me that if I brought one more car title in, I’d have to get a used car dealers license.
Two points (sorry for the introduction of some potential logical explanation):
1. Parents can’t afford to buy additional vehicles or to ensure their teens.
2. The statistics include the dissabled and college students that often don’t drive until they graduate if at all.
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That's 'cuz they're lame asses. Not cool. This is cool. |
The MADD crowd has been piling so many restrictions on teenage drivers (no driving after 11PM, and no other teens in the car, and only drive on Tuesdays and Thursdays except during the full moon, must have a man on a bicycle 20 yards out in front waving a red flag at all times, etc.) that most teens have pretty much given up even trying to get a license until after they turn 18.
That and the extremely high insurance costs. And Cash for Clunkers has turned any car that a teenage guy might afford into a boat anchor.
Another tactic by organized labor to drive them out of the labor force I suppose.
Some young people today do not have anything beyond a cyber social life. Why would they need cars to be with their friends and entertain themselves away from the cell phone and computer?
Through global warming watermelonism liberals have found a way to make these unsociable nerds into cutting edge “yutes.” Liberals ruined their normal heterosexual development with the “hip” hooking up slut culture, too.
Like the hippies before them, they will figure out they have been used and screwed with illusion. It will probably begin with the race baiters unleashing the black racist thugs on them as they ride the bus.
I have been to places where the public transportation is good like Japan. My wife’s aunt/uncle never had a driver’s license. They live about 5 minutes from the train station. Here in the US, unless you live in the big cities like NYC or SF, if you need to get around, it has to be by automobile.
At the end of May, I am doing an almost car free vacation to California. I fly into San Jose, go to an Anime Convention and after the convention, I get a car and drive to Santa Cruz for a couple of days and then return the car back to SJ then take the Capitol Corridor train to Davis, CA and stay there until Sunday and then fly home. I may get a car the day before I leave so I can go to Chico and pay a visit to a friend who just moved there and drop the car off in Sacramento before I fly home.
[ According to the Chicago Tribune teen unemployment is at 23.8%. In urban areas the teen unemployment is at 34.7%.
1) No job = no car.
2) Cash for clunkers removed a lot of the second hand cars that provided the first cars for teens.
3) No job = no gas. Why buy a car if you can’t put gas in it?
4) Insurance costs for young drivers are gong up. No job = no money for insurance.
5) New laws restrict the ability of teens to bring passengers in their cars. Without the ability to carry passengers a motorcycle does the same job at a lot less cost.
6) Did I mention there are no jobs for teen agers. The reason I bought my first car (oh yes it was a clunker) was so I could get to my part time job. If the main need for a car is getting to your part time job, no job, no need for a car.]
NAILED IT!
The less that the younger generation can drive the more they can keep them “penned in” in the inner cities and urban areas. Then the ones that want to drive will get a car if they work for the state, they can get a Chevy Volt as “part of their job” leading to more government dependence.
My kids won’t be getting licenses until the ripe old age of 18. In our state, homeschooled kids must either enroll part time in the public school system and take driver’s Ed (not going to happen) or enroll in an approved private company’s driver’s Ed (cheapest I’ve seen was $500 and we’ve still got 4 yrs before the eldest will be ready. Lots of time for prices to go higher). And then our insurance goes up. We’ve kept it low ever since I turned 25 (or whatever the magic age is), so that’s not going to be a time for cheer. Lol
My guess: Illegal aliens.
“Young Americans turn away from driving”
Young Americans prohibited from driving.
There, that’s more like it; it was giving the impression that there was a voluntary decision to reject automobiles or something. Next it will be: “Young Americans turn away from opportunity”
Lol.
My 10 year old daughter started to tell me what kind of a car she wanted when she turned 16. I let her go on for a moment about something yellow with a convertable top. I interupted for a moment to invited her to join me in the driveway to continue the conversation.
Once there and after she paused, I pointed to the 2003 Ford, F150, Crewcab, 4x4 with 165K miles on the odometer and said, “How’d you like to drive that instead?”
When I was 16 we had horses, unless you were rich and your parents could afford a Model T (which you never got to drive). Then WW I cane along followed by prohibition.
________________________
I bet you walked to school too, in the snow, uphill, both ways.
I wonder what the majority of those kids was in the 14 - 16 year range? Last I heard, you don't get a learners permit until 16......So whassup with the 14 and 15 year olds?
Adding more to the zombie list. They’ll never make it out of the cities when it hits the fan. That’s good for the rest of us.
” I bet you walked to school too, in the snow, uphill, both ways. “
Now, that’s just silly — there were a few days in June when it didn’t snow.... ;)
Wonder how much of it is the failure to launch crowd. They don’t have any money so they can’t buy their own cars, can always borrow mom and dad’s, at least until they get busted for drunk driving too many times and get their license suspended. That’s my loser nephew-in-law’s path, his license was suspended for 4 years (would have been 2 but AZ suspensions start the day after you pay your fine, being a loser he didn’t have that kind of money). He finally has his license back but his mom learned half her lesson and won’t let him drive her car, still let’s him live there though so she hasn’t learned the whole lesson.
Kids can get a license at 14 if they can prove a hardship
such as having to get to work or needing to transport a disabled parent. It’s called a hardship license. They used to be popular and easy to get back in the day but I don’t think so many are getting them these days.
There are TONS of jobs, kids these days just dont want to WORK.
I don't think that was even taken into consideration when the article was written..........
I was was just telling my sister about how guys and cars used to be.
I remember the guys loved their cars and couldn’t wait to have one,work on it and show it off.
You go by a HS now and .....what a difference!They drive mom and dad’s MB,BMW,Prius.That’s why they don’t need cars.
I’m not taking PT.It’s crazy out here in Ca.Someone is always ranting,swearing,fighting on the bus and transit.
Forget it.
A lot of states do learner permits at 14 and 15. Farming and whatnot.
I got my drivers license in IL when I was 17 but didn't own my own car until after I got married at 22. I didn't really need a car much when I was in college anyway.
Hi Buckeye! My next to youngest just turned 18, he got his license at 16 1/2 (permit here in PA at 16; 50 hours and six months til test). His insurance is a lot more now than when his next oldest brother (now 23 and off our policy) had when he was a teen—rates have gone up significantly. Our youngest will soon turn 15...once against they have changed the Driver’s Ed protocols and I have read it will change again(longer permit time—older minimum age) when he gets license.
Add in the draconian laws HAVE TO CARRY PROOF that other teens in car are siblings (youngest has to keep school Id with him because we know of another large family that had to “present proof” to Magistrate) of older siing driving younger siblings.
Throw in, as you noted, Cash for Clunkers taking away perfectly good older cars...and no wonder why teens dont drive.
When I was stationed at Ft. Riley, KS some time back, 14 year olds could get limited driver's licenses to get them to school and back. Apparently the population density was so low in some of the bigger farming areas that it was not cost effective to provide bussing. I think a few other mid-west farming states have, or at least had, similar licensing.
Having said that, I really doubt many, if any, 14 year olds would have owned their cars.
According to the table in Wikipedia the following states offer learner's permits at 14:
AK, AR, ID*, IA, KS, MI**, MT***, ND, SD, WY.
*14 yrs 6 mos
**14 yrs 8 mos
***14 yrs 6 mos
“most teens have pretty much given up even trying to get a license until after they turn 18.”
Yep. My son just turned 20 and is not yet licensed. My older daughter was licensed at 17 but she was able to get a summer job back then to pay the expenses on a cheap car. My son has worked hard trying to get a summer job for the last three years and there is just nothing out there in a reasonable enough distance of our home to make car costs worth it. It is very frustrating for my son and his friends who *want* to work. Virtually all fast food jobs in our area, for example, which used to be held by teens are now filled by adults who couldn’t get any other employment.
Under all the new laws, the costs of driver’s ed for mid teens are prohibitive. You have to pay for both behind-the-wheel and online classes, plus the high insurance rates. (It cost us over $100 a month last summer just to insure him while he learned to drive on a permit.) As mentioned here, cash for clunkers also helped remove cheap cars from the market. He’s now away at college where he lives and works on campus and doesn’t need a car. At this rate I’m thinking he may not be a licensed driver until he graduates college and (we pray) has a job.
Now is the time for all young Americans to avoid buying anything that they don’t need, become more self-sufficient each month and become more technically skilled. Have fun. Enjoy the slide. Take out the trash.
Being around teens all the time, my take on it is that it is far too expensive. The insurance companies charge punitive rates that discourage teen driving, and sky-high gas prices also discourage it. Add to it double-digit unemployment and you find a lot of parents who can barely afford to drive themselves- forget about getting the kids a car.
I live in a college town. Before the economy tanked, the side streets were packed with cars in my neighborhood. Not anymore...
It’s STUDENT LOANS. These psych majors have to live at home now, since they otherwise don’t have a prayer in paying back their loans. It’s also gentrification of the cities - now young singles and couples can live in at least some of the cities and not get rolled every month. So they do...and they don’t need cars there.
“Fast Eddie Rendell’s plan to slap toll booths on I-80 and make all the rest of you pay for them blew up in his face, and they have no other plan.”
I will ALWAYS be indebted to the Obama Administration for stopping that crap. PA still could have had its tolls on I-80, BUT NOT TO PAY FOR BIG-CITY JERKS.
In other words, Agenda 21 is going according to plan...
Tried to get a hardship license for one of my children a couple of years ago and was asked by the DMV answering the phone, What kind of parent was I to do such a thing?
It is on the books but it is unavailable in our state.
North Dakota sitll has restricted licenses for those under the age of 16 (learner's permit at 14).
Look at the price of a new car, or even a good used car, upkeep (tougher to do yourself than in the past), and fuel, and small wonder.
Let’s have a study on the 15 trillion dollar Federalites, and show us how many cars/vehicles they drive, and how many cars and SUVs are in their garages.
And how many of their bureaucrat teenage kids have a vehicle to drive.
A bigger problem - by far - is the complacency of many teens today in terms of getting a job and/or money. Besides the fact that jobs are hard to come by in many places and those that are for this age range don't easily pay for a car and insurance.
Finally, after ‘Cash for Clunkers’ the range of suitable cars for kids has gone down and the price has gone up.
In all, driving today is probably a lot more difficult and expensive than is was when I was a teenager - during the reign of Amenhotep.
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