Posted on 04/19/2012 1:36:22 PM PDT by Chickensoup
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.
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