I was tipped off to a Financial Times article on why young folks are choosing to drive less – though not forgo altogether getting a license – by Drudge via Twitter, but the article requires a free but annoying subscription.
So I found another one published recently by the Denver Post likely inspired by some of the same background research. It documents how people roughly in their twenties (16-34) are driving less over time. Apparently this group drove 20% less in 2009 than their peers in 2001. And citing the Federal Highway Administration’s National Household Travel Survey, the article states that the youthful took “24 percent more bike trips in 2009 than they took in 2001,” and that “the number of passenger miles traveled by the same group on public transit increased by 40 percent.”
This recalls a post of mine from last year, ruminating on what’s going on with menfolk and their standard of living. Of course that post was about guys of all ages (sort of), not both guys and girls of a younger age. In any case, be it the economy, immaturity or shifting values – and the Denver Post article seems to lean upon the latter – youth are getting away from cars.
A 24 year old quoted in the article offers what I’d describe as a combination of immaturity and shifting values, giving away her educated self-selection into a more progressive lifestyle in the process:
I would rather have good public transportation options than the hassle and expense of driving a car. Our leaders should focus on building a 21st-century transportation network that provides lots of alternatives to driving.
Indeed. Patching a bike tire is a breeze compared to changing one on a car. (Took me an hour once.)
April 19, 2012 at 7:47 am
Relatively unsurprising. I’d guess young people are tending toward the cities, where there’s less need to drive. It helps that they’re all going to college, which is another environment that tends to have relatively little need for driving.
April 19, 2012 at 9:09 am
I don’t know how relevant this is to your average young person, but it’s my main reason for not driving: driving makes it the government’s business what chemicals are in your blood stream. It’s opting in to the police state. Especially now that they can arrest and strip-search you for traffic infractions.
April 19, 2012 at 10:18 am
Sister Y, don’t you live in LA? That’s rough.
April 22, 2012 at 12:38 pm
Driving in LA is what’s rough.
April 19, 2012 at 6:24 pm
Speaking personally, I’m a child of the suburbs and driving seems natural. But after I got a job downtown and my car broke down I decided to just move and then get around by bike.
agnostic slots the reduction in youth driving with his narrative about rising vs falling crime. Regarding men specifically, he points out that males in a number of age groups are now less likely to have drivers’ licenses than females, a reversal of the previous ordering.
April 20, 2012 at 4:35 pm
Regarding men specifically, he points out that males in a number of age groups are now less likely to have drivers’ licenses than females, a reversal of the previous ordering.
Males are much more likely than females to have suspended or revoked licenses.
April 21, 2012 at 11:45 am
That still raises the question of why the ratio has changed over time.
April 24, 2012 at 3:15 pm
I’m surprised no commenter has mentioned the high cost of buying and fuelling an automobile as a cause.
The “cash for clunkers” program removed many older used cars from the market that might have been afforded by persons of modest means. See:
http://content.usatoday.com/communities/driveon/post/2011/01/as-2011-begins-used-car-prices-are-skyrocketing-/1#.T5cWu0bCSs0
In addition to this, gasoline prices have more than doubled from December 2008 through March 2012. See:
http://money.cnn.com/2008/12/25/news/economy/gas_prices/index.htm
And:
http://money.cnn.com/2012/03/28/news/economy/gas-prices-aaa/index.htm
Young people typically do not have much money, and may indeed be heavily burdened by debt incurred to pay for post-secondary education. Unemployment rates for persons 24 years of age and under are in the double digits. Few younger people have the money to buy cars outright. Auto loans or leasing require the applicant to have an acceptable credit rating, which is tied in good part to an adequate income from steady employment.
The observation that “males in a number of age groups are now less likely to have drivers’ licenses than females, a reversal of the previous ordering” may also be connected to unemployment. Unemployment rates among younger males are notably higher than those among younger females – in the 20-24 year age bracket, the rate for males as of March 2012 was 14.1%, and for females was 12.2%.
See:
http://www.bls.gov/web/empsit/cpseea10.htm
April 24, 2012 at 6:29 pm
You are reaching too hard to be topical. agnostic’s data precedes cash for clunkers, these trends go back a ways.
April 25, 2012 at 12:36 am
The rising cost of automobiles relative to average incomes goes back a ways, too – farther back than cash for clunkers. That was only one of the more recent economic factors contributing to the noted trend.
It has been at least a dozen years since auto dealers’ display ads in the local newspapers where I live began to show monthly lease rates rather than purchase prices for cars. This change marked a point at which the advertisers (at least) must have felt that publishing the purchase price would drive off potential buyers because it seemed too high, and thought it more appealing to show a lease rate of X hundred dollars a month instead of a purchase price of Y tens of thousands.
Customers’ habits have changed across the market, from top to bottom, because of higher costs. Forty years ago, it was not uncommon for a middle class family to trade in an old car for a new one every two or three years. The average length of ownership is much longer now. Those most sensitive to these increased costs will of course be found disproportionately amongst the young, who have always been relatively poorer than those in middle or old age.
May 6, 2012 at 2:32 am
Used cars are more expensive than they used to be, perhaps because Mexico stopped limiting importation of American used cars in 2005.
May 6, 2012 at 2:34 am
I walked by two young men taking a smoke break outside the retail store where they worked. The smarter looking one was explaining: “A DUI costs you about $10,000.”
May 6, 2012 at 2:38 am
New cars are pretty cheap relative to the past, but used cars aren’t, unless you are personally handy at repairs, which fewer and fewer young men are these days.
June 1, 2012 at 5:16 pm
If young women are more likely to drive than young men, while both groups are less likely to drive then they were decades ago, then:
(1) Student loan debt probably isn’t the reason for the change.
(2) men being less handy at repairs probably isn’t the reason for the change.
DUI’s survives as a reason for the gender flip.
The cost of cars (and of gas!) survives as a reason for the overall decline.
This trend conflicts with (but doesn’t contradict) the rise in obesity in the USA (and the world).