A big one is the end of Driver’s Education in school. When my mother was in school, she got a semester including in-car training. By the time I was in school, we had a semester long sit-down course where we watched Red Asphalt and did practice written tests, but we were on our own and out a few hundred dollars if we wanted behind-the-wheel training. I wouldn’t be surprised if in today’s competitive academic environment, schools are reluctant to spend their time and money on a non-academic course.
Another is that teens are working less, indeed, teens are working much less. This is a mix of a more competitive job market, a decline in working class jobs (which push the previous working class people into the service jobs that used to be manned by teens), and increased academic demands and emphasis on college rather than going directly into the workforce. Working less makes it harder to afford and maintain a car, and less necessary to have one.
A final major factor is the increased restrictions on teen driving. Today, it is relatively rare for a 16 year old to have an unrestricted license. Instead, as a teen you probably face limits on what hours you can drive in, who can be in your car, etc. A driver’s license is no longer a ticket to freedom. A teen license is just a little notching up on freedom.
One more factor is that with more students attending university, universities are getting increasingly crowded and parking is a major pressure. At my undergrad, first and second students were not allowed a parking space, at all under any circumstances. All other students entered a lottery, with only a percentage of them being awarded the right to buy a parking pass. And the parking pass was very expensive for a student- I see today that it is $500 for the school year. The school did, however, provide excellent transportation, with frequent free busses into town (arriving every 10 minutes), twice-weekly shuttles to the supermarket, daily busses to nearby cities, special event busses to get people to Halloween and New Year’s Parties, and even an after-hours program where students could get a limited number of free taxi rides.
All of this adds up to make driving more expensive and less alluring for young people than it once was.
This. They have 900 different ways to communicate now, so face to face meetings aren’t as important. In addition, the car was a social thing, driving places together or what-have-you. Many state laws have made using the vehicle as a social meeting place significantly more difficult.
For us folks who grew up in the 70’s and 80’s, a car was freedom, a place to hang out, a place to jam your music and a place for getting jiggy. To many younger kids, it’s just a medium of transport from A to B.
There are so many reasons why teens aren’t learning to drive as quickly as they used to, as have been mentioned:
– When I was a teen, driver’s ed was part of the high school curriculum, specifically part of Phys. Ed. So it was free, and just about every student took it. It’s no longer covered in most school districts and it is quite expensive.
– When I was a teen, if you wanted to do anything fun with your friends, someone had to drive. Because you had to physically get together to have fun. The only alternative was to talk on the phone, which was a very poor substitute. Now kids seem to have plenty of fun “together” virtually.
– One of the main ways we had fun as teens was just to drive around the neighborhood together. Many places have tight restrictions on teen driving now that eliminates a lot of that behavior. For example, in California a new teen driver can’t have another minor as a passenger in a car he’s driving except for certain specific exceptions. That means many of the reasons we used to drive in the first place are no longer possible.
If I had to learn how to drive now, I’d be screwed. Not only would I have to pay for a class, but I wouldn’t have any opportunity to practice, since I live alone and don’t have access to a patient person willing to coach me in their car.
But as a kid, I didn’t have these hurdles. I didn’t take a driver’s ed class in school because my school didn’t offer one, so the responsibility was left to my parents to teach me. And since we were always driving places, I was given ample practice time.
I can chime in. I’m 29, and don’t drive. In short, always had a fear about driving, but fortunately, I happen to live in a good region with public transportation.
With bigger ticket items like a TV, yeah, I use Amazon.
Yes, I go to the grocery store more often with the bus than when I received a ride from family/friends (on average, 2-3 times a week now), and yes, I only buy what I can carry. I also shop ahead on items with a longer shelf life, which saves on trips. For example, with something like Paper Towels, I make a trip specifically for them, and grab about 2 month supply at a time.
Really, about the only time I need a ride anymore is when there’s a special event, like birthday party, school play, or annual Christmas Dinner at my Mom’s. Otherwise, 98 percent of the time the bus is all I need anymore.
Well for one, learning to drive is frightening.
When I first started it was hard to keep the car in the lane because, and I was completely new to controlling something with a steering wheel.
It very much depends on where you are. As for me, I grew up on a farm, learned to drive at 9 on a farm tractor then the pickup. We had to have a vehicle to go anywhere, even the store. I rode a school bus until 14 because the school was too far away to ride my bike to except occasionally. I was encouraged by my parents to get my license at 14 and also to buy my first car that year (big mistake on my parents part!). Now, if I had grown up in a city with good public transportation, my story might have been different.
Well, yeah. And the subway. Babies and kids on the subway is a daily, normal site. That said, 95% of our needs can be taken care of within walking distance. Our pediatrician is just a block away. I am within a 10 minute walk to two grocery stores, three drug stores, a half-dozen parks and playgrounds, two toy stores, a book store, a public pool, a baby yoga place, a dozen day cares, our dentist, her doctor…basically anything you could need.
Children are also capable of riding on taxis, and we do that on occasion. I can hail a taxi on my street within five minutes.
I am getting my license so I can help get her to Grandmas house easier.
Our sixteen year old has his permit and is starting to practice driving, but doesn’t seem to be in a huge hurry. Again, it’s a combination of factors. He can get downtown where the movie theaters are by foot or by bus, and he can take the subway into the city. If one of us isn’t available to take him to his guitar lesson he takes the bus. He could have taken a class over the summer, but the only one available was a 8 am. He decided to wait until a better slot was available. Even after my in laws gave him there old car he hasn’t been in a huge hurry. Other kids his age we know haven’t shown a desire to get a permit yet.
If a person lives in a place where adults can get around using public transit, that person will be able to get kids around using public transit. Is it harder to get kids around using public transit than it is to get yourself around? Sure, but that’s a function of having kids, not public transit. It was harder to get my kids around using a car than it was to get myself around, too.
I remember gas costing less than 70c/gallon in the 1970s. It’s an odd thing how, on the two occasions in my life I remember asking someone who was going my way to give me a lift, they granted it, but told me how incensed they were that I should ask. One time was on a train approaching Del Mar, CA when on learning that a fellow UCSD student had her car at the station, I asked her to drive me down to campus as well. I’m pretty sure I didn’t ask right out of the blue; we’d already been talking some. She said it was “bogue” of me to ask. Another time, during HS, I asked a friend I’d known all through school to do it; to be fair my house was about a mile or two beyond his. Likewise, he drove me but made it pretty clear I was not to ask again.
By contrast, people seemed more willing to lend cars.
ETA: And having just looked up “bogue” at Urban Dictionary, I’m insulted! I knew it wasn’t good. But “disgusting”, “alarming”, and “ruinous”?
I can certainly understand how drivers might become incensed at constantly being begged for lifts by non-drivers, but that wasn’t me. I usually had a car or otherwise made my arrangements in advance, and in general have been much oftener a giver of lifts than a beggar for them.
I didn’t get my regular license until I went to college.
Not because I didn’t want to drive. I didn’t bother because I knew hell would freeze over before my mother would let me borrow the gorram car. She seemed to think that I’d run amok and have a drug-fuelled orgy with a biker gang the second I left the house.
Mind you, I’d had the same group of friends since 4th grade (the freaky geeks, all in AP classes with high GPAs).
I found out years later that mom had her own wild teen years, and assumed I’d be the same way. :smack:
My 15 year old is in Drivers Ed and mentioned to his mother that he probably wouldn’t get his license until he could afford a car. I told him that was short thinking and that, if he didn’t buy a car until he was 18 (for example) he would be two years out of practice before he got his license. Also, since we have two cars, he might not be able to rely on having one for regular commuting but he’d still be able to do things like go out to the games shop during the evening without having to coax me to come along. Since he had parents paying the insurance there really wasn’t any downside to being licensed and plenty of upsides. He said he hadn’t thought of that and agreed that he may as well get licensed once he turned 16.
It makes me quite pleased to see that my 17-year-old niece is driving herself to school now and is working on getting her motorcycle license. She’s your typical suburban academically-minded, geeked-out teenaged girl. But she’s also growing up in a way that is familiar to me and her mother. I like thinking that someone who can successfully handle Atlanta rush hour traffic will be able to handle whatever shit life throws at her. I know that’s pollyannish. I know it’s possible to be crippled by anxieties and still be made out of tough stuff. But it still makes me feel like she’s on the road towards independence and living her dreams. Just picturing her on a motorcycle makes me want to clap and cheer.
Seriously? Hving a kid in my family choose a motorcyle would make me cringe and cry. It’s not a matter of their competence, it’s a matter of being so much more vulnerable and exposed to all the other idiots behind the wheel.
