# What happened to teenagers "cruising"? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 8, 2016, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-teenagers-cruising/771021 "2016-11-08T00:14:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2016, 6:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-teenagers-cruising/771021/21 "2016-11-08T06:39:03Z")
> [@Dr.Strangelove](#): > > Where I grew up (Sacramento area, graduated 1996) it was illegal on many streets–marked specifically with NO CRUISING signs. Yep, it was where I live, too. Uuuuuge fines. Enforced. ---
**Author:** ![joyfool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/df788c/32.png) [@joyfool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joyfool)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2016, 9:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-teenagers-cruising/771021/22 "2016-11-08T09:48:49Z")
> [@ZipperJJ](#): > > Is it, tho? 🆒 It’s a new world for darn sure but just because kids aren’t meeting up outside your local strip mall in the middle of the night doesn’t mean they aren’t socializing. Kids today probably know kids from way further away than you knew when you were a teen. > > When I was a kid the BBS was my thing so I was meeting other kids from all across my area code (because outside of my area code was long distance and no one long-distance dialed to connect to a BBS). We met in person sometimes but even then we did a lot of talking on the phone and online. Now that has evolved 20 years on and kids are for sure still super social, both with people they know locally and no doubt their various communities online. Pretty neat! Nooooo, I think it’s cool how kids are today, despite my befuddlement. I remember lots of awful shenanigans that kids from my school got up to during these extra-curricular activities, so I’m sure any decrease in fights or pregnancies can’t be viewed as anything but positive. And what I’m meant, clumsily, by “insular” was as in “the whole world.” We do know everyone now from everywhere, so what once seemed big and unattainable (like friendships from half way around the planet), are commonplace. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2016, 12:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-teenagers-cruising/771021/23 "2016-11-08T12:03:25Z")
I remember cruising being a thing during my childhood in the 1980s. It was a small town and all traffic (even emergency vehicles, if they were needed) was slowed to a crawl every Saturday and Sunday night (or maybe it was every Friday and Saturday night) so the town banned it. ---
**Author:** ![epbrown01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7ba0ec/32.png) [@epbrown01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/epbrown01)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2016, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-teenagers-cruising/771021/24 "2016-11-08T13:02:03Z")
> [@Chimera](#): > > Like everything else, it moved online. As others have posted, cruising pretty much became a crime in most places long before the internet and social media took hold. If it were possible, I think it would come back in force- teens have found substitutes for interaction with social media, but given the option of hassle-free unsupervised in-person grouping, hormones alone would get them out of the house. ---
**Author:** ![Waxwinged](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c2a13f/32.png) [@Waxwinged](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Waxwinged)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2016, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-teenagers-cruising/771021/25 "2016-11-08T14:35:17Z")
Out here in the city, they still do. It generally involves obnoxiously loud music and casual harassment of female pedestrians, too. ---
**Author:** ![MandaJo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ac91a4/32.png) [@MandaJo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MandaJo)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2016, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-teenagers-cruising/771021/26 "2016-11-08T14:41:03Z")
> [@WhyNot](#): > > That’s the other piece - kids today are less likely to have jobs. High school jobs are on the decline, thanks to a combination of higher stakes testing, mandatory community service hours, an emphasis on extra-curriculars to impress colleges… I would add to that that the real decrease in minimum wage along with the rise in car/insurance prices has had an effect: you used to get a job so that you could afford a car. But now the job won’t support the car, so you have neither. ---
**Author:** ![Barkis\_is\_Willin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a183cd/32.png) [@Barkis\_is\_Willin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barkis_is_Willin)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2016, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-teenagers-cruising/771021/27 "2016-11-08T14:50:38Z")
Kids aren’t interested in cars anymore. Half the fun of cruising was showing off your car and/or your aftermarket sound system. My friends and I had cheap, old beaters that we modified in glorious ways. Kids found other stuff to do. ---
**Author:** ![DrCube](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a3d4f5/32.png) [@DrCube](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrCube)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2016, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-teenagers-cruising/771021/28 "2016-11-08T15:04:19Z")
In Illinois, you can’t drive with other teenagers in the car until you’re 18. Hell, you can’t do much besides drive with your parents, during daylight hours, to work. I wouldn’t even get a driver’s license in high school if I was that age today. It’s pointless. Wait until you’re 18 and can drive for real, with passengers, at night, to none-of-your-business-land. ---
**Author:** ![Pixel\_Dent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/bc8723/32.png) [@Pixel\_Dent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pixel_Dent)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2016, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-teenagers-cruising/771021/29 "2016-11-08T15:09:43Z")
Just an amusing anecdote. One of my relatives lived in a town with an anti-cruising ordinance which basically said that you couldn’t drive by a certain point in down town more than twice an hour. Well he was a pizza delivery guy and there weren’t any alternative routes between the pizza shop and the local college campus so he kept getting ticketed. The local judge was sympathetic and not only did he keep throwing out the tickets, after about the 5th one he informed “officer Obie” that if any pizza delivery guy appeared in his court with a cruising ticket again he was going to find Obie in contempt. ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2016, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-teenagers-cruising/771021/30 "2016-11-08T15:13:21Z")
Because they all have cars now. Back then only a few were able to buy their own car, so everyone piled in the one car feeling privileged to experience this mode of transportation as a free soul, not under the direct authority of their parents. With almost every teen getting a car as a right of passage, the social aspect of cruising is gone. ---
**Author:** ![control-z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2016, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-teenagers-cruising/771021/31 "2016-11-08T15:44:09Z")
It still happens, especially in rural areas. The teens drive around and tend to congregate in parking lots, but they often wear out their welcome and have to find new places to converge. ---
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2016, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-teenagers-cruising/771021/32 "2016-11-08T15:51:22Z")
I grew up in East Texas, where the OP is listed as from. And graduated HS a few years before she did. Cruising along the main strip was a common place activity on Friday and Saturday nights. On Friday’s it was after the local football game. For me it stopped when I graduated HS. If think for future generations, it slowed down and is virtually non-existent for many of the reasons listed above, but I would add that many kids today, wait till later to get their driver’s licenses, for a variety of reasons (high cost of insurance; less need to drive due to online presence, etc.) Cheers to days gone by of cruising the local drag! ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2016, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-teenagers-cruising/771021/33 "2016-11-08T15:55:43Z")
Can you cruise in Uber? ---
**Author:** ![Me\_Billy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e480ec/32.png) [@Me\_Billy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Me_Billy)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2016, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-teenagers-cruising/771021/34 "2016-11-08T15:56:30Z")
They now “text” anywhere and everywhere - even when driving. And that is the only thing they know how to do or will do.\* \*There are a few exceptions. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2016, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-teenagers-cruising/771021/35 "2016-11-08T17:54:01Z")
> [@kanicbird](#): > > With almost every teen getting a car as a right of passage This is in IHMO, not GQ, so I won’t bother to ask, “Cite?”, but I think that this is, as a general statement about U.S. teens, seriously incorrect. In some wealthier communities, it might be true (but I suspect it’s as true now as it was decades ago). I don’t have children of my own, but, anecdotally, my age is such that most of my contemporaries do have children in their teens and early 20s, and most of them live in upper-middle-class communities. And, very, very few of those kids had their own cars as teen drivers. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2016, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-teenagers-cruising/771021/36 "2016-11-08T17:55:33Z")
My kid doesn’t cruise up and down a single drag but he does come home telling me about how they just picked a direction drove for an hour or something. Of course, we’re in the outer suburbs of Chicago so it’s a coin flip if 60min in one direction puts you in the Loop or a cornfield. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2016, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-teenagers-cruising/771021/37 "2016-11-08T17:58:29Z")
From an article about Millennials, and their relative lack of interest in car ownership: > [@](#): > > From 2007 to 2011, the number of cars purchased by people aged 18 to 34, fell almost 30%, and according to a study from the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, only 44% of teens obtain a driver’s license within the first year of becoming eligible and just half, 54% are licensed before turning 18. This is a major break with the past, considering how most teens of the two previous generations would race to the DMV for their license or permit on the day of their 16th birthday. [https://www.fastcoexist.com/3027876/millennials-dont-care-about-owning-cars-and-car-makers-cant-figure-out-why](https://www.fastcoexist.com/3027876/millennials-dont-care-about-owning-cars-and-car-makers-cant-figure-out-why) ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2016, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-teenagers-cruising/771021/38 "2016-11-08T19:28:04Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > This is in IHMO, not GQ, so I won’t bother to ask, “Cite?”, but I think that this is, as a general statement about U.S. teens, seriously incorrect. In some wealthier communities, it might be true (but I suspect it’s as true now as it was decades ago). > > I don’t have children of my own, but, anecdotally, my age is such that most of my contemporaries do have children in their teens and early 20s, and most of them live in upper-middle-class communities. And, very, very few of those kids had their own cars as teen drivers. Anecdotally, pretty much everyone I knew had a car in high school and college. They didn’t have to be particularly nice or expensive cars. My brother bought an old junker for $100 bucks (back in the early 90s). It was intended to get him to his summer job for a few months, but ended up lasting for like 3 years. Other friends had cheap old used Escorts, Gremlins, Pacers, K-Cars and the like. I’d be curious on the actual stats, but I kind of feel like unless you live in an urban area where cars aren’t needed, a significant number of teens in the US get cars. Particularly if you live in more suburban or rural areas. It may be that (as kenobi 65 described), kids these days simply aren’t as interested in owning cars because much of their socializing can be done through the internet and social media. Growing up in the 80s and 90s, we didn’t have that. If you didn’t drive or know someone who did, you were kind of stuck on Friday and Saturday nights. Our town was really to rural to have a “main drag”. Mostly we just had about half a dozen “spots” (typically parking lots for fast food restaurants and strip malls) we would collect in. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2016, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-teenagers-cruising/771021/39 "2016-11-08T19:42:45Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > I’d be curious on the actual stats, but I kind of feel like unless you live in an urban area where cars aren’t needed, a significant number of teens in the US get cars. Particularly if you live in more suburban or rural areas. I actually did try to find some stats on just that (actual auto ownership by teens), but a quick Google search didn’t yield anything useful. IANAL, but a complicating factor may be that, if you’re under 18, you technically may not be able to “buy / own your own car”. At least, that was the gist of a legal case I had to study during one of my business law classes in college: if you’re under 18, you can’t legally be a party in a contract (such as the purchase of a car), and, thus, if you “buy a car”, it might actually be that it’s your parent who’s buying it. Regardless, what I’ve seen, in addition to teens who just aren’t that interested in getting a license, is that many teens who _do_ drive are using one of the family’s cars, rather than having their own car. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2016, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-teenagers-cruising/771021/40 "2016-11-08T21:26:57Z")
I never saw it when I was growing up in the 60s. Teenagers were more likely to go to the beach (there were several to choose from) and hang out there. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-teenagers-cruising/771021.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happened-to-teenagers-cruising/771021.md?page=3)