What happened to teenagers "cruising"?

In My Humble Opinion
41

California Law via AAA: http://teendriving.aaa.com/CA/supervised-driving/licensing-and-state-laws/

So at minimum in CA from age 16 to 17: no friends in the car, no cruising, no picking up your girlfriend, carpooling to school, etc.

When I was a kid, the driver’s license meant pure freedom. The scaled freedom slows down the attraction. It also seems to impact the dating scene as well. For my son, most “dates” were meeting up at the local mall with a gang of others. Again - you couldn’t just pick someone up and go out with them so parents had drop-off and pickup duty. Many of my son’s friends did not have a license until they were graduating, due to lack of interest and the perspective of too many limitations. We live in a wealthy enough area that the costs were not a significant issue.

With my younger son, it will be interesting to see how much of an impact Uber and Lyft have. For many parents I can see them choosing to just let their kids charge rides, for a LOT less than the cost of a car plus insurance.

42

How common are Uber and Lyft outside of dense urban communities where a significant number of people don’t own cars?

43

You have to consider Raves, too. Those are pretty popular with kids.

44

In my area this is very much not the case. Almost none of my son’s friends have their own cars, and with the restrictive laws for teen drivers, they cannot take their friends with them. Most did not or do not plan to get their license until they are over 18.

45

Here in South Dakota, one can get a full driver’s license at 16.

Of course, most farm kids have been driving for quite awhile before they turned 16.

46

We used to do it all the time, great memories. Some small rural towns seem to be made for that. You could do a short cruise or a long cruise or the even longer cruise. Or just go off the beaten path onto the side streets. Good times. Unfortunately, those days are going the way of the dodo bird as the small rural towns dry up and blow away. My hometown is pretty much a shell of what it was back then.

47

Most kids had cars when I was in high school (1987-1991, Houston), but I can’t say that the aforementioned 1950s style “cruising” was a thing in Houston. Car culture wasn’t a real thing in the western suburbs that I recall; most kids had relatively junky cars like **msmith537 **mentions.

Typically people did stuff- sometimes keg parties in secluded areas, sometimes just hanging out at someone’s house, sometimes going to the movies, sometimes going to clubs and what-not with under-18 admissions (had some great times at Fitzgerald’s and Zelda’s, FWIW).

48

Cruising leads to (hopefully) necking. Is there ANY current automobile you could neck in?

(Help a fella out. :smiley: )

49

I got out of high school in 1981 and never saw anybody cruising except in movies - and I wondered what the point of it was, just driving around for no apparent reason. Most of us had cars either at the end of high school or in college ( I grew up in NYC , but it was Queens, we had cars) but we drove to get somewhere- to the mall, to the club, to the empty parking lot in the middle of the park. Wherever- we didn’t just drive around all night.

50

I get one twice a week in suburban Orange County, CA. NEver have to wait more than 15 minutes for a pickup.

51

From 2007 to 2011…didn’t something happen in between those years that might’ve made it tougher for people to make any large purchase?

52

Very true, and I have no doubt that the recession was a factor. The author of that article acknowledges that, but goes on to say:

Now, I’m not sure that I entirely agree with him on this, and I’d be curious to see comparable numbers for auto ownership among other (i.e., older) people in that same time span. Regardless, those numbers (plus the documented drop in 16-17 year olds getting driver’s licenses, and stricter rules on teen drivers) all are factors in answering the OP’s question.

53

I don’t know… but I visited my wife’s family this past weekend, and my brother-in-law made the comment that my nephew (15) didn’t seem too interested in getting a driver’s license, and that driving wasn’t a thing among that crowd- they do all their socializing via social media and texting, and have the attitude that cars are bad for the environment, despite having their parents drive them everywhere they need to go.

Of course, this is Austin, so I’m not surprised that teenagers there would be particularly idiotic and out of touch with the real world.

54

The last large-scale “Cruisin’” I recall was “Low Rider”.

This town has developed a super-nasty “Double speed bump” - two well-sloped bumps about 10’ on centers (they are about 8’ wide).
I wasn’t here, but have been told that, just after these were installed, it was quite common to see low rider cars busted by the side of the street.

That is what happened to “Cruisin’” in one town.

A-sequential traffic lights destroyed the ancient drag strip in another town.

Maybe the kids’ addiction to their phones is just compensation for having been deprived of tradition rites of passage.

55

I also graduated in 1987, and yeah, cruising seemed to be a “thing,” but mostly only in smaller towns. In my hometown, the strip was Tastee Freeze to Dairy Queen, or Hardee’s to DQ, after Tastee Freeze closed. Endlessly. Weekend after soul-killing weekend. Because there is not a damned thing to do in East Bumfuck, Georgia if you’re a teenager and don’t have permission to go to the nearest town with a movie theater or arcade or skating rink. (Back then, that was 45 miles and two counties away. My same-age cousin stayed in that town, and that was literally the only entertainment when I’d go visit for a weekend.)

When I was in my early teens, we moved to a slightly larger college town - still largely rural then and now. Lots of us had cars by 16 or 17, and our kids still do - no public transportation, so it’s either your own (parents’) car, or a chauffeur. (It’s impractical to ride your bicycle 12 miles into town, especially on the dirt roads.) Back then, there was some cruising around here, but not a real “strip.” A lot of people around my age would, however, meet up and hang out at the KMart or Rose’s parking lot, to socialize, or show off their latest automotive modification, or such. But we were just as likely to meet up at the movies, or skating rink, or bowling alley - because those were actually options!

Today, I’d guesstimate that 75% of my kids’ peers have drivers license and a vehicle by the age of 17, but they don’t cruise. With graduated licensing, those cars and permits are mostly for school, work, and making Mom’s life more convenient (“Honey, pick your sister up from ballet at 4:30, and bring home a gallon of milk.”) (And yes, school buses are available. But by junior or senior year, it seems like the vast number of kids I know are joint-enrolled at one of the local colleges, working after school, and going to some extracurricular activity at least a couple of days per week. Easier to teach them to drive and provide some vehicle than driving 400 miles a week for Beta Club, a college sociology class, soccer practice, and 10 hours per week of bagging groceries at the Piggly Wiggly.)

They still socialize - in person and on phones and other devices. Just mostly not in cars.