According to a recent study, nearly a third of American 19-year-olds haven't bothered to get their driver's licenses yet. Three decades ago, it was just one in eight who skipped that right of passage, according to Michael Sivak, of the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute, or UMTRI. Among those 20 to 24, meanwhile, only 81 percent had gotten their licenses in 2010, down from 92 percent in 1983.
I would have willingly given up my left arm for my drivers license when I was seventeen years old. Without hesititation. The ability to hop in a car and drive, to go where I wanted when I wanted, was more than just a right of passage, but the embodiment of freedom.
And cars were cool. Guys had pictures of cars on their bedroom walls, the second most dreamed about thing for a teenage boy.
Having seen advertisements for cars over the past decade, I fully understand why young people aren't quite as juiced up about the current crop as I was in the 1970s, Detroit inertia, soccer moms and government regulation having sucked the fun out of cars. But still, even a minivan can get you far from your parents' watchful eyes, and isn't that what it's all about?
The post, which is primarily concerned with the impact of Gen X's indifference toward cars on the auto industry, makes a half-hearted effort to explain this phenomenon:
Why are young Americans losing their love affair with the automobile? There are any number of explanations. There's the economy, of course, which has even driven millions of older buyers out of the car market. Young buyers, in particular, are more likely to have to settle for higher interest – meaning costlier – subprime loans. Compounding matters, they're facing a market with higher unemployment and lower wages, and are leaving school saddled with massive loan debt.
Of course, that's all meaningless, anyway, for those who don't have a license and don't want one.
Yeah, that doesn't compute at all. We had no money, but that stopped no one from getting their license at the first opportunity.
The biggest reason behind this dwindling love affair might be a series of broad societal shifts. A recent analysis of census data found that for the first time since the launch of the Model T, America's urban population is growing faster than in the suburbs. Even Detroit, with its crumbling neighborhoods, has seen a revival in its downtown core.
Nope, that doesn't explain it either. Young people may be moving to the cities (because they can't afford a house and need a job), but that happens later, and explains nothing about their not getting a license.
Have you ever tried to take a cellphone or iPad away from a teenager? For a large percentage of Millennials, texting has become the preferred form of communication, and "Virtual contact reduces the need for actual contact," suggests UMTRI's Sivak. "We found that the percentage of young drivers was inversely related to the availability of the Internet."
This may be onto something. A generation ago, the only way to get away was to physically leave, to create separation of your bedroom with cowboy sheets and let the wind blow through your long hair. If your eyes are focused on a screen that provides a substitute for the world outside, you don't need to leave your bedroom to be anywhere. You match wits with a thousand disembodied screen names belonging to people you will never meet, never know, and it satisfies the primal need to connect with others. You find a website somewhere with people who validate you, and get your heroin right through the touchpad.
How did virtual existence replace the real thing? You can have virtual sex. Be a virtual hero fighting virtual aliens. Drive a virtual Healey. It's nothing like the real thing.
The idea of being 19 years old and unable to get any further away from home than you can walk or your mommy will drive you in the minivan is astounding. Is this really all you want out of life? Are you satisfied with a world that consists of a chatroom?
In a few hours, I plan to jump into this Healey and drive it as fast as the speed limit will allow. I plan to drive along the water, and stop along the way to meet up with some friends of mine, who will be there in person, one in a Healey BN4 and the other in Jaguar XK 120 drophead coupe.
Is the best you can ever hope for a video of someone doing this? That's not life. That's not freedom. And you can't even think of doing it because you don't have a drivers license.
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Source: http://blog.simplejustice.us/2012/09/02/millennials-have-no-drive.aspx?ref=rss
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