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U.S. Teenagers Are Driving Much Less: 4 Theories About Why

Posted by timothy on from the time-and-place-restrictions dept.

Paul Fernhout writes "U.S. teenagers just aren't as into driving as they used to be, U.S. government forecasters acknowledged in dramatically altered projections for transportation energy use over the next 25 years." Online presence is one of the reasons mentioned, which makes a lot of sense to me as a factor, no matter the age of the drivers involved. Whatever your age, do you drive less than you did 10 years ago?

37 of 635 comments (clear)

  1. Porn ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Before, teens needed to have a car to impress the girls ...

    Now, they just need an internet connection and some hand-cream.

    1. Re:Porn ... by JMJimmy · · Score: 5, Informative

      My fiance was plenty impressed by my Echo - she won't let me get a new car because the sub-compacts available don't compare.

      That said, there's a simple reason why people are driving less: cost. Fuel is more expensive but more importantly the insurance is crazy for those under 25. $3k/year or more vs $750-1100 for 25+

    2. Re:Porn ... by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Before, teens needed to have a car to impress the girls ...

      ...and today, it's difficult to impress a girl with a car with a car. ;-)

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
    3. Re:Porn ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Teens drivers are, on average, 4 times as likely to be involved in a crash. They're far more likely to engage in dangerous behaviors like driving drunk or texting. And teens are far less likely to wear a seat belt.

      If policies cost that much, it's because the actuaries arrived at that number for a reason. There's no conspiracy...if it should be cheaper, another competitor would charge less.

  2. Murica Fuck yea! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Celebrating how America is more energy efficient because its people can no longer afford to drive.

    1. Re:Murica Fuck yea! by beltsbear · · Score: 5, Insightful

      True! The cost of driving has risen. Mandatory insurance plus the price of gas and harder to repair old cars all contribute. I am not saying a teen cannot learn to fix cars, but more tools are needed then ever. I could have changed most wearing parts of my Delta-88 (teenage car) with tools my dad had lying around.

    2. Re:Murica Fuck yea! by Ubi_NL · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Then there's a long way to go. Petrol in Europe is still 6 times more expensive. No, really. 6 times.

      --

      If an experiment works, something has gone wrong.
    3. Re:Murica Fuck yea! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Then there's a long way to go. Petrol in Europe is still 6 times more expensive. No, really. 6 times.

      Yes, gas is much more expensive in Europe BUT :

      - most of our cities are tailored for people and not cars
      - we have very good public transportation that you americans can't even begin to comprehend
      - taking the car to the grocery store that's 100 meters from your place is just stupid.
      - so you only take the car when absolutely necessary.
      - Just imagine people living up to 100 km from Paris or London and commuting every day to the city on a train. No need to take the car. Saves you a freakton of money.
      - in the US because of your hyper developed suburbia without cars you die.

    4. Re:Murica Fuck yea! by plover · · Score: 5, Insightful

      There are a ton of historical reasons American cities are built the way they are. First, because almost all of your cities were built long before the existence of cars, American cities were created after the existence of cars. What you don't seen to understand is all the empty space we had 100 years ago. By comparison, the rest of the world is incredibly crowded and land is extremely expensive. Because American land was cheap, and cars were cheap, and gas was cheap, it was easy to live an extra mile away from the city and buy an acre or hectare to give yourself room. Honestly, if it was easily affordable, would you choose to continue to live cheek-to-cheek with your next door neighbor, sharing a wall with him and his noisy children and his smelly cooking, or would you like a garden of your own?

      As American cities grew, people found it very easy and affordable to move 10, 15, or 20 miles away from the city center, and do the same thing. (I know people now who commute 60 miles each way or more in order to live on 5 hectares of their own, or on a lakeshore.) Thus begat suburbs.

      Of course, living 20 miles from the city means you don't want to drive 15 miles to the grocery store, so people built grocery stores out near the houses. But they're still a mile or five away from most people.

      Because the suburban population density is so low compared to the rest of the world, infrastructure is much more expensive. Cities can't afford to run a bus down every suburban street, and the buses can't afford to go every market or shop. So bus stops are often a mile or more from many suburban residents, and they only take you to the main city, never to neighboring suburbs or even to local shops.

      We were built on cheap gas, and now we have to make some serious urban changes to fix it. And those are very expensive.

      --
      John
    5. Re:Murica Fuck yea! by Hognoxious · · Score: 4, Insightful

      What do you do, go once a month and only buy things in cans or glass bottles?

      Or are you just a pencil-necked flid? A medium rucksack load does five of us for a few days.

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
    6. Re:Murica Fuck yea! by sandertje · · Score: 4, Informative

      You ever heard of muscle power? I dunno about you, but my weekly groceries tend to fit in two bags that I can easily carry all by myself. Plus that, if you live within walking distance of a supermarket, it gets convenient to just buy the DAILY groceries on your commute from work.

    7. Re:Murica Fuck yea! by DarkOx · · Score: 4, Interesting

      No, actually we Americans probably pay the most for gasoline, we just do it indirectly. A huge portion of our income taxes and inflationary debts go to fund the worlds largest military apparatus, which disproportionately expends its efforts in or near oil producing regions, theoretically at least ensuring a constant supply.

      Lefties don't understand why we can't have all the social programs of Europe, and Righties don't understand why we have to have personal income taxes that are so high, and corporate taxes that are event higher, in both cases its because we are paying to make cheap gasoline available.

      --
      Repeal the 17th Amendment TODAY! Also Please Read http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html
    8. Re:Murica Fuck yea! by westlake · · Score: 4, Informative

      There are a ton of historical reasons American cities are built the way they are. First, because almost all of your cities were built long before the existence of cars, American cities were created after the existence of cars.

      Most American cities were built after the invention of the railroad. (ca 1825)

      The move to the suburbs was well established before the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge. (1883) Streetcar suburb

      Before Amazon,com, there was the Sears, Roebuck catalog. "The World's Largest Store." offering convenient and affordable rural and suburban home delivery.

      There are many, many forces which resist centralization in the states.

    9. Re:Murica Fuck yea! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I agree. A lot of my friends who visited usa complain about the abysmal state of public transport there. Every single one of them said that you _need_ to have your own car to really be able to move around. The odd one has mentioned that new york is better but not really comparable to the cities in Europe which have decent public transport.

      In the Netherlands, I was impressed by the public transportation system and felt like "Why would I need my own car here? On the rare occasions that I need it, I can just rent one". This is reflected on the streets. The number of people using cars is very small compared to those who use public transport.

    10. Re:Murica Fuck yea! by dryeo · · Score: 4, Interesting

      The automobile industry also had a lot to do with the current situation by buying up the public (which actually was private) transportation and shutting it down. As Westlake says, the cities were spreading out before the automobile, just in a more sane manner, eg following the tram lines and railroads.
      For better or worse, the market has a heavy influence on development and their aim is not to improve the average persons life, but to sell something.

      --
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverted_totalitarianism
    11. Re:Murica Fuck yea! by fahrbot-bot · · Score: 4, Insightful

      - taking the car to the grocery store that's 100 meters from your place is just stupid.

      How are you going to get the groceries back home, make 10 trips? I think I'd prefer to drive.

      My wife lived in Spain for a year, way back in the day, and said people typically did a small shop every (or every other) day buying a few fresh things they needed for that day or the next few. Here in 'murica, we tend to do big, infrequent shops buying lots of stuff all at once - often pre/packaged stuff, with lots of preservatives.

      --
      It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
    12. Re: Murica Fuck yea! by Cimexus · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Very true. I'm Australian and moved to America last year, so I have some personal experience of this.

      In Australia I lived around 500 metres from the closest grocery store and we often walked there and filled a couple of large hessian bags with groceries and walked back. The groceries would last several days. The walk itself took 15 minutes out of your day and was a pleasant stroll through low density suburbia - on the sidewalk at first, then on a bike path behind the local high school, past a park and over a pedestrian bridge to the local shopping area.

      I now live in America in a similar suburban area (large homes on separate blocks etc.) and the closest supermarket is, by luck, even closer. Maybe 150 metres or so - can literally see the roof of it out the window. However, despite the area being very similar in terms of density and layout, walking there is significantly more difficult. Firstly, while my street has a sidewalk, some don't. From where I am, I have to walk down this unsaved embankment next to a road and look very awkward in doing so. Not to mention its covered with knee deep snow this time of year. Secondly I then have to cross a four lane road and there is no tunnel, bridge or signalled pedestrian crossing like you'd find in Australia - even right across from the shopping area (which is reasonably sized with a supermarket, pharmacy, hairdresser, restaurants ... at least 15 businesses located together, so you'd think there'd be quite a few people trying to get there?)

      So while you can walk there, it's much less convenient/pleasant. I have been guilty of the drive 100 metres to the store thing myself, even though I would never have done so back home, despite living in a very similar suburban area (Australia is just as suburbanised as the US, not like Europe at all, and yet has much better pedestrian access to things than here).

    13. Re:Murica Fuck yea! by PrimaryConsult · · Score: 4, Informative

      The worst part is, many towns build around railroads exorcised their train stations and rail lines. So places which once had a centrally located rail station now have a trail running through downtown, and (at best) a station 10 miles away from town with a parking lot the size of the town. Even worse, the "network effect" of a local bus system bringing people to downtown (which works great with downtown train stations) is lost because the train station is now at a "spoke" of the system, rather than the hub.

      And the above is the best case scenario. At worst, they didn't even bother putting in a replacement station, and the area became completely automobile-ized.

    14. Re:Murica Fuck yea! by AthanasiusKircher · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Every family is a single person family? Or every member can carry their own shopping? How about we assume that it is better for a single person to do a family's shopping, and you can state how any of this is relevant.

      Umm, you just go to the grocery store more often. Seriously, is this that hard to understand?

      Just about every normal person in continental Europe goes to the store at least every other day, often every day. You get fresh food -- fresh fruits, fresh vegetables, fresh meats, fresh baked goods. Everything tastes a heck of a lot better, and you only have to pay for a refrigerator and pantry about 1/3 or 1/4 of the size of an American one.

      I know you think this may take up a lot of time, but frankly it's worth it -- for the better quality of fresh food. Most Europeans simply plan their daily commute around making a trip to the store (many general stores are located near subway stops and such in major cities, so you can simply stop in on your way home during your commute).

      In American supermarkets, the bonus is that you can almost always go through the "15 items or less" or whatever lane, so check-out is significantly faster if you shop often and carry your goods by hand.

      When I was single (in the U.S.), I used to live a few blocks from a grocery store, and I only drove there maybe once per year -- the rest of the time, I'd just shop once or twice per week, which was enough for a single person carrying things home by hand. For a while with a family, I lived further from a major grocery store, but now I live within walking distance again and have taken to walking there fairly often... though not on a regular basis because I can't commute on foot. If I were commuting on foot, and the grocery store were near my stop, I would definitely buy groceries there many times per week and walk them home.

    15. Re:Murica Fuck yea! by AthanasiusKircher · · Score: 4, Interesting

      oh bullshit. You get an engine code, drive to autozone (except in the republic of california where the lawyers own everything) and the code scanner tells you what's wrong. No more "what's wrong with the carburetor and it's 1000 parts. It's now plug-in diagnostic computers. Oh, and they don't break as much, so you don't do that as much.

      No, sorry, it is significantly harder. Particularly routine maintenance -- and I do think it's deliberate. On a recent car, I discovered that to change the oil, the only reasonable way to change the filter without a lift was to take a wheel off.

      When my dad was changing oil in cars, he could crawl underneath, pull the plug, access the filter from some reasonable spot, and all was relatively simple. If I don't have access to a lift, I have to buy jack stands and take the wheel off -- just to change the oil and filter.

      I could go on with other examples of basic maintenance -- like having batteries that require just the right length socket to get them out (too short, and you can't get to it, too long and you hit something), or making headlight replacement so annoying that you have to take half of the front quarter of the car apart -- and this is only with the few cars I've dealt with in the past few years... mainstream models

      We're not talking about complicated repairs here. Basic maintenance has become a pain for many vehicles unless you're willing to go out and buy a special tool for each job or go through a ridiculously complex series of steps if you don't have access to the kind of stuff in a professional garage.

    16. Re:Murica Fuck yea! by excelsior_gr · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Wow, what a ton of bullshit.

      Not only is household taxation in the US less than in the EU (and don't even get me started about VAT) you get to sell your military produce to European countries as well! You do not pay the most for gasoline, either directly or indirectly. You don't have "all the social programs of Europe" because they don't fit in your mentality/way of living, and that's fine by me, but don't give us the crap that you can't afford them because you have to ensure cheap oil for the rest of the world!

    17. Re:Murica Fuck yea! by tftp · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I know this sounds crazy but some people go to the market every day.

      Yes, some people do that. Other people have better things to do with their life than to spend 30 minutes every day in a store. I buy food maybe once in two weeks. Some of it is in cans, other is dry (pasta, rice, flour) and other is frozen, so it can be stored nearly forever. I load the car pretty well on those trips. The store is in about 40 minutes of driving from my home. (There are stores closer than that; the closest is about 15 minutes away, but I dislike it.) I usually stop by the better store when I am in the area for other reasons; and when you are free to pick the day, it's not difficult to find time.

      Sometimes the basket gets quite heavy, but it's still something I could carry 100 meters with little problem. And that's 1+ weeks of groceries for me (yeah I'm single).

      This works if you buy often, and only in small packages. This is expensive. I tend to buy stuff in large packages, they cost far less per unit of food. But one gallon container will be pretty heavy. There is also an issue of how fast can you deliver frozen food to your own freezer. I guess a short trip on a bicycle is not any worse than a long trip in a car, but in some cases this is a factor (for example, pushing a cart for a mile in hot sun vs. driving an a/c car for 5 miles.) Your family may not like melted ice cream.

    18. Re:Murica Fuck yea! by excelsior_gr · · Score: 4, Interesting

      In comparison to Europeans, they do. They buy more packaged goods and the packaged goods in the US last longer than in the EU. Europeans make far more supermarket runs per week than Americans.

      Source: A document that I found at work, written by Americans to help their fellow Americans settle in Germany. They gave warning that food spoils faster than they are used to in the US, that it is normal to go to the supermarket once a day,

  3. Alice Cooper has the Answer. by HornWumpus · · Score: 5, Funny

    Don't got a job because I don't have a car.

    Don't have a car cause I don't have a job.

    Don't have a girl cause I don't have a car.

    So I'm looking for a girl with a job and a car.

    --
    John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
  4. Controlled for minimum driving age? by TheGavster · · Score: 4, Informative

    At least in CT, the age at which you can practically operate a vehicle on your own keeps creeping up, and there are always new rules restricting the privilege (only during the day, no passengers, etc). Assuming that the rest of the nation passes similar policies (given that we never repeal such things it has to be a purely additive effect anyway), I would think it obvious that teens drive less on average, as teens can't drive as much.

    --
    "Because Science" is one step from "Because old book". Try "Because of my experiment testing my falsifiable assertion".
  5. Re:Gas price probably has more to do with it. by oic0 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    More than just the price of gas, I also costs a lot more to do whatever you are going to do when you get where you are going! 10 years ago an outing might have cost me ~30 bucks gas included. 5 in gas, 15 for food, 10 for movie tickets. Now it costs ~60 with 8 for gas, 30 for food, 20 for movie tickets. I am however NOT making twice as much as I was 10 years ago.

  6. Better things to do by weave · · Score: 5, Insightful

    When I was a teenager in the late 70s, there was nothing to do except jump in the car and drive down Main Street and yell out the window to friends loitering in front of the bars, get to the end, come back and do it again, over and over. ("Cruising") or just go on a lot of joyrides.

    If I had an xbox or ps4 back then, I'd have probably been on that instead.

  7. They don't go outside by Lije+Baley · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If my son is any gauge, the reason they don't drive is because it would require them to leave the house. Whenever we go anywhere, he is always concerned with how far he will be from his computer. The iPad and 3DS will only hold off the DTs for so long...

    --
    Strange things are afoot at the Circle-K.
  8. Amazon, add another to the list... by netsavior · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Amazon is like public transportation for "incidentals" In my household and those of my peers, there is no more "run to the store for these few items," it has been replaced with "is it prime?"

  9. Driving isn't fun anymore by Ly4 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Another factor - most driving is no longer 'fun' - It's fighting traffic. it's a job.

    The only place you don't see traffic these days is car commercials.

  10. Contributing factors to my driving decline by multimediavt · · Score: 4, Informative

    Now, this is over 15 years, not 10.

    Internet
    Sure, let's get that out of the way. I don't have to go out as much to buy things, so I'd say that lowered my annual driving average by about 5%-10%

    Gasoline/Petrol prices
    Absolutely. When the price of gasoline went over $2.50/gal (that was 2005-ish) my leisure driving went to almost none. That was easily 25%-30% of my annual driving.

    More environmentally conscious
    Over the last 15 years I have definitely become more environmentally conscious and tried to drive less as well as use less electricity, etc.

    Moved closer to work
    I live in a medium-sized rural university town (about 50,000 without students, about 80,000 with them). I work for the university and moved to my present location in 1999. Before that I was living about three miles away and would drive to work daily. Now, I have a 15 minute walk apartment door to office door (my office, not the outer door). That cut my driving down by more than a third.

    So my driving habits over the last 15 years have dropped by roughly 65%-75%. I only drive when I need to run errands or I am going to visit friends farther than I can comfortably walk. I might spend $120-$130 on gas in a "busy" month (about 1,000 miles worth), but on average I spend about $60-$65 (about 500 miles worth). I used to average between 2,000 - 3,000 miles per month when gas was under $2.50/gal. I did a lot more road trips for fun and drove back and forth to work (often multiple times a day), as well as shopping trips and other errands. People around where I live have also gotten worse driving habits over that time, so that's another reason I stay off the roads. Where I live half the population of drivers has less than eight years of driving experience, and it seems they never really learned the rules of the road, anyway. Hell, it's bad enough as a pedestrian!

  11. Re:Gas price probably has more to do with it. by TheRaven64 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Prices in Europe have also gone up a lot, so while you might expect to see different absolute values, you'd expect to see the same decline. I live in the UK and don't drive. Owning a car is a huge expense (insurance and maintenance, even before you add in the fuel) for little benefit. I've always taken jobs where I could either work remotely or walk / cycle less than 10 minutes each way. I wouldn't consider working somewhere where I'd need to drive to work, or where I'd spend more than 10 minutes commuting, and I'm always amazed at people in the US who are happy to spend more than the equivalent of one working day a week just getting to and from work. At least cycling in, I get some exercise at the same time.

    --
    I am TheRaven on Soylent News
  12. Re:Gas price probably has more to do with it. by Teckla · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Yes I drive a lot less than I used to 10 years ago, but it less to do with the Internet and more to do with the price of gas....

    I'm not sure why your comment and link to an ancient article on gas prices (2004?!) got modded insightful, but when you factor in inflation, gas prices aren't particularly high. They're at a pretty normal level compared to historical prices (again, inflation adjusted).

    That being said, the inflation adjusted income of the middle class has been going down for decades. That's more likely to be your culprit.

  13. Re:It's not a bad thing. by geoskd · · Score: 4, Informative

    Exactly. It's the first 1000 hours that are the most dangerous. That's as true for 40 year olds learning to fly as it is for teenagers learning to drive.

    That only tells part of the story. Actuarially, drivers who do not start driving until age 25 are half as likely to suffer a major accident in their first three years of driving. The number drops even more if they wait until 29. After that it basically levels off.

    The numbers are a bit skewed for other variables like gender and economic status, but age is the biggest factor.

    --
    I wish I had a good sig, but all the good ones are copyrighted
  14. The fun is gone by sdinfoserv · · Score: 5, Interesting

    When I was in high school, society looked at drinking and driving very differently than today. The drinking age was 18. We would often drive around with several friends drinking. Be it driving or parked somewhere, just sitting, talking , whatever. When the cops would come, if you weren’t a complete mess, all they would do is take your beer and tell you to go home. Additionally, many activities for teens centered around driving. We would go ‘cruising’. A local area where teens would all drive an congregate. Many cities have outlawed it. In addition to social and legal change in drinking attitudes, there are now automated speeding tickets, the cost of insurance, being harassed by law enforcement if just a few teens hangout somewhere. The change is more than the automobile. It’s a social political change that generally looks at young people congregating in public with negativity.

  15. Re:Not sure that's what they need... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Your conclusion doesn't follow, you know. You're assuming that not just promiscuity rates have to be the same, but individual promiscuity has to be. Picture this scenario. Ten guys and ten girls live together. All ten of the guys have slept with five of the girls in the house within the first ten days. That makes them promiscuous. However, five of the girls engaged in no sexual activity whatsoever. That gives us a 100% male promiscuity rate, and a 50% female promiscuity rate.

    But how can that be! Because "statistically", according to "Sique" on /., the rates have to be equal!

    No, wait, the other five girls simply had more sex. Now it makes sense!

    Please avoid throwing words like "statistical" around until you understand it, for fuck's sake. It doesn't make you look smart, it makes you look like a total idiot.

    Then again, I'm arguing with a total idiot on /. so what does that make me?

  16. Re:Not sure that's what they need... by dcollins · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Your problem is that promiscuity rates are not usually measured in average partners; they are measured in modes or quartiles or something like that. From the article you link to:

    "A 1994 study in the United States, which looked at the number of sexual partners in a lifetime, found that 20% of heterosexual men had only one partner, 55% had two to twenty partners, and 25% had more than twenty partners."

    See? No average partner numbers. Instead, proportions in a defined class.

    --
    We know where leadership by an anti-intellectual "strongman" who scapegoats minorities and likes boisterous rallies goes