Driving is in a steep decline in America

[opebo]

From 2001 to 2009, the average annual number of vehicle-miles traveled by people ages 16-34 dropped 23 percent, from 10,300 to 7,900, the survey found. Gen Y-ers, also known as Millennials, tend to ride bicycles, take public transit and rely on virtual media.

[Franzl]

Not as much as it really should be... But still good. A lot of people are in for a rude awakening.

[Holmes]

As "good" as this is, at least from my experience (and perhaps being in Toronto is skewing my opinion), public transit is woefully underfunded, usually doesn't have enough buses/subway trains/streetcars, has bad service, and is generally incompetent. Some things will have to change to accommodate this trend. Hopefully, anyway.

[Vosem]

The vast overexaggeration this "trend" has enjoyed over the past few years has been really funny.

[BritishDixie]

Why would people use slow, unreliable, dirty public transport. Its also good to see the country is metamorphmosing into the thirld world with this take up in the use of bicycles, like Vietnam.

[Holmes]

Why are conservatives so "pro-car"? And are the previous two posters old enough to own a car, and/or live in a large urban area? It's not that people don't want to own vehicles - it's just almost impossible in some settings. It's not that people choose to use unreliable and dirty public transit, it's the only option they have.

[TJ in Oregon]

Why are conservatives so "pro-car"? And are the previous two posters old enough to own a car, and/or live in a large urban area? It's not that people don't want to own vehicles - it's just almost impossible in some settings. It's not that people choose to use unreliable and dirty public transit, it's the only option they have.

A lot of the issue is that the publican trasportation we do have is slow, not easily accessible, and often doesn't take you where you want to go. Consider when I lived in Cleveland Heights if I wanted to take the bus to Severence Center Mall, about 3 miles away:
-I would have to walk a half mile to the bus stop
-Wait for the one line of bus that comes every 45 minutes
-Pay $2.25 to get on the bus
-Wait on the bus about 25 minutes to go a whopping 4 miles
-Either get off the bus on the wrong side of the city building that they will write you a ticket if you walk through their grass or wait an extra 5 minutes for the bus to drive around the place, stopping about every 100 feet because they have like a million stops
-Then repeat the process on the way back, possibly waiting 45 minutes for the bus to come depending on the timing

Heck, that's not much faster than walking, let alone driving.

Granted public transportation can be a decent option if you're going one of three places in Cleveland: Downtown, the airport, or university circle. But even if you use it to go there it's pretty hard to get buy without either having a car or having a friend who has a car and is willing to occasionally drive you places. Otherwise short trips can become an all-day event.

[Holmes]

"The service is bad and I have to wait a long time" is not an adequate excuse to purchase a vehicle and have to pay monthly charges, gas, repairs, parking, and others. If anything, it's an excuse to reform and appropriate fund the public transit system further. If you don't want to wait an hour to get to a location that's four miles away, walk, bike or even carpool.

[opebo]

Why are conservatives so "pro-car"?

I'm pro-car and I'm not a conservative.  I grew up driving Cadillacs and other huge cars, and I deplore the fact that people can't live like that now. 

"The service is bad and I have to wait a long time" is not an adequate excuse to purchase a vehicle and have to pay monthly charges, gas, repairs, parking, and others.

Lets face it, if people were paid properly, as they once were - say a unionized living wage of $30-60/hour - they could easily afford cars.

Why would people use slow, unreliable, dirty public transport. Its also good to see the country is metamorphmosing into the thirld world with this take up in the use of bicycles, like Vietnam.

As much as I disagree with BritishDixie on almost everything, he is absolutely right that the decline of driving is a sign of the impoverishment of the American working class.  The future is filthy public transport for the masses, and limousines for the oppressors with no mass market for automobiles in the middle.

[🐒Gods of Prosperity🔱🐲💸]

"The service is bad and I have to wait a long time" is not an adequate excuse to purchase a vehicle and have to pay monthly charges, gas, repairs, parking, and others. If anything, it's an excuse to reform and appropriate fund the public transit system further. If you don't want to wait an hour to get to a location that's four miles away, walk, bike or even carpool.

That would be a lot more expensive for an individual than buying a car.

[Queen Mum Inks.LWC]

Lets face it, if people were paid properly, as they once were - say a unionized living wage of $30-60/hour - they could easily afford cars.

If everyone were paid that much, our standard of living would have evolved to make it so that $30/hour would equal the current poverty level.  At the point that you increase everyone's wages, eventually the economy will go back into equillibrium so that there is a poverty class, a lower class, middle class, and upper class.

[fezzyfestoon]

Finally. Let's accelerate this by cutting back more of the auto-subsidies this country is so rabidly attached to.

[Franzl]

Finally. Let's accelerate this by cutting back more of the auto-subsidies this country is so rabidly attached to.

The conservative demand that public transport make a profit/complaining about tax money being "wasted", I find particularly amusing and absurd, considering how strongly automobile travel really is subsidized.

[You kip if you want to...]

I don't know about the USA, but people my age can't afford to drive! Between petrol prices and extortionate insurance rates for young people, it's just impossible to afford.

[muon2]

Unfortunately the article in the OP doesn't show the data by year. The last two years of the article's period saw a drop in driving overall. First due to the run up in gas prices before the recession, then the recession itself removing purchasing power for vacations and jobs requiring a commute. If the study used by the article doesn't separate the 2007-2009 period from the earlier part of decade I find it hard to accept the conclusions as entirely due to generational choices.

[TheDeadFlagBlues]

"The service is bad and I have to wait a long time" is not an adequate excuse to purchase a vehicle and have to pay monthly charges, gas, repairs, parking, and others. If anything, it's an excuse to reform and appropriate fund the public transit system further. If you don't want to wait an hour to get to a location that's four miles away, walk, bike or even carpool.

That would be a lot more expensive for an individual than buying a car.

Is this a joke? Even cheap cars are extremely expensive for young adults: my used car cost me 3000$ and if you add insurance and gas, that total would go up to whopping 5,000$+ investment. Compare that to a small increase in taxes and add in user fees.

If I had my choice, I'd never drive a car again outside of a race track. I hate the activity of driving and whenever I have the opportunity, I ride my bike. Walking or biking places is extremely pleasant and I'd recommend it to anybody who's reasonably young.

[🐒Gods of Prosperity🔱🐲💸]

"The service is bad and I have to wait a long time" is not an adequate excuse to purchase a vehicle and have to pay monthly charges, gas, repairs, parking, and others. If anything, it's an excuse to reform and appropriate fund the public transit system further. If you don't want to wait an hour to get to a location that's four miles away, walk, bike or even carpool.

That would be a lot more expensive for an individual than buying a car.

Is this a joke?

Don't you see the humor in someone being expected to fix the public transit system instead of buying a car?

[Brittain33]

Zoning laws and underfunding of public transit amount to a mandate forcing people to buy cars even if they don't want them.

[greenforest32]

I'd really like to see a reduction in our insane auto-dependence with more walking, biking, and transit use. And then there's the latest transportation bill that passed last week reducing federal funding for walking/biking at the behest of the House GOP who wanted to eliminate most federal funding for bicycling entirely with their chamber's bill back in February:

* http://www.bicycletimesmag.com/content/house-transportation-bill-could-eliminate-funding-cycling
* http://www.americabikes.org/analysis_of_the_new_transportation_bill_map_21

Gotta stop those damn cyclists from taking over the country!

http://blog.sfgate.com/bicycle/2011/06/29/bicycle-commuting-on-the-rise-middle-aged-men-leading-the-way/

[TheDeadFlagBlues]

"The service is bad and I have to wait a long time" is not an adequate excuse to purchase a vehicle and have to pay monthly charges, gas, repairs, parking, and others. If anything, it's an excuse to reform and appropriate fund the public transit system further. If you don't want to wait an hour to get to a location that's four miles away, walk, bike or even carpool.

That would be a lot more expensive for an individual than buying a car.

Is this a joke?

Don't you see the humor in someone being expected to fix the public transit system instead of buying a car?

No I don't, there is nothing humorous about a destructive and non-sustainable system being perpetuated by selfish dicks.

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

"The service is bad and I have to wait a long time" is not an adequate excuse to purchase a vehicle and have to pay monthly charges, gas, repairs, parking, and others. If anything, it's an excuse to reform and appropriate fund the public transit system further. If you don't want to wait an hour to get to a location that's four miles away, walk, bike or even carpool.

That would be a lot more expensive for an individual than buying a car.

Is this a joke? Even cheap cars are extremely expensive for young adults: my used car cost me 3000$ and if you add insurance and gas, that total would go up to whopping 5,000$+ investment. Compare that to a small increase in taxes and add in user fees.

If I had my choice, I'd never drive a car again outside of a race track. I hate the activity of driving and whenever I have the opportunity, I ride my bike. Walking or biking places is extremely pleasant and I'd recommend it to anybody who's reasonably young.

Proper grammar dictates that the "$" sign go before the amount of money in question.

As well, there's no reason to call someone wanting independence a "selfish dick". You think we have bus stations out in the middle of this God forsaken township or any like it? Civilization is 20 minutes away on a good day in a car. Walking would be ridiculous. I guess we should all live in the city in nice stacked up little houses where there's just a wall between us and our neighbor. Then we wouldn't need cars because the grocery store would be right next door, and you could meet all the people walking in and out just by looking out your window! I'm guessing that's the way you think we should live.

[BritishDixie]

"The service is bad and I have to wait a long time" is not an adequate excuse to purchase a vehicle and have to pay monthly charges, gas, repairs, parking, and others. If anything, it's an excuse to reform and appropriate fund the public transit system further. If you don't want to wait an hour to get to a location that's four miles away, walk, bike or even carpool.

That would be a lot more expensive for an individual than buying a car.

Is this a joke?

Don't you see the humor in someone being expected to fix the public transit system instead of buying a car?

No I don't, there is nothing humorous about a destructive and non-sustainable system being perpetuated by selfish dicks.

Why are they selfish dicks? Is it because they haven't been taken in by the "oh trees, flowers, rainbows" crowd, who would like to see us go back to living in trees and caves.

[opebo]

Lets face it, if people were paid properly, as they once were - say a unionized living wage of $30-60/hour - they could easily afford cars.

If everyone were paid that much, our standard of living would have evolved to make it so that $30/hour would equal the current poverty level.  At the point that you increase everyone's wages, eventually the economy will go back into equillibrium so that there is a poverty class, a lower class, middle class, and upper class.

Sure, buddy, we all know capitalism is terrible no matter how you slice it.  But the point is to tweak it, so that people can buy the garbage produced.  That's all - no grand plan, just a bit of the necessary redistribution.

[Yelnoc]

I wish this was true, but Muon brings up a very good point, which makes me think driving will become more popular as the economy improves.  For public transportation to usurp America's driving culture will require massive investments.  Our cities are designed like gas planets, central orbs with concentric rings we call suburbs.  Many of the people who live in the suburbs commute to the cities every day to work, causing huge traffic jams and pollution.  Cities will need to make an effort to link their city transportation to suburban areas.  Recently, my town was added to a metro bus system, which has become quite popular, eve more so before gas prices started to drop.  The thing is, buses still get caught in traffic.  If we're going to move away from a driving society, we need Mass Transit.  High speed rail connecting the suburbs to the cities is a first step, but people also drive long distances to visit friends and family and go on vacations.  We also need bullet trains connecting America's major cities, or at least major groups of cities, and the coastal hotspots.

As a runner, I wish other people would exercise too, but live in a country where obesity is considered an epidemic and where suggesting raising taxes from their historic lows brands one a socialist.  At this point, I don't think expecting my fellow countrymen to be healthy is reasonable.  Walking and biking might be feasible in major cities, but the suburbs are poorly designed; many lacking sidewalks, much less bike lanes.  That only goes for cities though; you can't blame someone for not wanting to walk or bike in the suburbs.  I just went on a five mile run this morning.  I'm waaaaay out of shape, so it took me about forty minutes.  You know where you can get to in five miles?  From the high school to a supermarket, passing along the way residential neighborhoods, some fast food, and a post office.  Forty minutes.  Is that reasonable?  I think not.

I despise what cars have done to this country. However it's difficult for me to approve a trend brought upon by anything "virtual". Tell me the Internet is making people wear suits more and I might start wearing band shirts.

EDIT: Upon reading the article it is clear the internet has very little to do with this trend. Thus I am excited to see its occurence. But buses suck. It's a great shame that the criminals who destroyed this country's streetcar systems never faced justice for what they did. Bring the streetcars back! To hell with bustitution!

I love how you are willing to dismiss an overall trend because one of the composite variables is something you oppose on philosophical grounds, but are willing to accept the trend when you determine the offending variable is not critical to the trend.  It's like the children who won't eat vegetables unless you wrap them in fast food wrappers.

[opebo]

I wish this was true, but Muon brings up a very good point, which makes me think driving will become more popular as the economy improves. 

I would say IF the economy improves, Yelnoc.  All indications are that the vast majority of Americans will be permanently poorer than their parents, so their driving will doubtless be curtailed for life.