1. Welcome! Please take a few seconds to create your free account to post threads, make some friends, remove a few ads while surfing and much more. ClutchFans has been bringing fans together to talk Houston Sports since 1996. Join us!

The Great Debate: Do Millenials Want Cars, Or Not?

Discussion in 'BBS Hangout' started by da1, Aug 16, 2013.

  1. Dairy Ashford

    Dairy Ashford Member

    Joined:
    May 20, 2002
    Messages:
    14,585
    Likes Received:
    1,888
    That's a false dichotomy. Europe has a larger tourist market than we do, economic and employment opportunities aren't as evenly distributed among countries, and their infrastructure was completely destroyed after World War II, so they were more biased towards mass transit. We're richer, more prosperous and less densely populated than Asia; to the extent they have mass transit outside of major metropolitan areas it's because they probably couldn't put together a viable market for passenger cars.
     
  2. CrazyDave

    CrazyDave Member

    Joined:
    Nov 21, 2002
    Messages:
    6,027
    Likes Received:
    439
    Thanks for the laugh. Stress-Free.... Mandatory public transit.... good ones.

    That was kinda my point, though you did take it to a new level so kudos for that.
     
  3. MoonDogg

    MoonDogg Member

    Joined:
    Nov 12, 1999
    Messages:
    5,167
    Likes Received:
    495
    Personally, I find driving to be one of the greatest freedoms there is. The sheer mass and options of American roadways makes my penis stiffen. I'll be cheerily burning the hell out of fossils until they pry my cold dead fingers from the wheel.

    I can understand people in larger cities not wanting to deal with the expense and hassle of owning car, but they do so with a loss of freedom and an added dependence on a third party.
     
  4. BE4RD

    BE4RD Member

    Joined:
    Mar 24, 2013
    Messages:
    923
    Likes Received:
    50
    Yeah, it was your point, but I don't see the value in it. You seem to be acting as if these generalizations are a bad thing, which is just weird, considering there's literally no other way to have this conversation. If that wasn't your intent, then my bad.
     
  5. trueroxfan

    trueroxfan Member

    Joined:
    Apr 24, 2008
    Messages:
    4,170
    Likes Received:
    143
    Interesting. My cousin with Asperger's has been talking about getting his license for quite some time. He is like 22 now, actually served in the military (obviously not overseas) and is back home now. So this weekend I was asking him how it was going with the license and his dad quickly interjected and said his generation doesn't care about driving. I thought he was trying to change the subject so that it wouldn't bring up any controversy, didn't realize kids these days really don't want to drive.

    I hate driving. I loved it when I was 16, but now at 26, I hate being in the car for more than 20 minutes.
     
  6. da1

    da1 Member

    Joined:
    Apr 8, 2008
    Messages:
    2,277
    Likes Received:
    101
    1. Biased towards mass transit? No. Europe was smart enough to see that this infrastructure would be cheaper to build then and be useful for hundreds of years with little maintenance once the initial cost was born. Japan also.
    2. Are we richer and more prosperous than China right now? Do you know how much treasury money Japan and China own? What do you think would happen if they asked for their money in cash, now?
    3. Again, the car market has exploded in China, and Asia in general. Go to China or India sometime. But even then, both are making huge investments in rail, especially China with high speed rail. Even Laos is!
     
  7. da1

    da1 Member

    Joined:
    Apr 8, 2008
    Messages:
    2,277
    Likes Received:
    101
    I ride the 82 pretty often and see plenty of white people riding to and from downtown and the galleria.
     
  8. Dairy Ashford

    Dairy Ashford Member

    Joined:
    May 20, 2002
    Messages:
    14,585
    Likes Received:
    1,888
    No real information of any kind here, just you inserting your opinion about one place being smarter than the other. You have a habit of stating an opinion without any facts or logic, then shifting to a less relevant point without accurately or fully addressing any rebuttals. Your original point that Americans would consider it freedom to "not have to drive anywhere" is long buried and invalidated, so now we're wasting time talking about Europe.

    We have a $15 trillion economy and a fourth the amount of people. Points and logic like this show how little disdain you have for facts beyond anecdotal soundbites about the Chinese.

    Two countries with a billion plus population and at least a quarter of their population in extreme poverty. The car market can "explode," as you claim, in either of those countries without adequately supplying a majority of the population, because they simply can't afford it. Therefore rail will always be a necessary option.

    Again, your original assertion was that Americans would consider it freedom "to not drive anywhere," but now we're on the other side of the globe and you're dismissing basic economic and commercial differences that make these new examples completely irrelevant to your original point.
     
  9. da1

    da1 Member

    Joined:
    Apr 8, 2008
    Messages:
    2,277
    Likes Received:
    101
    You must have skipped over this part of the article. I'm guessing you are older and not in sync with the new generation.

    The latest data from the University of Michigan’s Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI) bolsters the idea that younger Americans are much less interested in car ownership than their older siblings, parents and grandparents. Bloomberg highlighted data from the study showing that while consumers in the 35-to-44-age demographic were the most likely to be purchasing new cars four years ago, today it’s the 55-to-65-age Baby Boomers buying new cars with the most frequency. In 2011, boomers were 15 times more likely to purchase new vehicles than young millennials (ages 18 to 24), and even consumers ages 75 and up have been buying cars at higher rates than groups ages 18 to 24 and 25 to 34.

    The Detroit Free Press focused on UMTRI’s findings regarding young adults who don’t have driver’s licenses. A survey of 600 Americans ages 18 to 39 who don’t drive inquired after the reasons that they don’t have driver’s licenses, and the most popular response (checked by 37%) was that they’re just too busy. Another 32% cited the cost of car ownership as a reason, and 31% said they haven’t bothered to get a driver’s license because of what might be called the “mooch factor”: when necessary, it’s easy for them to catch a ride with someone else. What’s more, 21% of those surveyed said they would never get a driver’s license.
     
  10. Dairy Ashford

    Dairy Ashford Member

    Joined:
    May 20, 2002
    Messages:
    14,585
    Likes Received:
    1,888
    So we're done talking about Europe and China, now. Unfortunately, nothing in this cherry picked part of the article demonstrates or even documents that young people don't drive or own cars, or that they won't buy them as frequently when they reach the other age brackets. Young people buy cars less often because they have less credit and cash; they either buy one car or get a car from their parents: which partly explains why older people buy cars more often, and then they keep it for a longer time frame.

    The survey of 600 people over a 21 year age span is not documented as being scientific, so it's not clear if an inherently inaccurate study population that small has been sufficiently screened for their results to be representative of a group that could be 100,000 times that large. Even so, the study doesn't even indicate what percentage of 18 to 39 year olds don't have licenses; it leap frogs the most important statistic and then just cites the percentages of the types of reasons for not getting a license. Those percentages of an unspecified statistic are themselves consequently worthless.
     
  11. da1

    da1 Member

    Joined:
    Apr 8, 2008
    Messages:
    2,277
    Likes Received:
    101
    You skipped this part too I see

    Studies have shown that fewer young adults have driver’s licenses
     
  12. TreeRollins

    TreeRollins Member

    Joined:
    Nov 7, 2006
    Messages:
    2,052
    Likes Received:
    102
    I am part of this demographic group and I see this somewhat in myself. I see a car as something I get utility out of and not much else. I am making good money working as a consultant. I am driving 2004 Toyota Corolla that has 160,000 miles and have no plans on getting anything new until my car starts dying on me.
     
  13. TheRealist137

    TheRealist137 Member

    Joined:
    Jan 27, 2009
    Messages:
    35,462
    Likes Received:
    22,628
    I don't care about driving, just want to get from point a to point b in the fastest and least stressful way possible. Now that I think about it, more often than not I think driving is just kind of a hassle. I'd rather sit back in a train and relax over having to worry about driving and keeping myself self while behind the wheel.
     
  14. Brandyon

    Brandyon Member

    Joined:
    Feb 28, 2009
    Messages:
    1,224
    Likes Received:
    83
    This is exactly what I was getting at. When I was a kid, my father would get pissed that I didn't take better care of my first car. He'd wax philisophical about getting together with his friends on a Saturday to detail their rides before driving around all night or taking a weekend trip.

    But a '92 Pontiac Grand Am doesn't connect with anyone the way his 1970 Charger 426 Hemi would have. For me, the car got me where I wanted to go, but for him it was the destination which just so happened to go places.

    *Corrected some grammar.
     
  15. Garner

    Garner Member

    Joined:
    Jul 7, 2009
    Messages:
    4,700
    Likes Received:
    1,872
    I would like a viable alternative
     

Share This Page