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

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.

 

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.

 

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.

 

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.

 

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.

 

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.

 

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.

 

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.

 

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.

 

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.

 

I would like a viable alternative