Topic: How do we make young people interested in cars?

[GodSlayer]

I like to imagine my life would be very different if I had a car and a laptop.

things are my salvation

[azinyk]

A couple more things occurred to me.

 - Despite "Millennials" apparently losing interest in cars, there are still more cars on the road than there ever has been, which means that traffic and parking are the worst they've ever been.  Gas prices and economic conditions also suck.
 - People are getting married later (or not at all), and having children later.  Most people only live in the suburbs because they're assumed to be better for children, and they have cars so they can get to and from the suburbs.

[jaypee]

I've heard that municipalities decrease the length of the yellow light with the aim of generating more ticket revenue, despite reduced safety.

Surely a statement like this requires some evidence to back it up, its sounds like paranoid anti-government rhetoric.

I think the truth is in there somewhere. What I've read is that municipalities place traffic cameras at dangerous intersections instead of adjusting the yellow light duration, which is what they would have done before traffic cameras.

[Roma Hicks]

In the one traffic engineering class that was required for my major, I think I remember reading that it is usually one second for every 10 miles per hour.  (Traffic engineering is the pseduo-science of city management, like economics! )  Seems to hold up in my city.  While I was never deep in the inner working of city decisions I never heard of anyone changing traffic lights for revenue gains will working at the planning office.

The city I live in is very automobile orientated and people here are not very friendly to pedestrians or bikers.  The 'bikeway' to my workplace is a high capacity collector road, with a turn lane, right next to a hospital, with a speed limit of 45 in some areas, and no dedicated bike lane.  When I do ride my bike to work, I leave way early and leave way late to avoid getting killed.  Plus people like to throw stuff at you, curse at you, and honk while riding your ass.  It is really hard to be anti-car when working in the business district.

I would LOVE to get rid of my car forever!  Never have to throw money in those money-holes again.
I am glad young people are losing interest in cars, besides they are bad for cities anyway.

[TalkingBook]

While visiting my hometown recently, I was surprised about the extent to which drivers completely ignore pedestrian crosswalks. One four-lane street in my town has a crosswalk marked with blindingly neon-yellow signs pointing down to the stripes; I stood with one foot hovering over the street for a few minutes and watched as one car after the other just whizzed by. Not one person even began to slow down, much less stop. If I would have tried to assert my right of way I'd be roadkill. People seem genuinely not to know that pedestrians sometimes have the right of way.

I know - cool story bro. But all I'm really trying to say is: it's too damn easy to get a driver's license.

[jaypee]

While visiting my hometown recently, I was surprised about the extent to which drivers completely ignore pedestrian crosswalks. One four-lane street in my town has a crosswalk marked with blindingly neon-yellow signs pointing down to the stripes; I stood with one foot hovering over the street for a few minutes and watched as one car after the other just whizzed by. Not one person even began to slow down, much less stop. If I would have tried to assert my right of way I'd be roadkill. People seem genuinely not to know that pedestrians sometimes have the right of way.

I know - cool story bro. But all I'm really trying to say is: it's too damn easy to get a driver's license.

I'm 100% with you. All you need to do (at least in my state) is get 16 out of 20 questions right and pass a 5 minute driving test. It should be 95 out of 100 questions at least, and you should be required to go through mandatory driving classes and take hours upon hours of driving simulator training.

That's just my opinion, though.

[Roma Hicks]

While visiting my hometown recently, I was surprised about the extent to which drivers completely ignore pedestrian crosswalks. One four-lane street in my town has a crosswalk marked with blindingly neon-yellow signs pointing down to the stripes; I stood with one foot hovering over the street for a few minutes and watched as one car after the other just whizzed by. Not one person even began to slow down, much less stop. If I would have tried to assert my right of way I'd be roadkill. People seem genuinely not to know that pedestrians sometimes have the right of way.

I know - cool story bro. But all I'm really trying to say is: it's too damn easy to get a driver's license.

I'm 100% with you. All you need to do (at least in my state) is get 16 out of 20 questions right and pass a 5 minute driving test. It should be 95 out of 100 questions at least, and you should be required to go through mandatory driving classes and take hours upon hours of driving simulator training.

That's just my opinion, though.

With an entire chapter devoted to how 4-way stops and turn signals work... and... that you don't have to swing wide in your sub-compact when making a right turn.

[jaypee]

While visiting my hometown recently, I was surprised about the extent to which drivers completely ignore pedestrian crosswalks. One four-lane street in my town has a crosswalk marked with blindingly neon-yellow signs pointing down to the stripes; I stood with one foot hovering over the street for a few minutes and watched as one car after the other just whizzed by. Not one person even began to slow down, much less stop. If I would have tried to assert my right of way I'd be roadkill. People seem genuinely not to know that pedestrians sometimes have the right of way.

I know - cool story bro. But all I'm really trying to say is: it's too damn easy to get a driver's license.

I'm 100% with you. All you need to do (at least in my state) is get 16 out of 20 questions right and pass a 5 minute driving test. It should be 95 out of 100 questions at least, and you should be required to go through mandatory driving classes and take hours upon hours of driving simulator training.

That's just my opinion, though.

With an entire chapter devoted to how 4-way stops and turn signals work... and... that you don't have to swing wide in your sub-compact when making a right turn.

Fun fact: I was once hit and left for dead by someone who would rather swing into the bike lane to make a left turn rather than slow down 5mph.

[moj]

I will sometimes walk from where I live in Bellevue to Renton, which is about 9 miles away. There's an experience you get from actually, physically walking through a community that gives you a sense of its size that you just don't get driving around in a car. Yes, you *could* do this, but I know of nobody who owns a car who ever even thinks of this kind of thing.

Agreed, you can take in more of the sights, sounds & smells on foot. Walking is my favorite way of discovering new parts of the city or getting around when I have the time. I'm lucky enough to have basically gotten ride of my car. It's parked at my parents in the burbs and haven't driven it in months. It surprises me how often people over look walking when they are use to driving, even if its less then a mile or two away.  It really does depend on where you live, I know most the outer burbs here you need a car to get around and most roads are built without sidewalks and limited public transportation.
  True story, when I worked at MCI years ago we had a whole bunch of younger people right out of college. All of them independently decided to move back in with there parents and spend the money they would have been paying in rent on used BMW's and Lexus. It boggles the mind why a young person would do that but it was a trend then I guess?

[Johnny Slick]

Yeah, that's the thing that kind of drives me up the wall, seeing people drive a TINY amount just because they didn't think of walking. We have a couple of fast food places literally across the street from work and I've had people offer me a ride back. I'm like, you know it's actually faster for me to walk back in the building than to get a ride from you and wait for you to find a place to park, right?

The one thing that I miss having a car for is buying larger appliances. It's kind of a PITA to have Best Buy or whoever drive something up to your house. That being said, I don't buy large appliances terribly often. As for the freedom angle, one's freedom to theoretically drive to Portland (or insert next-door city here) on the weekends is more than outweighed by the fact of having to make car payments every month. Also, even if it does take an hour to take a bus that goes across the metro area, it's not like that time is just lost - thanks to not having to pay attention to the road I can, for instance, fire up my laptop and work on stuff on the way there. Or listen to podcasts. Or do some sort of necromantic combination.

[moj]

Have you ever tried zipcar or do they have it in your area? Its kinda pricey if you use it all the time, but if you just need a car for a few hours every now and then its very covenant They have insurance included and once you sign up don't have to pay a monthly fee, just the hours you use the car, normally 8-12 bucks an hour.

[khendar]

Australian youth radio station JJJ have been doing a week on youth drivers, mainly focussing on safety and stuff but it might be interesting.

http://www.abc.net.au/triplej/hack/podcast/
http://www.abc.net.au/triplej/hack/features/drive/default.htm

[Ah.hell]

My 2 cents(its mostly already been said.):

Why should I care if kids don't love cares they way other kids did in my youth.  I've never seen a car as anything more than a way to get from A to B.   

A kids social life isn't tied to cars anymore, its tied to phones and the internet.  A lot of places (in the US anyway) have become restricting drivers licenses for the under 18 crowd.  As I understand it, in CA a 16 year can get a license that allows them to drive to and from school and too and from work.  They limited in the number of kids they can have as passengers without and adult, etc.  Why would you care about getting your license, it doesn't equal freedom anymore. 

GM has had there heads up their asses for 40 years and now their worried about the diminishing car culture?  As mentioned before, they learned how to make good cars at the NUMMI plant in the 80s and 90s and decided, "Quality, thats not for us."

[Johnny Slick]

Have you ever tried zipcar or do they have it in your area? Its kinda pricey if you use it all the time, but if you just need a car for a few hours every now and then its very covenant They have insurance included and once you sign up don't have to pay a monthly fee, just the hours you use the car, normally 8-12 bucks an hour.

Yeah, they look neat, but...

CRAZY DISCLOSURE ALERT

...when I say I don't drive, I literally mean I don't drive. Never took any courses, don't have a license, haven't ever driven anything beyond video games.

[lorryfach]

My parents forced me to take a course when I was 18. I did not do very well. I just hate it. I get that a lot of people like driving, and I don't have a problem with that. I'm just not one of those people. I'll sit on the crazy couch with you, JS. 


I once suggested to my husband (who, like Johnny Slick, is an even more complete non-driver) that he get a license so we could do a car-share once in a while, but he wasn't interested, and I don't care enough to do it myself.