Gen Z is choosing not to drive::Less Gen Z Americans own a driver’s license than previous generations, according to consulting firm McKinsey.

  • Lemonparty@lemm.ee
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    7 months ago

    They’re choosing not to drive for the same reason they’re choosing to be more thrifty, choosing not to go to college, choosing to live with their parents longer, and choosing not to buy homes. See if you can find the common denominator.

    • brian@programming.dev
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      7 months ago

      idk, I have a car and a job that pays well enough that I don’t feel right for gas money and such, but I’ll still walk/public transit/bike when it’s not terribly inconvenient and I feel like a lot of my same generation coworkers feel the same way.

      sure money might be part of it for some, but definitely not the driving force in my circles

    • MashedTech@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      It’s all a choice it seems. Damn these newer generations and their freedom of choosing the things that the older generations deemed great and easy to attain, the mindset of lazyness has encroached on the mind of the young ones through this TikTok and other electronic devices, poisoning their free will and corrupting their mind. Nobody thinks for themselves anymore these days.

  • jonne@infosec.pub
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    7 months ago

    Are they choosing, or can’t they afford to own a car with insurance and petrol costs going through the roof?

    • tsonfeir@lemm.ee
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      7 months ago

      I saw a 1998 corolla for sale on the street for $5000. The basic buy-in for anything these days it insane. This “market rate” shit needs to die.

      • Thorny_Insight@lemm.ee
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        7 months ago

        Toyota Corollas are really popular though. For a Kia of the same age the previous owner will pay you 5k if you take it off their hands.

    • Grippler@feddit.dk
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      7 months ago

      The article’s metric seems to be whether or not they own a driver’s license, not a car. So whether or not they can afford to own a car isn’t really a part of this article’s dataset, although they do touch on why they don’t own a car in the article as well.

    • catastrophicblues@lemmy.ca
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      7 months ago

      I can’t afford one, but I also just don’t want to. I get groceries delivered and can Uber around. I just don’t travel all that much.

    • eestileib@sh.itjust.works
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      7 months ago

      My son is getting gifted an electric car from a family friend.

      He still doesn’t really give a shit about getting a license, it’s crazy to me.

      • Fondots@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        I think there’s also the issue of where do kids have to go hang out anymore?

        By and large, malls are dead/dying, and some don’t even allow unsupervised kids anymore.

        Movies are expensive. Restaurants are expensive. Concerts are expensive (if you’re lucky enough to live somewhere with easy access to concert venues, if you’re in the suburbs you probably have an uphill battle trying to convince your parents to let you go wandering around the city unsupervised to go to a concert) Arcades basically don’t even exist anymore.

        They can barely even go hang out in a park without being harassed by some Karen or the cops, and of course parks usually close at dusk and kind of depend on the weather being decent so in many places there’s a good chunk of the year where parks are undesirable.

        You can hang out at your friends’ houses, but depending on your area there’s a decent chance that they may be in walking or biking distance so no need for a car, and if you’re just going to be hanging around the house, not a big deal for Mom or Dad to drop you off/pick you up, not like you’re going to really need a car while you’re there, you got nowhere to go anyway. And of course we get some parents these days who are really weird about their kids going over to other people’s homes, which leaves staying home and hanging out online.

        About the only thing I can think of that I used to do as a kid that might still be accessible for kids and might necessitate them having their own car is to go hang out at the local comic/game shop to play magic, d&d, etc. Because most of them are pretty cool about people just coming to hang out, but even that could really be a “hey parental unit, can I get a ride?” kind of thing.

        Plus, if you have a tight group of friends you always hang out with, you may only need a couple drivers. Even going back to when I was a teen/young adult, a lot of my friends didn’t have a license and many of them who did didn’t have their own car or couldn’t count on borrowing their parents’ car. I know the core group I hung out with was probably around 6-10 people, and one other guy and I did 99% of our driving whenever we went to do something because we were the ones with cars. Probably up until I was about 23 I spent a lot of time picking friends up and giving them rides places because I had a car and they didn’t.

        • Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          7 months ago

          At best maybe going to clubs.

          But yeah. All points you mentioned are out the window in today times.

        • chunkystyles@sopuli.xyz
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          7 months ago

          I’ve heard this called “the death of the third place”. The first place is home, the second place is work, the third place is everything else. It used to be that people could hang out at bars, malls, bowling alleys, etc. for not astronomical prices. It’s gotten too expensive to be out.

    • Rentlar@lemmy.ca
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      7 months ago

      If you work hard and save up, you could live in a nice van down by the river!

    • Grippler@feddit.dk
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      7 months ago

      The unit of measure in this article is whether or not they have a driver’s licence, not a car…I’m pretty sure even gen Zers can afford a driver’s license, if they actually wanted it. Not having a driver’s licence is very much a choice, to a much higher degree than owner a car (or house)

      • Thorny_Insight@lemm.ee
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        7 months ago

        In places like Finland it costs over a thousand euros to get your driver’s license. That’s less than a car obviously but not nothing either

        • Grippler@feddit.dk
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          7 months ago

          Yeah it costs around 2k Euros where I live, which is enough to also buy a small beater…but this article is US-focused only, and it’s significantly cheaper to get a licence in the US, hence my comment.

        • Obi@sopuli.xyz
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          7 months ago

          That still sounds on the cheap side for Europe, in some countries you’ll easily have spent north of 2k€ on all the mandatory lessons and exams, or even more if you’re a slow learner or fail the tests a few times.

    • Yuki@kutsuya.dev
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      7 months ago

      It costs about 400K to 500K where I live to buy a house that used to be around 150K 30 years ago. Times are fucked

      • Thorny_Insight@lemm.ee
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        7 months ago

        When my parents bought my childhood home in the 90’s they paid 150k euros for it and when they sold it in 2010 or so they got around 300k I believe. While it’s more money it’s not worth the double. It pretty much cost that much to buy their 2-room apartment then

  • Specal@lemmy.world
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    7 months ago

    I mean I owned a car from the ages of 18 to 25, never had a claim.

    I’m 27 now and looked at getting a car for the odd time I need one and and insurance premiums are an average of £1100 to £1700. Why bother? I’ll just continue to get the train

  • Resol van Lemmy@lemmy.world
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    7 months ago

    My family keeps pressuring me to learn how to drive. I still say no, and will keep doing so for the rest of my life basically. I seriously do not wanna contribute to pollution and congestion.

    In my country you’re expected to know how to drive as early as 15, way before you even get your permit. I say fuck that.

    • Fellstone@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      7 months ago

      I mean, you could learn how to drive but then never actually drive just to get them off your back. Besides, there is a chance you could be in a situation where you need to drive.

      Plus, driver’s licenses are the most commonly accepted form of ID.

      • Resol van Lemmy@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        In a situation like this, I likely would’ve forgotten how to drive regardless since I never do it, and who knows what kind of disaster is waiting to happen in this case?

        Also, I could just use my passport or my actual ID card.

    • AA5B@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      One of my kids is saying similar. While I respect and support that choice, we’re in the US so that seriously limits the places you can live. I keep saying he really needs to learn how to drive while I’m helping him get started in life, then see if he can figure out a life without a car. Then it would be his choice, not a limitation

      • notgold@aussie.zone
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        7 months ago

        My parents did the same thing for me. They made sure I could drive then encouraged me to take the bus. That way I would never be stuck.

        • AA5B@lemmy.world
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          7 months ago

          I’m not quite following this … if you’re saying to make sure they can drive manual transmission, I doubt they’ll ever see one. While I’ve said all my adult life that’s an important skill, the reality is in the US, manual transmissions have been pretty rare. It may have been a decade ago where is saw it was less than 5% of sales and has pretty much disappeared. With the advent of CVT, there’s no longer really a point, and of course EVs have no need for any transmission

          • RubberElectrons@lemmy.world
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            7 months ago

            Yeah… You’re probably right. They’re still quite popular in foreign countries due to mechanical simplicity/robustness. In fact I’ve noted car rentals that are automatic tend to be a bit more expensive then manuals, which the locals use.

            Regardless, do your thing and have fun.

    • trixter313@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      Another gen-z here, yeah I have no interest in something that requires me to pay insurance even if I’m not using it when my ebike gets me everywhere I need to go. Not to mention having way less potential to hurt someone else because of a lapse of attention on the roads. Add on the health and environmental benefits and that I don’t pay for electricity in my house so it’s free to fuel.

      Lots of these comments feel out of touch or just in touch with their own ideals a little too much.

      • spader312@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        Car insurance is getting super expensive even more so for younger folks. My renewal came in with GEICO and they raised my 6mo premium from $2500 to $3300. So I got a bunch of quotes from different companies all of them were around $3500-$4000 matching the same coverage. It’s insane.

  • BaardFigur@lemmy.world
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    7 months ago

    I guess it depends on where you live, and whether or not there are viable public transport near you

    • BrianTheeBiscuiteer@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      I would ride public more but routes are scarce in my area. In rush hour it takes about 25 min to get to the closest stop, and when I get off it’s about a half mile walk to my office and it easily gets to the 100s in the summer.

  • scrappydoo@lemmy.world
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    7 months ago

    Try living in Singapore, where it now costs SGD146,000 (USD106,000) just to have the right to own a car for ten years (a Certificate of Entitlement).

    To be clear, that fee doesn’t actually buy you a car, it’s simply the cost of being allowed to own a car. For ten whole years, then you need to buy another one.

    “A new standard Toyota Camry Hybrid costs around S$250,000 [~USD186,500] in Singapore, which includes the cost of a COE and taxes. That is about six times more expensive than in the US.”

    It’s certainly one way to encourage the public to use mass transit (which is pretty good, luckily!).

    Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/business-67014420

  • Clent@lemmy.world
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    7 months ago

    All the articles have been written on millennial’s so now they’re going to sub in Gen Z.

  • CarlosCheddar@lemmy.world
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    7 months ago

    In some states getting a license is how you get registered to vote. I wouldn’t be surprised if registration programs were being defunded to prevent younger voters.

    • erwan@lemmy.ml
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      7 months ago

      You can get an ID card from the DMV even if you don’t drive.