A recent study conducted by the US Public Interest Research Group (PIRG) shows that young people these days don’t enjoy driving as much as their parents did. The “driving boom,” as they call it, affected Baby Boomers (now 50 to 60 years old).
The total number of miles driven has been the same, but the number of miles per capita has been declining. The recession and gas prices surely influenced this, but the numbers have been dropping gradually since 2004.
The driving boom manifested itself between 1964 and 2004, when the average miles driven per capita increased by 2.5 to 3.8 percent. Ftom 2004 to 2012 it settled to the upper value, and it’s been decreasing one percent each year ever since.
Young people seem to be into car sharing, mass transit and bikes. Urbanization also plays a role, but the bottom line is that Gen Y (or Millennials) don’t seem to enjoy cars.
Well, I might say that’s because of the highly congested streets we have today and because of the cars not being so spacious and giving you the same amount of freedom as those in the 1960’s did. Gas was cheap then, and the awareness that gas is won by wars may have contributed to the lack of fun to a certain degree.
It may look like a sad perspective, but this is green all over: the use of mass transportation, more efficient vehicles, electric cars fitting right into place with their limited mileage. Everything seems to fit with this scenario.
What do you think?
