Fewer Teens Are Driving Because They're Broke

Parent Cafe
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<p>I think that the long hours of behind-the-wheel practice that are now required to get a license in many states are a deterrent to getting a driver’s license – especially for those teens who know that it will not be financially possible for them to get their own cars once they obtain their licenses.</p>

<p>But not getting a license while in high school can be a problem. Young people may find themselves in a situation later where they absolutely have to be able to drive (for example, they may unexpectedly get a job in a suburb where mass transit is not available). And it can be hard to get a license quickly at that time. If my kids had not gotten their licenses before leaving for college, I would definitely have pushed them to do so.</p>

<p>I see the problems that not driving can cause because I work at a company in the suburbs of Washington, DC. Quite a lot of the young people working here live in DC, and they may not have anticipated that they would end up working in a suburb and being reverse commuters. Some try for a while to commute by mass transit, but it’s difficult. You have to change buses several times. Eventually, they give in and buy cars, but there are extra challenges for those who have to get licenses first.</p>

<p>That said, my two kids, now in their twenties and living in major cities on opposite sides of the country, don’t own cars and have never owned cars – by their own choice. They do have driver’s licenses, though, and they dutifully get new licenses every time they move to a new city or state (which for today’s young people, seems to be almost an annual event). As their careers and relationships take them to new places, I imagine that a time may come for each of them when owning a car will suddenly be a necessity. When that time comes, at least they will have licenses (although their behind-the-wheel skills may be rusty).</p>

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<p>Sometimes I was the “you can go if you can get a ride” parent because nobody had consulted me if I had plans that night. I am not always going to be the one jumping up and driving you on no notice. HOWEVER, when my daughter got her driver license at 17, I said “now you are going to be that kid who picks people up”, but don’t go crazy.</p>

<p>I did encourage her to get a license “on time”. She just missed the cut off so she is one of the older kids in her grade and will be able to drive for junior and senior year. Her older sister got her license a little late (we lived overseas) but I did push her to get it before she went to college because it would be difficult to do supervised driving otherwise.</p>

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<p>Checking in from CT… we live in a rural/suburban area with NO public transportation, no sidewalks except for right in the town center, and no streetlights; most of our roads don’t even have shoulders. You really can’t get by without a car. The VAST majority of our public HS students drive, even if they don’t have their own car (they borrow a family car). We also have very strict graduated license laws… a new teen driver can’t even have a sibling as a passenger for the first 6 months and cannot drive a non-family member for the first year, so the kids can’t really even give each other rides. There are no “walkers” at any of our schools… every student is assigned a bus. </p>

<p>My dds were both expected to work part time during HS to pay for expenses like extra clothing, entertainment, and, to save money toward college expenses like books. My husband and I both believe that it’s important to develop a work ethic early on. Both are also expected to work part time while at college. We have very little in the way of employment opportunities right in our town; and, like one previous poster said, our grocery store and the Dunkin Donuts are staffed by adults and recent immigrants. So, our kids have no choice but to drive to neighboring towns, I’d say on average, they commute 20-25 minutes each way. </p>

<p>Yes, we bought each of them a “new to us” car… late model used cars in excellent condition with low mileage. There is no way either of them could have saved enough to buy anything safe and reliable. They are, however, responsible for gas and routine maintenance like oil changes. We pay the insurance, because again, they wouldn’t be able to and help out if the car needs a major repair, which, again, is minimized by spending more upfront for a “better” car. </p>

<p>Both my kids took a challenging course load in HS, both were/are involved in ECs or play on a sports team, and by limiting their hours during the school year, were/are able to work at their part time jobs enough to make spending money, cover their car expenses AND save a little for college. My older dd is now a senior in nursing school, and beginning last year, was required to have a car at school to get to her clinical rotations at area hospital and to commute to classes held on a different campus than the one she lives on.</p>

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<p>Yes, it is Miami–sprawling and seemingly more suburban than urban but not necessarily safe.</p>

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<p>This is a fantastic idea–I will share it with my daughter. Thank you!</p>

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<p>Because we would not add another car to our already very ex*****ve insurance, our kids had to be able to afford insurance on their own as well as the cost of the car purchase and gasoline, and maintenance before they got their cars. Still 3 out of 4 bought cars by the time they were 20 years old. The one who did not lives in Manhattan and a car would be a true white elephant for him.</p>

<p>With our current college kid, we relented and have picked up the insurance cost with the understanding that it is our second car, kept here at the house while he is away at college. We did this rather than buying a second second car when DH’s car needed to be replaced. My son had enough money to buy the car and half a year of insurance. He found a very nice sedan at CarMax and DH struck that deal with him. So we now have 2 cars here, and he has his car to use when he comes home for college. We don’t use his car much at all, but it’s nice having an extra car, as we have a high schooler beginning his driving. Only DH or I use son’s car in exchange for paying for the insurance any gas as we use it, and a 75% of any maintennce costs He will have a car waiting for him when he graduates from college with very little added mileage.</p>

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<p>Couldn’t this go both ways? Fewer teenagers could be getting jobs to pay for gas money because there are cheaper ways to talk to people (e.g., the internet).</p>

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<p>Before kids even get to the expense of car, maintenance, gas, and insurance, there’s the significant expense of even getting that permit. Parents used to be allowed to teach their kids to drive if they wanted, but in our state it’s mandated that teenagers complete 6 hours of practice with a certified driving school before they can get their permit. That costs around $400 or more. In a neighboring state, parents also have to pay for the classroom driver’s ed course that teaches safety and traffic rules. At least that’s done free in our high school sophomore year, in lieu of health class. When I was in high school, the same person who taught us driver’s ed in school, also took us out driving for a few hours and it was free too. How times have changed!</p>

<p>We live in a high insurance cost state, so especially for boys it’s a huge expense for the student to drive. Adding a teen driver to the policy is an extra thousand or so a year.</p>

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<p>Well, true, its not this way in the entire state. But here’s a sample of what it was like in 2011 in my area.</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.dallasnews.com/news/local-news/20110330-dps_troubles-leave-dallas-area-teens-and-parents-waiting-for-driving-tests-and-licenses.ece[/url]”>http://www.dallasnews.com/news/local-news/20110330-dps_troubles-leave-dallas-area-teens-and-parents-waiting-for-driving-tests-and-licenses.ece&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Two “mega” DPS offices opened this year (one in the Dallas area and one in Fort Worth) that have helped somewhat.</p>

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It does not go both ways. </p>

<p>I don’t believe any kid would equate not getting a car with the feasibility of online communication.</p>

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<p>I go to school 25 miles from my house, so I need a car. I live in a middle-class area in Northwest Florida and I can say that it’s very difficult for teenagers to find a job nowadays.</p>

<p>In my town, 16, 17, and 18 year olds are fighting over jobs at the local grocery stores, McDonalds, etc with unemployed adults and 19+ year olds that decided not to go to college. Who is McDonalds going to hire? The 16-year-old that can legally only work 3-4 hours a day and has a school schedule to work around? Or the unemployed 30-year-old that can work a part-time shift at any point in the day? It’s a low skill job - all they need to do is fill a position where somebody will reliably show up.</p>

<p>If I decide to drive 30 miles away, however, I can get a job anywhere in the tourist areas at the beach. Lots of my friends drive to the beach to be a lifeguard, work at the water parks, work at the outlet malls, etc. But if I were to drive 30 miles one way just to work 4 hours at $8 an hour, I would only make about $20 a day after gas and taxes.</p>

<p>I’m lucky enough to have computer programming skills, so I was hired by a local computer consulting firm whilst I’m in high school. I make enough money to cover the cost of my car, oil changes and maintenence, gasoline, and car insurance. My parents make me pay for everything, and my car costs about 80% of my income.</p>

<p>I love having a car, though, simply because of the freedom it allows me to have. That being said, I am the only one of my friends that has to pay for anything. Either people don’t have a car or they have one that their parents bought for them. I think it’s irresponsible for parents to pay for the car (especially a brand new one, as many parents do), fuel, maintenence, etc. It doens’t teach teenagers any sense of responsibility. They can drive all over the place and just ask mom/dad for the credit card to fill up their tank again. I have to be responsible and conservative with my driving because I know that gas costs at least $30 a week just for me to drive to school.</p>

<p>So to answer this question - teenagers don’t have cars because they don’t have money. The teenagers that have rich parents all drive brand new cars (often wrecking at least one car before they leave high school - I know 3 friends who have already totaled their first brand new cars). The teenagers that don’t have rich parents don’t have cars. And the very small percentage of teenagers who take the initiative (and are lucky enough) to get a job have cheap cars because that’s all they can afford.</p>

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Objection! Just because a kid gets a “free car” does not mean they don’t have a sense of responsibility. Their car can be tied to their academic performance, their behavior, etc. To say giving a kid a “free car” doesn’t teach them any sense of responsibility is laying it on a bit thick.</p>

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<p>Our S has been responsible with his car that we gave him. He got himself down from LA to San Diego to pick the car up, He has also bee responsible for all expenses related to it, including AAA, insurance, maintenance, repairs, registration, gas, getting it to his new workplace after he moved from LA to DC, and everything else. Having a car was very helpful to him, as LA is a very sprawling city and a car really helps a lot; living in VA/DC area, he has found a car very convenient as well. We don’t think giving our S (and D) cars has caused them to be irresponsible.</p>

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<p>It depends on where you live, but where I live you need a car. Public transit is very spotty past 7pm, and non-existent past 9pm. And everything is too far apart and it’s too cold to walk from place to place. If you had to walk everywhere you’d never have time to do anything else. And walking miles in the snow is never fun. </p>

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<p>Most of the people I knew in high school that were “college bound” worked. The only ones who didn’t were mostly those destined for the likes of HYPSM. </p>

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<p>My college does the same, except it’s just anyone with fewer than 55 credits completed. It’s just inconvenient and obnoxious. If the public transit infrastructure isn’t there it’s simply unavoidable. This policy just makes things more difficult for commuting freshmen. </p>

<p>I’m moving in January and where I’m moving there is better public transit, better biking infrastructure (though I don’t know how to ride a bike - I might try to learn), and far worse driving infrastructure than here so I might look into getting rid of the car. And I’ll be living with someone who works at the same company so we might be able to carpool. But my experience through high school and college, there’s no way to go without a car.</p>

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<p>A priority in my college search was a college that allowed their freshmen to have cars.</p>

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<p>In my university, people paid upperclassmen for their parking pass. Although, “illegal” people can’t part with their cars (understandably) and the off-campus parking is unsightly.</p>

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<p>"A priority in my college search was a college that allowed their freshmen to have cars. "</p>

<p>That’s interesting. A priority in my younger D’s college search is the college being located close to public transportation, just like her home city. We do not plan on her taking a car with her. Do you find you use your car much?</p>

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<p>Considering my home town didn’t have reliable public transportation, I had a car. Therefore, I looked for a college where I could take my car. Not taking it was not an option. My mom didn’t pay a chunk of money for it to sit in the garage for years upon years. </p>

<p>Because I do live on campus, I do not use my car everyday. I drive my car at most once a week. Although, I may not drive a lot in my college’s town, I am able to go home whenever I need to (which I do often).</p>

<p>A car provides independence for me.</p>

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<p>I grew up in the suburbs, which didn’t have great public transportation, so I walked or rode a bike to work & school.
I moved to the city after we started a family because it is much more walkable than the suburbs. Even though we lived within walking distance of downtown Bellevue, there was a stigma about walking. People would worry about you and try to get you in their car as they were driving to the gym!
:wink:
Availability of public transportation was a criteria for my kids in selecting schools.
Both their cities are fairly walkable and easy to get to train/ bus stations by bike or foot or light rail. Airports are equally accessible.
H & I even take the bus to Sea- Tac.</p>

<p>But my kids had it pretty easy compared to their cousins who attended college in upstate NY without a car. Still they managed.
Most schools have shuttles to the airports.
My kids took the train home on holidays, the ease of which I really appreciated so that I didn’t worry about them driving in traffic/snow. ( my nephew fell asleep driving home from his university & a friend of my mother had a daughter who died when she pulled off the road coming back from college. She was 21. It made a big impression on me as we were the same age)</p>

<p>In fact with gas so high, it is cheaper to take the train than drive & it is sure more relaxing.
:slight_smile:
Sometimes we rent a car when we get to our destination and sometimes we take the max/bart.</p>

<p>Everyone has different priorities, mine is to reduce my carbon footprint.</p>

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<p>That is our priority, too. We live in an 1100-square foot house (with three people and two dogs). We rarely use our air conditioning even when everyone else has theirs on. Our neighborhood has a very high walkability index, with three grocery stores, Target, a movie theater, restaurants, yoga studios, farmers markets and shops only blocks away.</p>

<p>My daughter still needs a car.</p>

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<p>I don’t know that the premise of this thread is even accurate. There are a number of reasons why teenagers aren’t driving. Where I live, ability to pay for a car and gas doesn’t seem to be a factor. Many teenagers don’t want to drive at all. We live in a fairly rural area, and my children have plenty of friends over 16 (even 21-22) who do not have a license; some don’t even have a permit. These non-drivers include a lot of very intelligent, highly motivated students. Here are the reasons I’ve heard:</p>

<p>1) Fear/intimidation. Traffic is worse and there is more red-light running and road rage. They are scared to drive.
2) No experience. They are less likely to live on farms, where prior generations of boys and girls got plenty of practice driving farm trucks and tractors in fields – a safer environment for learning to drive than on public roads.
3) No interest. Driving isn’t something they want to do. They don’t enjoy it, and they don’t see a need for it.
4) No time. They don’t get much practice because school is more stressful and they feel that they should be doing homework while in the car.</p>

<p>In many of these cases, the parents are not pushing them to drive. These non-drivers depend on their parents and friends for rides, although they seem generally to be satisfied staying at home. The ones in college either stay on campus or use public transportation if available.</p>