What Drives Today's Teens

I turned sixteen in March of 1962.  I quit the track team that spring so that I could take drivers training.  Our family car was a 1959 Chevrolet station wagon.   For two years I shared that car with my dad, the only other driver in the family.  I had a job in high school delivering the Detroit Free Press.  The paper route helped pay for my education, provided me with spending money but another goal was saving money so I could buy my own car.  That vehicle was a 1956 Plymouth.  It was not much to look at but the big V-8 engine was awesome.  I drove that Plymouth until my Uncle offered to sell me his 59 Chevy, definitely a step up. 

Many of the memories from my youth evolve around cars.  If you have seen the movie American Graffiti, you get the picture.  Eight Mile Road on the east-side of Detroit was the center of activity.  There were several drive-ins along Eight Mile and they were our gathering points.  We did not spend all our time cruising around Motown.  We took trips to Metropolitan Beach and Kent Lake.  Weekends were often spent on Belle Isle, a beautiful park in the middle of the Detroit River.  We relied on our cars to get us around and each of us took some pride in our vehicles, doing what we could to personalize them.  We viewed out drivers licenses as our tickets to freedom.

 

I recently saw a report that today’s teens do not put the same priority on getting a license to drive.   The share of high school seniors across the country who have a driver’s license dropped from 85.3 percent in 1996 to a record low 71.5 percent in 2015, according to a survey from the University of Michigan.  There are a number of reasons fewer teens are driving.  The cost of owning and operating a car is at an all-time high.  Fewer high school students are working part-time so if mom and dad are not in a position to foot the bill vehicle ownership might not be possible.  In addition, academic pressure has never been higher, and students who are also involved in extra-curricular activities often do not have the time to learn to drive. 

The decline in the percentage to teen drivers is just one indication of how times have changed.  It is a different world.  I am sure it is as difficult for today’s teens to understand the world we grew up in, as it is for us to comprehend what their world is like.  I do have one thought.   Perhaps getting a license to drive is not as important to today’s teens.  Maybe academics and using their talents in extra-curricular activities are a higher priority.