Younger Americans not driving as much, not getting licenses as soon, not buying as many cars

More on a trend that I’ve been following relatively closely and writing about periodically.

From Time’s The Great Debate: Do Millennials Really Want Cars, or Not? (with emphasis added):

The latest data from the University of Michigan’s Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI) bolsters the idea that younger Americans are much less interested in car ownership than their older siblings, parents and grandparents. Bloomberg highlighted data from the study showing that while consumers in the 35-to-44-age demographic were the most likely to be purchasing new cars four years ago, today it’s the 55-to-65-age Baby Boomers buying new cars with the most frequency. In 2011, boomers were 15 times more likely to purchase new vehicles than young millennials (ages 18 to 24), and even consumers ages 75 and up have been buying cars at higher rates than groups ages 18 to 24 and 25 to 34.

And this:

The Detroit Free Press focused on UMTRI’s findings regarding young adults who don’t have driver’s licenses. A survey of 600 Americans ages 18 to 39 who don’t drive inquired after the reasons that they don’t have driver’s licenses, and the most popular response (checked by 37%) was that they’re just too busy. Another 32% cited the cost of car ownership as a reason, and 31% said they haven’t bothered to get a driver’s license because of what might be called the “mooch factor”: when necessary, it’s easy for them to catch a ride with someone else. What’s more, 21% of those surveyed said they would never get a driver’s license.

It’s possible that some of these trends won’t stand out quite so sharply as/if the economy improves markedly. If younger Americans were making more money, they’d surely be more likely to buy cars. Still, we’ve seen a marked generational shift in attitudes. Owning a car and getting away from the house were marks of “cool” when I was growing up in the 70s and 80s, but not so much anymore.

The total vehicle miles driven in America began declining on a per capita basis in 2005 and has been stagnating for years, even as the population increases.

Again, we might see more of a rebound as the economy recovers, but with gas prices likely to remain high by historical standards, we might see younger Americans continue to delay or even totally avoid getting licenses and buying cars.

This shift could have huge consequences for transportation planning and funding in the coming decades.