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Throughout the rich world, the young are falling out of love with cars

economist.com

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Re: Throughout the rich world, the young are falling out of love with cars

#541

Post by dclowd9901 »

I’m an older millennial and quite on the side of being a car lover. I grew up in the very car-necessary Phoenix, but spent a while in Portland, OR, where I learned to appreciate commuting to work via bike.

Regardless, I still love cars. I have a small collection of euro classics and vintage Japanese models and I love restoring them.

I definitely see people have gone more toward seeing cars as appliances rather than appendages they love. And I can see the trend heading more toward an overall disdain with having to own cars or put up with them as pedestrians or cyclists. I wonder if when my daughters grow up if driving around my classics will actually been seen as cool or gross to their peers.

Re: Throughout the rich world, the young are falling out of love with cars

#542

Post by olddustytrail »

seydor wrote: post #41
wffurr wrote: post #10

There's 138 trains per day between Amsterdam and The Hague. It's faster to take the train than to drive on that trip. Driving in either city in an exercise in frustration. Why would anyone in a rich country with a high functioning rail system like The Netherlands want to drive? I don't know how many rich countries that describes, but I lived happily for years in Boston in the USA without a car. I have one now but onl…

Why would so many people need to move between Amsterdam and Hague in the first place

It's not that odd. There are a similar number from Glasgow to Edinburgh daily.

Re: Throughout the rich world, the young are falling out of love with cars

#543

Post by moffkalast »

Telluur wrote: post #476
moffkalast wrote: post #257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And you again need to figure out and get whatever local card or ticket or app they decided to use to pay for all that, because there is zero standardization, which adds even more financial overhead assuming you're only visiting once, plus figuring out the timetable and route plan so you don't end up on the completely opposite end. Lots of "Oh wait, you were supposed to take the #15 bus, but this is a #15B which doesn…

> because there is zero standardization For the Netherlands, you could not be more wrong. By law, all public transport companies for Trains, Metro, Tram, Bus, Watertaxies are hooked into the exact same NFC payment platform, the OV-chipkaart. Recently, they rolled out debit/credit card payments on these readers nation-wide. Additionally, all public transportation companies provide standardized service information incl…

Good thing the only country that exists is the Netherlands and nobody ever ventures outside of it.

I do hope there is an eventual push for an EU-wide NFC system for public transport, that would be pretty dope.

Re: Throughout the rich world, the young are falling out of love with cars

#544

Post by t0bia_s »

83 wrote: post #513
wffurr wrote: post #10

There's 138 trains per day between Amsterdam and The Hague. It's faster to take the train than to drive on that trip. Driving in either city in an exercise in frustration. Why would anyone in a rich country with a high functioning rail system like The Netherlands want to drive? I don't know how many rich countries that describes, but I lived happily for years in Boston in the USA without a car. I have one now but onl…

Not everyone want to spend their whole life in an urban environment. Perhaps there is not much opportunity for this in the Netherlands, but I can't imagine not having a vehicle to go camping/rock climbing/kayaking/mountain biking/hiking which requires going to remote areas not typically serviced by public transport.

Depnds on country. In Czech Republic public transport is common and take you in almost every village. It is actually more comfortable to go hiking by public transport, because you can plan route from place A to place B. You do not have to go from A to B and back to A bcause of car.

Re: Throughout the rich world, the young are falling out of love with cars

#545

Post by [deleted] »

MengerSponge wrote: post #496
tropicalbeach wrote: post #470

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You still have that freedom to walk anywhere after parking you know. I have done this 100’s of times. Just park then from there go anywhere you want then just take a taxi or lyft back to your car. Public transport sucks, not sure why so many people people like it. Driving is much better unless you live in a large city like NY or LA. My own climate control, radio for music and podcasts, plus driving is therapeutic. I…

Driving is a luxury, and should be priced accordingly

[deleted]

Re: Throughout the rich world, the young are falling out of love with cars

#546

Post by stuckinhell »

warner25 wrote: post #520
stuckinhell wrote: post #493

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm an aging millennial as well. I love having a car! I can't imagine not having a car when you have KIDS! Driving them to their various sports games, with a car full of their equipment. Going camping with them. Getting groceries for a family of 5. I can't imagine doing that on public transport.

I think we can recognize the tremendous utility of something without having an emotional connection like love for it. I agree that I can't imagine not having a car with my four little kids. I also can't imagine not having laundry machines with four little kids, but I don't love my laundry machines; I'm not passionate about them. If you swapped them out with different but reasonably equivalent machines, I wouldn't eve…

I chose the word Love and I meant it. Humans are emotional beings first and thinking beings second (Though this maybe my day job of management leaking through). Every time I look at my car, I remember my children's "firsts", and honestly I know I'll be very sad when that car breaks down.

Re: Throughout the rich world, the young are falling out of love with cars

#547

Post by yamtaddle »

thesuitonym wrote: post #330
overthemoon wrote: post #174

I'm an aging millennial, but on a purely personal level, when I lived in a city with good public transit, I was a lot happier, most of the time. I really like stepping off the train and the bus and being on my own two feet, the walking exercise, not being chained to this thing I have to worry about. I hate driving, I hate parking, I hate owning a car--the maintenance, the ongoing cost of fuel and insurance, all of it…

>I don't get the emotional association of freedom that previous generations did. Previous generations would just go out for a ride, take the car out on Sunday and and enjoy the scenery. We just don't do that anymore, either because we're more concerned about the environmental effects of driving, or that we just have more interesting things to do. Not to mention, when this idea of "the freedom of a car" came about, ev…

Cars are mostly less fun to drive around in, now. They used to be bigger, with nice wide & deep seats, and they had way better visibility. Plus more were convertibles.

Now they're smaller, with thick heavy safety beams providing much worse visibility, and there aren't many convertibles around.

There are exceptions, but they're mostly fun for the driver, not passengers. And they're usually expensive.

Plus, at-home entertainment is far more engaging than it used to be.

Re: Throughout the rich world, the young are falling out of love with cars

#548

Post by Mezzie »

tropicalbeach wrote: post #470
usrusr wrote: post #343

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It really is a "the grass is bleaker on the other side" situation. As a public transport person I feel weirdly constrained by the idea that a day's itinerary will inevitably have to see me return to wherever the car is parked, impossible to do spontaneous things like walk a few stops, ride with an acquaintance or something like that that would eventually take me home, but not return to some previous stage. With a car…

You still have that freedom to walk anywhere after parking you know. I have done this 100’s of times. Just park then from there go anywhere you want then just take a taxi or lyft back to your car. Public transport sucks, not sure why so many people people like it. Driving is much better unless you live in a large city like NY or LA. My own climate control, radio for music and podcasts, plus driving is therapeutic. I…

Public transit is also a germ factory and as somebody who's immuno-compromised I really like not being sick all the time.

Re: Throughout the rich world, the young are falling out of love with cars

#549

Post by UncleEntity »

Steltek wrote: post #394
UncleEntity wrote: post #326

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You’re joking but I once took an elderly man from the front entrance of his building to the parking lot in my cab because he couldn’t walk that far with his walker (which wasn’t all that far from the back door) and had to help him get behind the wheel to drive off. Needless to say I waited a bit for him to clear the neighborhood before driving off.

Oh I'm very much NOT joking! I was stopped at a red light on my bike when I was rear ended by an 83yo. He couldn't judge how far his car was from my bike. He was super angry that I insisted he had to stick around to exchange information because he was going to be late for a doctor's appointment in Brookline. Thankfully it was low speed (he was stopping, he just didn't know where to stop) so all he did was knock me fo…

83 must be the magic year…

Had one back into me at a traffic light, with me honking, and then put it into drive and take off when the light changed. Had to have the cops drag him out of a medical building to get a report and his story went from “no accident” (at the scene) to me rear ending him (on the witness stand contesting his ticket), luckily I was hauling around a passenger who confirmed my side of the story.

Still don’t have a clue why he thought it was a good idea to put it into reverse and barely creep backward at a red light with cars all around him.

Re: Throughout the rich world, the young are falling out of love with cars

#550

Post by detourdog »

dublinben wrote: post #501
detourdog wrote: post #463

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have an 8-unit apartment building in small New England town. I'm seriously considering getting a car as a building amenity. The car would be reserved and shared amongst the tenants.

You might be able to just partner with one of the existing providers in this space, like Zipcar, and let them handle the logistics: https://www.zipcar.com/business/residential

I have reached out to manufacturers that offer the ability to pay a fixed amount for access to cars. Last I checked they were all individual focused products. Zipcar could work but I find the more relationships I have the more paperwork. I would control all aspects and simply add it to the keycard for tracking. If I introduce a third party it removes human judgement from the individuals involved in the relationship. I have no interest outsourcing my relationships to corporations lawyers to the extent possible. It definitely will make sense for some people but I happen to be a lunatic.

They are addressing a large scale building. I will only have 8 people and can get as many cars as 8 people are willing to pay for.

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