Commuting - Disturbing comments on Yahoo article

http://news.yahoo.com/americas-generation-y-not-driven-drive-145632280--sector.html

I find the comments disturbing, let alone the horrible article from Yahoo. The article is basically saying gen y'ers are not wanting to drive a vehicle and get a license.

The comments show how much a vehicle is looked at as a right, as something that gives you 'freedom'. People are saying these young individuals are lazy... I don't understand. Not driving = lazy? :twitchy:

You do have to understand that the majority of people in this world are fantastically stupid.

Also I have found that there are people who create multiple accounts on yahoo apparently just so they can make it look like others agree with them. You'll sometimes find two or three "different people" say the exact same things verbatim if you scroll through enough comments. Some people are really demented.

http://news.yahoo.com/americas-generation-y-not-driven-drive-145632280--sector.html

I find the comments disturbing, let alone the horrible article from Yahoo. The article is basically saying gen y'ers are not wanting to drive a vehicle and get a license.

The comments show how much a vehicle is looked at as a right, as something that gives you 'freedom'. People are saying these young individuals are lazy... I don't understand. Not driving = lazy? :twitchy:

Trust me in this.

If you want hard evidence of the breathtaking stupidity of far too many of your fellow citizens, look no further than the comments section of just about any story in Yahoo news.

You'll also see evidence that many of your fellow citizens would appear to love the idea of seting people on fire and roasting marshmallows over their smoldering corpses.

It's best to avoid the comments section of any news outlet.

It's Yahoo. Lower your expectation a bit.

Not so much laziness as realizing that it's better to let someone else drive while they continue to keep their eyes clued to their iProducts and 'Droid Devices.

It's best to avoid the comments section of any news outlet.

But that's where the real entertainment is.

I didn't see it in that light. More like not learning to drive, being dependent on others. I don't think there has been a significant increase in bicyclists from other generations. IDK.

I saw another article somewheres where the author referred to alternative modes of transportation as "active" including riding the bus, subway etc. I disagree. Yes bicycles are active. Letting someone else drive you there is not. Driving safely like riding is "active". IMO.

That said I do ride the light rail in Phx occasionally. I commute 5 days per week by bicycle. I don't see anything wrong with not owning a car, nor anything wrong with owning a car. You should do what makes sense for you.

But that's where the real entertainment is.

I used to feel that way.

Then I thought "These people are eligible to vote - and many of them DO!"

:cry:

Ever since then...............

As for the additional comments on the Yahoo site; no comment.

I have two children that fit the profile; my daughter is 24 with no DL. She has said, "Why bother, I can go anywhere I want using the MTA (public transportation)."
My son is 18. He has a learner's permit that he has renewed a couple of times. He keeps procrastinating getting his actual DL.
For my daughter, laziness is a factor but it's not the only issue at play. My son otoh simply ahs a different attitude toward driving than I had (and many others) when I was his age. When I was 18, to go across the street i would get in the car and drive. Now, even I'm riding my bike or walking at every opportunity.

"Gen Y-ers, also known as Millennials, tend to ride bicycles, take public transit and rely on virtual media."

Why would a person born in the 1980s to mid-1990s be called a Millennial?

I don't see it as being lazy at all. From the article and the comments, it seems like most of the Y generation don't see a need for driving due to bikes, high cost of ownership of a car, and public transportation. Add in a tough economy that is going on now and it's hard. Plus, those kids got the education of recycle and save the environment changing how they see the world. Owning a car is a PITA now and I'm a generation x. My insurance is 100 dollars a month (if I added my 16 year-old-son, it would go up to 180 a month), gas is 60 dollars to fill it up and I have to make a tank of gas last two weeks. When you live 80 miles from civilization a half tank of gas gets there and back so you don't get out much.

Technology has made it that much easier to communicate with friends and family and do so much from home. It's not about entitlement, it's how the world has changed. My son has looked for work since school got out. No one is hiring and he gets frustrated. All it means is he has no disposable income for doing extra stuff. When I was 16, I just walked into the nearest store and was hired instantly. My kids don't have cell phones as I feel they don't need them. They use their iPod Touches. Generation Y is growing up in a world that is vastly different than what the rest of us have had.

"Gen Y-ers, also known as Millennials, tend to ride bicycles, take public transit and rely on virtual media."

Why would a person born in the 1980s to mid-1990s be called a Millennial?

GUESS: they came of driving age/adulthood around the turn of the century?

GUESS: they came of driving age/adulthood around the turn of the century?

Someone who was born in 1995 was 5 years old at the turn of the century. They would now be around 17.

LOL! I was thinking on the earlier side of the equation.

Well, apparently, I (born in 1979) fall into this demographic.

I don't get the whole "laziness" angle. Could it be a correlation between the large number of folks from this generation moving from the suburbs where they grew up, to the city where older generations grew up.

Personally, my grandparents did everything they could to get out of the city wen they were my age. Ironically, I did everything I could to get out of the suburbs. Part of that was learning that I could, in fact, survive without a car.

Its not laziness, it's a choice of needs. Honestly, I consider driving everywhere to be extremely lazy. I have childhood friends who still live in the burbs who drive from one friends house to the next, when often these trips are less than a full block. I used to do it. Now I rely on my own internal engine and my knowledge of transit.

Judgemental oldtimers. Psh. Get off of my lawn!

Seems to me like many of the comments simply confer generic inter-generational hate. I sure hope this isn't representative of the country as a whole.

The article is interesting, but it's ultimately kind of shallow and leaves me wanting more details. For example, it talks about a 5% increase in the number of people without licenses, which is significant (although I was still surprised that the base level was 20%). However, it doesn't discuss the fact that many states have increased theh age at which you can get a DL; when I was learning to drive, you could get a learner's permit when you were 15, and were eligible for a DL on the day you turned 16. In my state now, it's more complicated to get a learner's permit; you have to drive a certain number of hours and keep a log, and you can't get a DL until 270 days after you turn 16. Given that generation Y ranges from age 16-34, this fact alone is going to account for some difference in the number of people in that range who have DLs, no matter how eagerly they want to drive. (Although not, probably, 5%). It would also be interesting to see more of a breakdown in ages - is this generation *really* not getting DLs...or are they just delaying until they are out of HS?

It would also be interestion to see how this ties in with car usage/ownership - I was car free for 10 years - from age 18 to age 28 (I had a car in HS) - but I did have a license.

Meh. A bunch of youth get the terms 'rite' and 'Right' mixed up these days...

Meh. A bunch of youth get the terms 'rite' and 'Right' mixed up these days...

You're absolutely rite.

I was disappointed by the article a bit too. More information would have been nice. At the same time I'm encouraged by the trend. When I was growing up it seemed like getting one's license was soooo very important. Glad to see that some kids at least are fine doing without.

And the other thing was, it was just scary, the idea of being in charge of a vehicle that potentially could kill me or other people

Profound!

You do know where the word Yahoo comes from, dont you?

z

Problem is, in a lot of parts of the US, getting a car IS freeing. Take my University, located in a hilly and highly spread out suburban neighborhoods of OC, with absolutely NO public transit. If you didn't have a car or made friends with people with cars, you were literally stuck on campus all the time. It sucked.

That being said, I avoid any online article comment sections exactly for the reason mentioned above. It's like a magnet for everything that is wrong with mankind...

Yeah my family moved out of the city limits in 1993. Have lived in surrounding areas ever since. Now I would love to move back to the downtown or midtown areas, but cost of living is WAY higher there than where I'm at now, even with a car... $11K+ in annual property taxes in some areas as compared to ~$1200 annual on my house.

Now this just had me :lol:

She eventually got her license at 18, two years later than she could have, after her parents threatened not to pay for college if she did not learn to drive, a skill they considered to be important.

Ive been here one the forums just watching and learning but after reading this article i wanted to comment and i finally registered.

i fit into this demographic since i was born in 1987 but im nothing like those people they mention, i learned to drive at a very young age and in my 24 years of living ive owned over 20 motor vehicles, I currently own 2 cars my fun turbo 600whp weekend racecar that i built my self and my 98 mercedes that i use because it gets 32mpg and it cost me $1000. i guess i just love cars it is my hobby to build and race and i do what i can with my limited income.

i do enjoy cycling very much when i was younger i used to go to many MTB trails with my brother and recently ive dusted off my old Giant and im slowly converting her into a commuter i use to ride to the gym and back a 12.5 mile round trip 5 days a week but the more i ride the more i enjoy it!

I honestly feel that i wont ever give up my passion and my hobby of cars but i wont stop riding my bike either it helps keep me healthy and hell its a free ride to the gym everyday lol

As others have said the article is lacking detail. Besides some of the other things people have already mentioned such as more young people moving into cities, I think there are two other factors to consider:

1) More kids going to and living at college. At the university I work out there is limited parking (and I believe freshmen aren't even allowed to have cars). There is pretty good transportation for the students that takes them to the mall and other shopping opportunities. The campus bus also takes them to the bars on State Street where the big hangouts are (the bus even runs late!).

2) Cheap beater cars aren't cool or safe so teens won't buy them. When I started driving, me and many of my friends had cars that were rusted and falling apart. One of my cars had a bungee cord holding the driver's side door shut. A friend had a car we had to push start everyday after school (he lived on a hill so he could start it himself in the AM). Another had a VW bug with a hole in the floor boards - you could put both feet on the ground! We eventually fixed the floor board with a street sign we found. These are just a few examples. Not many 17-2x year-olds would be seen with cars like that these days. They would rather not have a car. In many respects we were not the brightest bulbs driving around with the cars we had and today's generation might be smarter to not drive. ;)

3) Related to cheap beater cars. The cars that would be beaters now are probably from the 90's and have all sort of computers and other technology that can't be fixed as easily as the cars built in the 60's and 70's that we had when I went to high school in the 1980s. Of course even if they could be fixed, I'm not sure as many kids would want to these days.

Comments on site like DPreview are worse!

Wow, this is the most offensive thing I've read today, and it's an election year...

Have things changed that much in 15 years? I turned 16 in 1996 and couldn't WAIT to get my DL! I was handed down a blahhh 1989 Toyota Camry from my parents - not cool at all, but at least it had manual transmission! Currently driving a 1994 Acura Integra GS-R that I've had since 2001 and put over 225K miles on it, and I still love driving it.

Look on any car enthusiast website, such as Honda-Tech (another IB website) with over 250K members, and there are still tons of kids wanting cars, especially 90's Hondas so they can hop them up and *ugh* rice them out. :rolleyes:

I actually didn't see too many ignorant comments. It was the interviewee herself who mentioned laziness as a contributing cause.

The comments really weren't too disturbing. What's really disturbing is people choosing to never get their DL or getting it way later. I once heard someone's theory and have seen lots of anecdotal evidence that learning to drive later in life causes you to never build good driving habits or you lack a decent subset of driving skills. My mother doesn't know how to use rear and sideview mirrors; she hardly ever changes lanes, she just turns into the correct lane for her next turn. She also doesn't drive through a yellow light no matter how close she is to the intersection or how fast the road is; she will floor the brakes in anticipation of the red light. My dad drove the 55mph speed limit on I95; when he once tried to catch up to another car we were following, he gunned it to 60; he was appalled that we never caught up to the other car. I had a friend that once felt the need to turn around and serve everyone a particular beverage we were talking about while she was driving. It's probably not just a stereotype that immigrants are poor drivers, there are probably mental developments that did not occur at the age that needed to happen. It is probably also why kids who got their license at 16 suddenly become much better drivers at 25.

Well, apparently, I (born in 1979) fall into this demographic.

I don't get the whole "laziness" angle. Could it be a correlation between the large number of folks from this generation moving from the suburbs where they grew up, to the city where older generations grew up.

Personally, my grandparents did everything they could to get out of the city wen they were my age. Ironically, I did everything I could to get out of the suburbs. Part of that was learning that I could, in fact, survive without a car.

Its not laziness, it's a choice of needs. Honestly, I consider driving everywhere to be extremely lazy. I have childhood friends who still live in the burbs who drive from one friends house to the next, when often these trips are less than a full block. I used to do it. Now I rely on my own internal engine and my knowledge of transit.

Judgemental oldtimers. Psh. Get off of my lawn!

Same here. Moved to Chicago in '76 and after the first year sold my car, got a bike and rode the 'El' alot. NOBODY was cycle-commuting at that time. It wasn't until I moved back in '86 that I began to cycle-commute in earnest. Utilitarian/commuter, etc. Winters from '77 to '82 were exceptionally brutal, so there was no love lost when I moved to LA for a few years. Decided I preferred Rapid Transit to vapid transients and moved back a few years later.

Started cycle-commuting almost right away and have been doing it ever since. So, I've spent a great deal of my adult life w/o a car. My wife and I are car lite and are looking into ways to further shrink our carbon footprint. I'd say 130-250 mpwk in commuting/utility miles is a good way to maintain it. My wife rides a 150cc scooter for errands and visiting neighbors. We're 16 miles in any direction from population centers. The only time we use our 21 year old pick-up is for grocery runs. Otherwise, it sits and gets sap all over the windshield.

I love riding my bike. One feels ageless, childlike and free.

bah. i have no desire to drive again.

and i actually only drive (one per month) when i'm too lazy to use the excellent public transport.

plus. it's good to start/use the car 6-9 times/year.

It's best to avoid the comments section of any news outlet.

A good friend of mine has a cross-stitch sampler hanging above his computer that says, "Never read the comments." Words to live by.

It's Yahoo. Lower your expectation a bit.


I was disappointed by the article a bit too. More information would have been nice. At the same time I'm encouraged by the trend. When I was growing up it seemed like getting one's license was soooo very important. Glad to see that some kids at least are fine doing without.

+1. The idea that this was a positive trend never occurred to many there.

bah. i have no desire to drive again.

and i actually only drive (one per month) when i'm too lazy to use the excellent public transport.

plus. it's good to start/use the car 6-9 times/year.

Maybe if it weren't so blasted easy to get a DL in this country we wouldn't have so many idiots on the road. Isn't it true in Germany and other countries that it costs quite a lot of money and fairly rigorous testing to get a license to operate a motor vehicle?

C'mon Gen-y'ers ARE lazy. My nieces and nephews refuse to use my rotary dial phone. How lazy!

C'mon Gen-y'ers ARE lazy. My nieces and nephews refuse to use my rotary dial phone. How lazy!

They're probably pouting over when you told them to get off your lawn.

:50:

Comments on site like DPreview are worse!

If you think that's bad you should see the comments on BikeForums!

:p

If you think that's bad you should see the comments on BikeForums!

:p

At the 41 to be exact!