Why teens today don’t want to drive. A theory.

[MichaelSmith-zotf]

I think another part of it is that there aren't much in the way of places for teens to hang out anymore that isn't somebody else's house. Malls, arcades, comic stores; skate parks, bowling alleys, etc are borderline nonexistent nowadays. Many of those spaces have been replaced by virtual equivalents or abandoned altogether. This is compounded by the rising costs of vehicles, insurance, gas, maintenance, etc.

[SC]

I absolutely love how he voiced his take without being the least bit condescending. He voiced his opinion without implying that the younger generation was somehow weaker. Respect.

[LongStoryShortItHitsDifferent]

I think a there's a lot of kids who are afraid of driving too. My parents were constantly telling me "this is a 3000 pound weapon I'm letting you drive and making the smallest mistake could get you or someone else killed." Hearing that over and over again was enough to scare me out of wanting to. Also, adding a teenager to the car insurance is like $1100 now which is insane. Having parents talking about how expensive it is frequently is also offputting.

[MoonFlower]

For me it was fear. At my high school they had an event every year that encouraged students to think about the consequences of unsafe/drunk driving. The fire department would come and play out a scene with student volunteers in front of the school to play out a car crash scene. Random students would get selected to pretend to be dead by being quiet all day and carry around a sign. They would play stuff over the intercom about the students who "died" between classes. My cousin had been in a horrible car accident a few years before that so I stayed home that week. People love scaring the shit out of us and then act surprised when their kids don't want to drive.

[cocoXmarshmallows]

Glad to see I’m not alone. I’m 24 now, but when I was 16, I had no interest whatsoever in driving, and my parents were so perplexed. Like most people here, I had grown up being told stories of how dangerous driving was, and I was just terrified of it. My parents forced me to get my license, but I didn’t start actually driving all that much until my junior year of college, because it became a necessary part of my freedom/independence.

I think an excitement for driving was part of the older generation’s being less risk adverse. My parents tell me all sorts of stories of things they did as teens—like playing pranks on neighbors and stealing their parents’ cars. I was always really straight-laced though, because I would get the police called on me for stuff like that these days, and even if I didn’t, my parents would kill me for doing 90% of what they got away with. It’s like our parents’ generation tried so hard to make sure we wouldn’t repeat their mistakes that they accidentally taught us to fear everything.

That’s my take, anyway. 🤷🏼‍♀️

[Daro-Wolfe]

17 here. I had a “create your own activity” for school, and I asked my teacher permission to start on the road to driving. She essentially accused me of lying because at 17 I should already know how to drive and have my full license. The idea that driving wouldn’t have been my #1 priority was outrageous to her

[Ryla_]

As a 15 yo, im honestly scared. I’ve been told my whole life these very real stories about all the dangers of the road. Even my parents, who are great drivers, warn me about paying attention to everyone else, as many people on the road, shouldn’t be there. For example, my grandfather literally ran into a tire on the highway (while we were all warning him about it being there) simply bc he’s loosing his vision. Scary place man

[fresabunny]

I think as others have mentioned is the lack of things to do as a teenager. I’m an older GenZ and I hung out with my friends recently but there isn’t any where to go that isn’t expensive AND in the city. Imagine you just learned to drive and all the cool experiences you could maybe have are expensive and in the city where it’s more prone to accidents, traffic and although you know the area you haven’t known what it’s like to drive there. Attributing to massive anxiety that isn’t worth the pressure.

[haileymclaughlin]

My mom was talking to me about how she doesn’t understand why teens don’t take risks or engage in risky behavior like her generation. I told her that some teens do, but for the most part, the punishments for those risky behaviors are way higher than when she was a teen. There are judicial consequences like going to jail or getting arrested for drug possession that didn’t occur nearly as frequently as when she was a teen. Natural consequences too: She told me how she would go to in a party in the 80s that had community punch bowls and you didn’t know that contents of them, now most parties, even wild ones, someone is always monitoring drinks and people are on their guard from having their drinks roofied. I had an uncle roll his eyes at me and call my generation weak, compared to his, where they would go car racing and drive under the influence, and I told him about my school yearly assembly where they would bring in the parents of teens who were killed by drunk drivers or who were paralyzed from a dui car crash. A huge reason of not wanting to drive is that we don’t trust ourselves behind the wheel of a 3 ton killing machine lmao

[PrimeEchoes]

I’m 26, an older/cusp member of Gen Z. I was also very reluctant to drive when I turned 16. For me it was an anxiety thing - I was terrified of the prospect of getting into an accident or breaking something on a car that I didn’t own. It wasn’t until I realized that I wanted to move away from home after high school and live in a different city for university and starting my career that I got motivated and actually saw the value in driving, because it was part of my ticket to freedom.

[wynematurtleduck]

It's so nice to see someone giving an explanation about a younger generation than them without putting those younger people down in the process. It's sincerely so refreshing cuz I've been seeing too much of that lately. Like you actually just came up with a genuine theory as to why instead of taking the opportunity to insult younger people.

[RosieWolf]

As a teen learning to drive right now, for me it’s the fear. I WANT to drive because I want that independence and to take a load off my parents with all the activities I’m involved in, but I’m just scared of getting in an accident because you see all these stories on the news nowadays and it’s basically unheard of to meet someone who hasn’t gotten in an accident at some point. It’s so normalized, it’s scary.

[Ed_Gein_crafts]

In my town in Iowa, there is nowhere for teens to hang out. I witnessed a group of teens being told to leave the mall because they were not buying things- just window shopping. I should have stepped in and said something but I'm ashamed to admit I was scared. Teens can't hang out at the mall. The downtown is full of homeless people who will harass them and besides the businesses are all closed down so unless you to to a bar or the library there isn't anything to do downtown. They keep closing the skate park which the city purposely put in the worst place ever so it's hard to get to without a car and no public transport goes by. They say it's for repairs but my city is shady and corrupt. They want that park gone.
Even as a college kid, there isn't anything to do that isn't drugs or booze. You can go to someone's house but you always end up watching YouTube or something.

For all the "go outside " folks' outside isn't safe. The walkable neighborhoods you enjoyed as a teen are now 4 lane street-roads or multilane highways and endless commercial districts. Nowhere allows people to hang out without spending money and the free places are the library. The parks are taken over by the homeless and unsafe. There are no skate rings or bowling alleys there is nothing that isn't online.

[jeriahcook]

I’m 21 now, but I still don’t like driving. I have my license and a car but it’s just something about it that scares me. People drive crazy and it seems like a lot to keep in mind, and watch out for when driving. If you have bad anxiety and question yourself a lot, like myself, it will be even worse. My mom practices with me and helps me a lot. Don’t push your kids out there to quick, or force them to do something somewhat dangerous if they aren’t in the right head space for it.

[meleahbrunson]

It’s also because for a lot of us, driving doesn’t give you freedom like it used to, because even if you’re away from home your parents can still track and micromanage every move you make

[dabi]

As someone who is younger gen z, the only reasons I want to drive are
1. Urban planning is the worst, and public transport where I live is an actual nightmare
2. I'm in school currently so I have to take the bus, which is usually late by at least 5-10 minutes.
I would love it if everything was in walking distance, only needing to take the bus if it were too far, but that's not how it works nowadays.

[carabarabonanza]

As a 23 year old almost ready to get my license, this was def a big reason I didnt push to want to learn how to drive. Another was anxiety, but not really needing somewhere to go def kept me from feeling like I needed a license for a long time. A big motivator to getting myself to learn is finding interesting places I couldnt go myself on google maps and bookmarking them in a sort of bucket list once I can drive alone.

Also for the love of God THANK YOU for not being judgemental about it, most people wouldve said "ah theyre lazy and can just talk on their phones" and its so tiring to hear that. Thank you so much

[KnoxOnTopProductions]

Its mostly the phrases like "young people kill so many people while driving" that were drilled into us CONSTANTLY while growing up. This inadvertently creates an extremely large amount of fear around it. We are a generation that is extremely afraid of a lot of stuff, because our parents were so extremely protective of us. Most of my deep rooted social anxiety is from the "stranger danger" thing being drilled into me almost daily, basically from the time I could understand words, until I was a teenager. I realize that our parents are just doing their bests to try to keep us safe, but it inadvertently turns us into very 'dysfunctional' members of society.

[BankruptMonkey]

Teens today tend to be anxious, and the mental weight of being in control of a machine that could kill a whole family if you screw up is a big source of anxiety

[cameronk]

I've been told again and again that I'm a danger on the road and that I need extra hours of supervised driving because I have ADHD and sure, extra hours would be great. But it's so heavily reinforced for people like me that if we make one little mistake, people could die. Lives could be ruined. Children orphaned. Thousands of dollars of damage done. It was on the news when I was a kid, I hear older folks (who don't actually know what ADHD is like) say it all the time, etc. But I'm looked at like a crazy person because decades of conditioning that told me that essentially we'd all be safer if I didn't drive makes me anxious to try to do it in the first place. Make it make sense 🙄