It’s a popular refrain to suggest that young people are falling out of love with cars.
As evidence, it’s noted that throughout much of the developed world, the proportion of young people learning to drive is down over the past two decades. Well, the stats can say that, but I’m not buying what’s inferred from them.
Granted, if much of your life is spent on a Lime bike, driving would interrupt your phone use, and if your home city introduces a congestion charge despite 74% of its residents thinking it would have a negative impact (slow hand clap, once again, for Oxfordshire County Council), I can see why you wouldn’t bother with driving.
But that isn’t the same thing as falling out of love with cars; it’s car use and car ownership becoming too expensive and difficult. What happens if you remove the barriers to driving and car ownership? It seems to me that the appeal of driving and cars is as strong as ever.
A case study in point: the professional footballer. (You should note this isn’t a column about football; I like the game but I realise you might not.) Now and again a social media algorithm will decide that what I’d like to watch next is top-tier footballers arriving at their training grounds.
Now, if there is a group of people who don’t need to have an interest in cars and driving, this is it. They are the people who least need an interest in motoring. For one, they already have a hobby. You know how you and I devoured everything about motoring in our youth? How we spent our younger lives thinking about little else? These people did that with football.
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I take heart in the amount of kids I see at car shows with cameras, zipping around grabbing photos of anything from an MG TC to a Subaru SVX, then stepping back in awe at the shape and form in front of them that is like nothng else they see on the streets today. Another notable bunch are the kids chasing supercars around Knightsbridge on any given weekend.
Obviously these are a very small number of people but all the same, it is at least some that are showing interest.
I don't think using footballers as basis for this argument is especially strong. Of course expense is a major barrier to driving and car ownership but I suspect the reasons why fewer young people are learning to drive are more complex than just money. Some younger people may be more conscious of the environmental impacts of driving, others may have different priorities for their money or live in cities where driving isn't necessary. Some simply can't find driving instructors with capacity to teach them. A bit more research into this issue would've gone a long way.