Is the age of the automobile age ending? That would be nice...

[hunter]

Driving Is Losing Its Allure for More Americans

Share of young and old with driver’s licenses is declining, survey shows

A study published this week by the University of Michigan reports a sharp decline over the past two decades among people under 25 years of age getting their driver’s licenses.

The drop signals high-schoolers and college-age Americans are less interested in driving than previous generations. And the change is spreading to their parents and grandparents, moves that have auto makers scrambling to ramp up investments in alternative mobility services such car-hailing services.

Since the financial crisis of 2008, the proportion of Americans under 70 years of age holding a driver’s license has declined even as annual U.S. light-vehicle sales have slowly climbed back to levels seen early last decade, University of Michigan researchers Michael Sivak and Brandon Schoettle found.

--more--

http://www.wsj.com/articles/driving-losing-its-allure-for-more-americans-1453285801

I suspect the future of the automobile will be self driving, extremely cautious, pokey and slow self-driving cars summoned by smart phone apps.

Most transportation will be by foot, bicycle, many varieties of small low powered electric vehicles, and larger public transportation projects.

Many cities may become "leave your car in the parking structure" places, rather like Disneyland California, or Venice Italy.

The first thing to understand about Venice is that your car is of absolutely no use here. Venetian “streets” are for walking, and do not accommodate any wheeled motor traffic (or even bicycles, for that matter), so you cannot drive to your hotel or park anywhere near it. This also means for the length of your visit, you’ll be paying a daily car rental as well as daily — and not inexpensive — parking. If possible, arrange to arrive by train, for example, or return your rental car immediately on arrival.

http://livingveniceblog.com/venice-instructions/coming-going/venice-arrival-by-car

[arcane1]

1. I wish. Meanwhile Obama wants to dump billions into developing self-driving cars

If there is a similar desire for the benefit of public transportation, I haven't seen it.

[yeoman6987]

2. For this to work in the United States, we'd have to pour trillions into transportation projects

I'm not opposed to it but you see how long it is taking to even start a Los Angeles to San Francisco high speed train. We've been talking about that for years. I think it is a high speed train that is desired.

[SamKnause]

3. Where does rural America fit into this scenario ???

[RKP5637]

5. That was my thought too. n/t

[SamKnause]

6. People who have always lived in the city do not understand rural life.

People who have always lived in rural areas do not understand city life.

I have lived in both and everything in between.

The majority of my life has been spent in rural areas.

I currently live in a rural area.

We are frequently left out of the conversation or supposed solutions.

Miles to the closest grocery store; 23 miles round trip.

Available transportation in my area; car or truck.

[hunter]

7. Didn't say anything about that, did I?

My parents, and my wife's parents, both live in rural places. They don't even have decent internet connections, the sort you can use for things like Skype or Netflix.

My parents retired and moved away to a place that requires travel by either airplane or boat, and then car rental, if you decide to visit. I haven't yet had enough money to visit. Ain't never been there, they tell me it's nice...

One of my younger siblings lives about an hour or two away by automobile, on twisty two lane roads, so I don't worry about them too much.

When my wife and I met we were Los Angeles commuters, the kind of commute of less than twenty miles that can take more than an hour of miserable stop-and-go-traffic.

By some planning and greater good fortune my wife and I have avoided the commuter lifestyle since the mid 'eighties.

But we still live in the sort of place you must to have a car and a drivers license to be considered a fully competent adult.

[The2ndWheel]

9. Most people are left out of most discussions

[sue4e3]

4. My husband who was a mechanic for a long time , got out of it.

That was after working on cleaner conversions for a while. He used to tell me that at some point your standard mechanic was no longer going to be required because the combustion engine as we know it is on a death knell. Being in limbo with what we believed , what was happening , and what we wanted , He decided to change careers.

[hunter]

8. Today's automobiles are too much like computers and cell phones.

When they break down or suffer significant damage you send them off, hopefully to be recycled, and then you buy a new one.

I drive, not every day, most days not at all, a mid 'eighties $800 car with over 300,000 miles on it. Don't know the exact figure because the odometer is broken and I don't see any reason to fix it. The most wonderful thing about this car is that it is repairable. And nope, it's not a polluter. The catalytic converter is still going strong, it doesn't burn oil, and it gets fairly good mileage, better than most cars on the U.S. highways today.

I hate the car, it hates me. The perfect relationship for any machine conceived in hell.