Osler's Razor

Speaking as one of those young people without a license or much inclination to get one, my primary motivation is fear of climate change. Something that people thirty and younger seem to understand, and that older generations don't fully seem to grasp, is that global warming isn't a trend or buzzword; it's a nigh-apocalyptic existential threat to our species that, while caused by previous generations' brutally timid inaction, is something that young people like me will have to live through. Transportation is responsible for 28% of our national CO2 emissions, and while I'm not naive enough to believe that a slight dip in car ownership is going to solve anything, I'm also too aware of the consequences to be complicit. Would it be easier to have a car? Yes, but it wouldn't be worth the guilt.
 

I live in a large city with pitiful public transit that has a growing majority of over 60 citizens. The city is hell bent on destroying parking and single family neighborhoods, trying to force everyone to bike, walk, and use the non-existent public transit. This leaves those who want to live in the single family homes with yards, gardens, and pleasant neighborhoods left out. Not very many even of the younger populations want to live in rabbit warren apartments, but they are forced to do so by the deliberate efforts of developers to destroy as much of the older, nicer neighborhoods in order to build more expensive rabbit warrens.

Much of this is pushed by developers who see single family homes as developable as very profitable warrens. This is under the guise of 'affordable housing', which has failed to get off the ground largely because no one wants to be taxed out of their homes to pay for subsidies to developers to lose money on it. Unfortunately or not, the market determines prices, and rent controls, etc. have proven to be ineffective. From the dawn of history, it has been proven over and over that money talks and all other efforts don't.

Providing clean, reliable, convenient public transit is the answer to getting autos off the road, but it is sexier to talk walking, biking, etc. The fact that this is useless to a large part of the population - disabled, elderly, etc., seems to escape most of those in. power.

I prefer and have used transit instead of a car when it came within half a block of my home, on time, and with minimal transfers to my destination.

I understand climate change all too well! But spending trillions of dollars to protect coastal cities is futile. Switching to renewable energy, closing coal plants, fast maglev cross country routes, is just as expensive, but cuts the emissions drastically. The current push to destroy family planning only makes things worse.

Lee

Lee
 

I hope we are moving to a different landscape. One that would imply placing urban planning and sustainable infrastructure development on the priority list of public works in this country. For the past two decades the only major investment the US has big numbers to show for is the war.
I don’t have a car, never wanted to have a car (in NYC having a car is a huge pain, both financial and physical…finding a place to park after spending hours in traffic can be a fine line away from a nervous breakdown) but I do have a driver’s license. The only use for it is to inform I am an organ donor...In case I get hit by a car.
 

I find it amusing that a previous comment was submitted by someone whose name is the same as the acronym of a major city transit system!
 

Micah - you may have no desire to drive a car but you should know how to drive a car and you should have a license. You may not always live in a city with excellent public transportation options and you may not always wish to vacation in places that only have excellent public transportation options or the desire to rely on Uber and Lyft drivers.
 

Teens I know would much rather stay in their respective basements and text and play video games, than actually get in a car and be together. When they are together, they all look at screens. There's very little interest in dating in high school, from what I can tell. I'm happy I went to high school in the 1980s, even though more teens drank and smoked.