By Taras GrescoeWhen I pocketed my first driver聮s licence in 91原创 in the 1980s, Bruce Springsteen聮s paeans to the highways ruled the airwaves, Stephen King聮s Christine was playing at the drive-ins and cars, along with New Coke and Joe Camel, were being exuberantly marketed as a must-have gateway drug to full-fledged adulthood.All that hype had an impact: Back then, my idea of a great summer vacation was a road trip down the freeway to Tijuana in a gas-guzzling Oldsmobile. Car ownership promised popularity, independence and, if you played your cards right, a little back-seat romance.How times have changed. Among teenagers, driving to school in the family car now has far less cachet than showing up with the latest MP3 player, tablet or smartphone. In the United States, less than one-third of 16-year-olds now have driver聮s licences, versus half in 1978, and across the continent, vehicle miles travelled have been in freefall since the middle of last decade. Car sales are down 20 per cent from their peak in 2000, and the declines have been sharpest among the young, who, in recessionary times, can聮t afford all the lures carmakers are so desperately dangling . In poll after poll, the majority of young people say they would rather have Internet access or a data plan than a car. En masse, the largest demographic out there 聴 the millennials now outnumber the boomers 聴 are turning their backs on modernity聮s ultimate consumer item: the private automobile.When it comes to cars, the generational divide is profound. As author Alan Ehrenhalt observed in his book The Lost City, the children of the 聮50s were educated in overcrowded classrooms and raised in tiny bungalows or open-plan, ranch-style homes, without much in the way of privacy. 聯The baby boomers have never stopped looking for a little more room, or stopped believing that more space is somehow a good in itself,聰 he wroteEventually this led to sprawled landscapes of McMansions, accessed by freeways and off-ramps. Car companies, picking up on the generational predilection for 聯personal space,聰 cranked out ever-larger SUVs and minivans .It聮s now becoming clear, though, that many children of the boomers view their parents聮 housing and transportation choices as the emptiest of cul-de-sacs. As veteran automotive writer Michael Hagerty has observed about chauffeuring his now car-averse offspring around, 聯A lot of millennials have got to be just plain sick of the things after spending 16 to 20 years with Suburbans strapped to their asses several hours a day being driven to and from school, shopping and activities.聰It聮s no surprise that, when the same millennials leave the 聮burbs for cities 聴 as they are in increasing numbers 聴 the last thing on their minds is impoverishing themselves with monthly vehicle payments. Not when there are so many transportation alternatives available.In major 91原创 cities, they can opt for memberships in bike-share programs such as Montreal聮s Bixi or monthly passes on 91原创聮s SkyTrain, the Montreal metro, Ottawa聮s transitways, and other expanding transit systems.If they really need wheels, there聮s no need to buy them: Systems such as Zipcar and Communauto dot shared cars in lots around the city, enabling day trips to the country or runs to the furniture store.And technology is making transit easier to use: In many cities, apps tell you exactly when the next bus or streetcar is coming and rechargeable fare cards obviate all that fumbling for change.Meanwhile, the erstwhile disadvantages of being a straphanger are slowly disappearing: Earbuds offer insulation from commuting annoyances and you can get some serious texting done when you聮re not behind the wheel.Carmakers are clearly nervous about this trend away from ownership . The millennials are on track to make up three-quarters of the potential car-buying public by 2025, but the kids just aren聮t biting the way they used to. Like smoking, driving is a habit that can become entrenched when you pick it up young 聴 and if young people figure out that life can be navigated just as enjoyably (and far more cheaply and healthily) by bus, train, bike and foot, they might never bother to get their licences.And if they never buy that first car, they might not end up where cars tend to lead: office parks off freeways, malls and suburban driveways.91原创s like to think of themselves as Vinyl Cafe kind of folks: a nation of small towns, cottages and rural Tim Hortons. In fact, 80 per cent of 91原创s now live in metropolitan areas. And, once we acknowledge that Canada is overwhelmingly urban, it becomes incumbent on us to rethink urban transportation.Automobile congestion costs the Toronto-Hamilton region alone $6 billion a year in wasted gas and time. As crumbling, half-century-old urban highways such as the Gardiner in Toronto and Montreal聮s Turcot produce ever-more-nightmarish commutes, people are voting with their feet by opting for downtown living and transit. It聮s time for North Americans to face the facts that urban Asians, Europeans and Latin Americans have long since acknowledged: If you want your city to thrive in the 21st century, you can聮t keep thinking of cars and freeways as the de facto mode of public transportation.The generation that started to come on the scene when I was getting my first driver聮s licence has figured all this out. They聮re the ones you see riding bikes and transit everywhere. And, as in Japan and Scandinavia, if and when they do buy cars, it will be later in life, when they have kids 聴 and they聮ll use them for weekend trips to the grandparents聮 or summer drives to the cottage, rather than city-clogging commutes. The way things are going, I wouldn聮t be surprised if my son, who has just reached his 10th month, never has to bother with the hassle and expense of getting a licence.聴 Taras Grescoe, author of Straphanger: Saving our Cities and Ourselves From the Automobile, wrote this for the Edmonton Journal.
