“Choosing” is doing some heavy lifting here when gen-z ain’t got no money.
News in UK today said car insurance for young drivers is now £3000 a year on average ($4000USD)
What? That's in no way sustainable.
Exactly the point of this post
Yup, at UK minimum wage 17 year olds would have to work 9 hours a week just to pay for car insurance. Then there is road tax, fuel, MOT, repairs, and buying the car in the first place.
Prepare for the next headline saying that "Gen Z is killing the car industry".
Now hopefully they start voting in their local elections for politicians who will build transit, bike lanes, and support walkability.
We had a really promising, progressive city councillor run for Mayor who basically tanked their campaign by making investment in cycling infrastructure one of their main platforms.
So, instead, we got a business-as-usual developper friendly mayor who will continue to do nothing to address public transit issues, or improvr cycling infrastructure besides painting a few lines on busy roads.
I think the major issue is that most people see bike lanes as removing their choice to drive, rather than adding alternatives to make driving easier. These people pushing for change need to look at the MAYA ~~principal~~ principle, meaning they use the Most Advanced, Yet Acceptable vocabulary to ease in the transition.
Anyone who wants to platform for biking and making better urbanism needs to instead focus their campaign on being fiscally responsible and tackling traffic concerns. If pressed, they can say that there are lots of data showing that small, cheap changes to the road infrastructure can make a large impact in both traffics and taxes.
Because it's expensive and sucks if you live in a city. Also, most can't afford a house out in the suburbs anyways.
I and my brother did some math about cars.
We both work and have money for car but just insurance, technical and emissions control... is more expensive than public transport ticket (for one year in our city). And we didn't count in petrol and parking.
In short for us it just doesn't make economical sense to own one.
according to McKinsey. "And for those Gen Zers who decide that driving just isn't for them, they can keep themselves busy with TikTok in the passenger seat—or get behind the wheel in the metaverse."
Be a good consumer and accept our thought control.
The 'Get Behind the wheel in the metaverse' proves this article is absolute garbage, and just a fluff piece for Zuc the Cuck.
I'm 31 and if I could never drive a fucking car again that'd be great 👍
Ebikes will get you a good chunk of the way there in a lot of places. Other than that, if you live in a city then vote like hell and go to city council meeting as often as possible to demand bike lanes. Local voting actually matters and can change (some) things.
If you live in the country... Eh... Start sabotaging gas stations I guess? I don't even know where to begin with a constructive answer. Rural folks are basically forced in to cars and there isn't much to do about it without massive changes. In the Netherlands even small towns get train stations, but in the US and Canada and even a lot of Europe rural folks are just screwed.
Exact same here. The amount of money cars cost is fucking ridiculous. I would pay more and wait longer to not have to deal with the bullshit of owning a car, but I can’t even do that because American public transit is worse than Mordor.
You could say Gen Z "chooses" a lot of things. Gen Z "chooses" not to buy houses (we can't afford them) Gen Z "chooses" to be mentally ill (not even 10 years ago, "autism" was just "the weird kid") Gen Z "chooses" to rent Gen Z "chooses" not to buy food Gen Z "chooses" to let climate change fuck the earth Gen Z "chooses" to not have kids (although here we actually don't want them, but also couldn't afford them) and so on.
Next headline "Gen Z chooses to let all their choices be made by Choosing to not have enough money!"
If you're working from home then ubering everywhere is cheaper than insurance for a new driver and once you put gas plus the cost of the car into the equation I totally understand this.
. . . cheaper than insurance for a new driver
I’ve been driving 20 years. No points and no recent accidents. I last paid $1300 for 6 months of car insurance on a Hyundai and it’ll probably go up again next time.
That’s $2600 a year or $50 a week and we haven’t spoken about gas, or parking in some locations. Absolutely Uber is an option, or ebike.
I dropped driving 20 years ago. Way too expensive if you don't earn money with it in some fashion. I'm not a home-worker, but I live in a city. Having a car in a city... That just doesn't feel right. They should be used to bring stuff into a city. Cites should provide their own means of getting around. The few times when I actually needed a car, I rented one. Way cheaper than owning a car.
It's like owning a golf course to play golf once a week. Well. Something like that.
Insurance rates vary greatly with zip code in Canada. I moved just before I was going to buy a car and when I got quoted over $700 CAD per month to insure a Fiat 500 (new driver over 30) I quickly calculated that taking Uber to and from work daily is going to be much cheaper than insurance alone..
I'm right there with them. I spent 7-8 years in a larger city and enjoyed not having a car the entire time. No renting a parking spot or fighting over who gets to block in who with the upstairs or downstairs neighbors. No snow shoveling or scrambling to park on one side for street sweeping.
I'm now temporarily in a place where buses are at an hour interval and only go to 1 place so I took one of the family cars. Despite the car being "free" I'm paying more than an unlimited transit pass on insurance alone, and I have a great rate at the expense of having to let my insurance track my accelerating / braking through GPS/accelerometer (at least for a few weeks before I can uninstall the app and enjoy the lower rate). I've had to pay for an inspections, tags, fixing a tint that was legal at home but illegal where I am now (over $100 even if I just had them remove it), and I'm still needing to spend on extras like oil to top up in between oil changes, new wipers, coolant, and it's looking like it's almost due for tire rotations, brake and transmission flush, and other regular maintenance which is just another expense.
The car was free and it's so expensive still. I miss being able to hop on a bus and zone out too.
Who wants to pay 9%+ interest on a car .
My wife purchased a Subaru Legacy Premium new in 2018 with a MSRP of $23,000 and we looked at the exact same model but in 2024 because they added some safety features. The exact trim Premium for 2024 has a MSRP of $31,000k. That's a 39% increase in 6 years. Same motor, looks nearly identical, just has collision detection and a better center console screen. We could have got those in the top trim in 2018 for $5k more.
We're getting shafted at all industries.
I mean, I get it. I hate the damned things. I can't deny their utility, but they're just not worth it
Good on them. I fucking love Zoomers.
The key thing here is cost. Employers don't want to pay, and everything is so damn expensive.
So it's the old "Millenials are killing the diamond industry" gag.
My dad in a conversation with other parents:
"When I was their age, a car meant freedom. It meant you could take yourself to a place your friends were and your parents weren't, anytime you wanted. To them, the Internet means freedom, and they don't really see the point."
You know what true freedom is? Not requiring a car to get to places by having decently designed neighbourhoods where people can walk or cycle. For longer distances good quality transit could be available. No massive investment or lisence needed to travel.
Nah we're just broke
Imagine that! I wonder why.
Lol cause no one can afford to live let alone buy a car..
I miss living in a city where I didn't have to drive. Maybe one day I will have that chance again.
Is that because the costs of cars has vastly exceeded inflation while wages have mostly stagnated until mid 2021? (please note: beating inflation by a bit for 2 years in no way makes up for the prior 40+)
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