[sustran] Re: The end of the American Model?

jfdoulet at yahoo.com jfdoulet at yahoo.com
Thu Apr 26 15:30:13 JST 2012


Hello,

Quite interesting indeed!

In France, we have also noticed that car use is on the decrease in some major urban centers. I don't even speak about downtown Paris where car ownership is twice as low as in the suburbs.

Knowing european car companies from the inside, I think that they are aware of the shift you have documented about the US: car is less a product of desire for a larger amount of consumers. This is why they are know trying to integrate mobility services in their business models.

If car as we know it may be on the verge of dying, mobility still has a briliant future...

Jean-Francois 
-----Original Message-----
From: Cornie Huizenga <cornie.huizenga at slocatpartnership.org>
Sender: sustran-discuss-bounces+jfdoulet=yahoo.com at list.jca.apc.org
Date: Thu, 26 Apr 2012 09:04:31 
To: Global 'South' Sustainable Transport<sustran-discuss at list.jca.apc.org>
Subject: [sustran] The end of the American Model?

“Unfortunately for car companies,” Jordan Weissmann
noted<http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/03/why-dont-young-americans-buy-cars/255001/>at
*TheAtlantic.com* a couple weeks back, “today's teens and twenty-somethings
don't seem all that interested in buying a set of wheels. They're not even
particularly keen on driving.”

Now a major new
report<http://www.uspirg.org/sites/pirg/files/reports/Transportation%20%26%20the%20New%20Generation%20vUS_0.pdf>from
Benjamin Davis and Tony Dutzik at the Frontier Group and Phineas
Baxandall, at the U.S. PIRG Education Fund, documents this unprecedented
trend across a wide variety of indicators.

Their two big findings about young people and driving:

   - The average annual number of vehicle miles traveled by young people
   (16 to 34-year-olds) in the U.S. decreased by 23 percent between 2001 and
   2009, falling from 10,300 miles per capita to just 7,900 miles per capita
   in 2009.
   - The share of 14 to 34-year-olds without a driver’s license increased
   by 5 percentage points, rising from 21 percent in 2000 to 26 percent in
   2010, according to the Federal Highway Administration.

 Young people are also making more use of transit, bikes, and foot power to
get around. In 2009, 16 to 34-year-olds took 24 percent more bike trips
than they took in 2001. They walked to their destinations 16 percent more
often, while their passenger miles on transit jumped by 40 percent.

Part of the reason for this shift is financial. The report calculates the
average cost of owning and operating a car as north of $8,700 dollars a
year, and that was before gasoline passed $4.00 per gallon. In the wake of
the financial crisis, many underemployed young people have decided that
they either can’t afford a car or would rather spend their money on other
things. The report cites a Zipcar/KRC Research
survey<http://ir.zipcar.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=553203>,
which found that 80 percent of 18 to 34-year-olds stated that the high cost
of gasoline, parking, and maintenance made owning a car difficult.

But money doesn’t explain everything. Sixteen to 34-year-olds in households
with incomes of more than $70,000 per year are increasingly choosing not to
drive as well, according to the report. They have increased their use of
public transit by 100 percent, biking by 122 percent, and walking by 37
percent.

The shift away from the car is part and parcel of a new way of life being
embraced by young Americans, which places less emphasis on big cars or big
houses as status symbols or life's essentials. In my book *The Great
Reset*<http://books.google.com/books?id=UTx3omChqPIC&printsec=frontcover&dq=The+Great+Reset&hl=en&sa=X&ei=RHeCT-iLCuHc0QHxg6z-Bw&ved=0CDYQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=The%20Great%20Reset&f=false>
*, *I called it the New Normal. “Whether it’s because they don’t want them,
can’t afford them, or see them as a symbol of waste and environmental
abuse,” I wrote, “more and more people are ditching their cars and taking
public transit or moving to more walkable neighborhoods where they can get
by without them or by occasionally using a rental car or Zipcar.”

A study<http://businesscenter.jdpower.com/news/pressrelease.aspx?ID=2009226>by
J.D. Power and Associates, most well-known for their quality rankings
of
cars, confirms what young people tell me: After analyzing hundreds of
thousands of online conversations on everything from car blogs to Twitter
and Facebook, the study found that teens and young people in their early
twenties have increasingly negative perceptions “regarding the necessity of
and desire to have cars.”

"There’s a cultural change taking place," John Casesa, a veteran auto
industry analyst
told<http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/22/automobiles/autospecial2/22CHANGE.html?pagewanted=all>the
*New York Times *in 2009.  “It’s partly because of the severe economic
contraction. But younger consumers are viewing an automobile with a
jaundiced eye. They don’t view the car the way their parents did, and they
don’t have the money that their parents did.”

A survey<http://www.realtor.org/wps/wcm/connect/a0806b00465fb7babfd0bfce195c5fb4/smart_growth_comm_survey_results_2011.pdf?MOD=AJPERES>by
the National Association of Realtors conducted in March 2011 revealed
that 62 percent of people ages 18-29 said they would prefer to live in a
communities with a mix of single family homes, condos and apartments,
nearby retail shops, restaurants, cafes and bars, as well as workplaces,
libraries, and schools served by public transportation.  A separate 2011 Urban
Land Institute<http://www.uli.org/%7E/media/ResearchAndPublications/Report/GenY-Report-20110510.ashx>survey
found that nearly two-thirds of 18 to 32-year-olds polled preferred
to live in walkable communities.

Younger Americans are also using technology to substitute for driving,
connecting with friends and family online, substituting Facebook, Twitter,
Skype, or FaceTime interactions for in-person visits and using online
shopping and e-commerce in place of driving to and from grocery and retail
stores, the report notes.

For generations of Americans, car ownership was an almost mandatory rite of
passage—a symbol of freedom and independence. For more and more young
people today, a car is a burden they no longer wish to carry.

*Top image: Rikard Stadler<http://www.shutterstock.com/gallery-226678p1.html>
/Shutterstock.com <http://www.shutterstock.com/>*
 Keywords: smart growth<http://www.theatlanticcities.com/topics/smart-growth/>,
driving <http://www.theatlanticcities.com/topics/driving/>,
Cars<http://www.theatlanticcities.com/topics/cars/>
  <http://www.theatlanticcities.com/authors/richard-florida/>

Richard Florida is Senior Editor at *The Atlantic* and Director of the
Martin Prosperity Institute at the University of Toronto's Rotman School of
Management. He is a frequent speaker to communities, business and
professional organizations, and founder of the Creative Class Group, whose
current client list can be found
here<http://www.creativeclass.com/clients/current_clients>.
All posts » <http://www.theatlanticcities.com/authors/richard-florida/>


-- 
Cornie Huizenga
Joint Convener
Partnership on Sustainable, Low Carbon Transport
Mobile: +86 13901949332
cornie.huizenga at slocatpartnership.org
www.slocat.net
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