i am getting my youngest thru now. taking test tomorrow. tough.

and scary

fuck

is it scary. lol lol

but ya. insurance is a huge killer.

The "experts" insist that kids today don't want to drive, do want to live in studio apartments in dangerous neighborhoods and work low-intensity casual jobs that leave them time for blogging about their tattoos all the while splurging on $700 cell phones twice a year?

I mean, the above just makes so much sense. How could it be wrong?

ah, you made that one up.

thanks for playing though. not that i'm surprised at the result.

One of the major drivers of this shift is the preference of the young Gen Ys to live in the gritty urban center, again so they can stay hyper-connected and in the middle of it all.

oh well you did make it up.

k.

& there are no jobs here, plus he has baseball practice for 3 hours everyday after school. We are fortunate that my dad has offered to him a car & we put the stipulation that his stipulation that his GPA stays above 3.5. Between 3.0 -3.5 the car is only for school & baseball practice. Above 3.5 he can use it for anything within reason, under 3.0 he's on the bus. To earn money for gas he has to do extra work on top of his chores around the house.

I was a rough teenager who didn't have my priorities straight & we are both military now. My hubby is 4 years from retiring & I'm going through a rough disability board. We kinda figure if he is playing school baseball full-time, maintaining a high GPA & still thinks 10pm is really late then we can work something out.

I'm sure the cost figures into the decline of cruising teenagers in this town, but the F2F communication on electronic devices also does factor in. Why go out in the cold (or extreme heat) when you can just fire up the puter and see all your friends?

I just think how many video games I could buy if I didn't need to pay for a car. And they are much more adventurous.

Teens today are usually smarter and see a car as the utility and burden that it is, rather than a mate-attraction device like it was when I was young.

which is why I did without one for many years in Boston. Public transportation would work for most things and if I wanted to get out of the city on a mini vacation, I rented a car. Not needing a car is what allows so many people in big cities to afford their rent.

It is never, just one thing.

Teens aren't able to drive? It'll hurt the economy even more. Too many people not circulating enough money.

Teens are able to drive? More people are probably gonna die. The economy will be kicking back into gear though.

I had to bike and/or walk to school. I could take a minimum wage job or mow lawns. When I mowed lawns, I pushed the lawn mower down the street.
And my parents were teachers. In Canada. They could have probably afforded to get a third car, but they didn't.
You know why?
Because my legs worked just fine, and I could damn well walk just like they did.
Why on earth is there a presumption that "teenager" means "gets to have a car"?
That didn't exist a generation ago. We had to work crappy minimum wage jobs, beg money from parents or borrow it to go to school, get a job, *then* get a car.
Look, there are serious problems of inequality in our societies (American and Canadian), but this isn't one of them. This is the sort of nonsense that gets people dissing "Millennials" for their sense of entitlement and drowns out the real problems - like the decline in inflation-accounted minimum wage.
A car is not some kind of reward you get for being human - and I'm saying that as a Canadian who thinks everyone is entitled to public education, health care and a raft of other things, just for being alive.
You want a car? Work for it. Or just live near a place where you work. You'll find that's even better and to hell with oiligarchy.

And even then I could only afford a 3rd hand Pinto.

With our insurance and gasoline prices. I don't even own a car. I use a FAST PASS and public transportation, and fortunately where I live there is plenty of that. The city is so small one could even walk...and if I could afford a bicycle...I would but than again its dangerous to ride a bike in the city. Most drivers don't even see you unless you are wearing something that GLOWS, LIKE bright red or.. that sick yellow green that almost glows in the dark!

afford to drive when I was a teen. I sure as hell couldn't afford it.

Not much has changed.

If your teen is trying to get into a top college, then they are most likely:

1) Focusing time on study for honors and AP courses
2) Doing volunteer work, which has become a prerequisite, in addition to good grades, for membership in organizations like NHS
3) Doing extra curriculars -- in particular extra curriculars which will look good on a college app.

Also, some of the thrill is gone. In most states, high schoolers can't just load up the car with friends legally. Increasingly, those under 18 can only have themselves or one friend in the car.

Is because I have a twin brother, and we both had jobs so we split the cost of everything. Plus, we RARELY gave free rides, nothing personal, but gas isn't cheap!

after I made straight As my first year, and I made the most uneconomical and idiotic choice possible. It got seven miles a gallon in the city. That thing was an obscene gas guzzler, but gas was so cheap pre-9/11 that my part-time job was more than enough for me to fuel it and fund my weekend binge drinking.

-Laelth

She doesn't drive much on that either (she only drives my car - my wife's HHR is too big for her and I am usually walking or helping her and my other daughter with their studies when I am home). My 16 year old daughter won't get her learner's permit until she is almost 17 (this coming summer). We won't get a third car. If my daughter has to take an internship out of town this summer, I plan to let her have my car. I can walk to work (4 miles) or have my wife take me to work over the summer (winter it is harder).

Used to be you could get driver's training in school, but that was phased out and we couldn't afford professional training for them, so they waited until 18 and hubby taught them (and they are better drivers than most!)
We handled the insurance while they were living at home, but they had to buy their own cars or co-ordinate with us. One still owes us for a car, but his wages barely support him and his college loans...

I realized that teenagers have a very difficult time finding work these days, and that their parents are likely strapped for cash, too. I had no idea that would result in teens not being able to afford to drive.

Parking is the best part of driving as a teen.