Transportation and the New Generation: Why Young People Are Driving Less and What It Means for Transportation Policy

Thursday, April 5th, 2012 | warai03p | No Comments

Original article by Benjamin Davis and Tony Dutzik, Frontier Group; Phineas Baxandall, U.S. PIRG Education Fund

“America has long created transportation policy under the assumption that driving will continue to increase at a rapid and steady rate. The changing transportation preferences of young people – and Americans overall – throw that assumption into doubt. Policy-makers and the public need to be aware that America’s current transportation policy – dominated by road building – is fundamentally out-of-step with the transportation patterns and expressed preferences of growing numbers of Americans. It is time for policy-makers to consider the implication of changes in driving habits for the nation’s transportation infrastructure decisions and funding practices, and consider a new vision for transportation policy that reflects the needs of 21st century America.”

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From Brazil: Millennials Show Apathy Towards Cars

Thursday, April 5th, 2012 | warai03p | No Comments

Original Article by Itir Sonuparlak, The City Fix

Young Brazilians Prefer Quality Public Transportation Too

These trends are not unique to the United States. Young people in Brazil are starting to display similar disinterest in cars. The research agency Box1824 surveyed thousands of millennials on their expectations for the future in a project called “The Brazilian Dream” and found that millennials show an enthusiasm and willingness to change, especially in the face of urban and social challenges.

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Inaugural AMHC Symposium A Great Success

Thursday, March 8th, 2012 | warai03p | No Comments

The AMHC held its Inaugural Symposium in Dunedin, New Zealand last month, and the international multidisciplinary event was a great success. The event was held in front of a live studio audience and streamed to the Web to viewers all around the world.

The title of the Symposium was “The Road Not Taken – Mobility Health: New Directions in Teen Mobility Management”. In addition to our exceptional international speakers, (see video archives for all presentations), a highlight of the symposium was our final group of speakers – the Teen Panel, facilitated by Arthur Orsini of Urbanthinkers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

All the participants on the panel were non-drivers, aged 17-18, from two schools in Otago (one rural, one urban). They wowed the audience of academics, city council staff, and students with the eloquence with which they discussed their transport experiences and concerns as non-drivers getting around Dunedin. The AMHC will continue to work with this group of students throughout 2012, with the hopes that the students themselves will not only facilitate the Teen Panel for our AMHC 2013 Symposium, but play a large role in the planning of the entire event.

Working directly with teen non-drivers is an untapped resource, as they are extremely capable actors in their community. As one student stated after the Symposium (and others agreed): “It was good to see that people were listening to our discussion … that doesn’t happen very often.”

Going Bussed: Economy And Tuition Fees Drive The Young Away From The Car

Monday, February 27th, 2012 | warai03p | No Comments

, Tom Midlane and James Brilliant, guardian.co.uk

    Passengers board a National Express bus at Victoria coach station

    Sales of coach and train discount cards surge as driving becomes a minority pursuit among cash-strapped students. Photograph: Micha Theiner/City AM/Rex Features

A generation of students facing higher tuition fees and lower job prospects appears to be embracing the mixed joys of budget travel in rising numbers – with the teenage dream of passing the test and driving a car now an increasingly unaffordable, minority pursuit.

Operators report that the traditional staples of budget travel, the young person’s rail and coach cards, are being purchased in record numbers.

National Express, Britain’s largest coach operator, reported a surge in sales of coach and regional bus discount cards last year, with 36% more being sold year on year.

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One Reason Why I Hate Cars

Thursday, January 26th, 2012 | warai03p | No Comments

From Peter Hitchens’s blog, Daily Mail

“I think our roads are statistically safer largely because soft targets, particularly child cyclists, have almost entirely retreated from them. But the roads are not really safer. It’s just that people have learned to avoid them unless they themselves go out in armour, and have narrowed their lives as a result.” – Peter Hitchens

On Sunday morning a woman rushed out of a side road in a quiet Oxford suburb, violently knocked me off my bicycle and mangled the machine I was riding.

Quite understandable, some of you may think. It’s the only sort of treatment I would understand. But in fact the person involved had nothing against me, didn’t know me, and was quick to apologise for the hurt (even quicker and more comprehensive,  once she had been given quite a large piece of my mind). She also paid for the damage to be repaired.

But, as some of you will have guessed,  there was another element in all this – an element which makes an apparently shocking and inexplicable event make perfect sense.

My assailant was driving a car.

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