No accident: Kids are crashing car sales
Call me a mean mum, but my kids are not getting cars. Not only am I not buying a vehicle for them, but I plan to actively encourage them against purchasing their own set of wheels.
That’s not to say my children won’t know how to drive … they just won’t be doing so in their own automobile.
But you know what? I actually don’t think they will care.
And they are not alone, because the next generation of P-platers seem to be steering well away from car ownership.
From the cost of the vehicle to the cost of insurance, registration, petrol and maintenance, to the torture of traffic and lack of available parking, it’s no accident that the popularity of cars has crashed.
Indeed, it seems the convenience and freedom of being behind the wheel has all but vanished, with public transportation, small e-rides like scooters and bikes and ride-share options like Uber proving the modern-day easy street for the next generation.
“Purchases of cars by the younger set are dropping precipitously. Survey after survey shows that the latest generations don’t put car ownership particularly high on their list of things to do,” writes Stanford University Fellow Dr Lance Eliot for Forbes Magazine.
“(They are) less enamoured of making large capital purchases and ride-sharing provides a viable alternative.
“They also don’t want worries about car glitches and burdens. A car equates to one enormous bag of hassles, and so it makes sense to elude it.
“Driving is not fun (for them), it’s a chore. Traffic is terrible and so driving is exasperating. The latest generation figures outsource the driving to those that are willing to endure it.
“Ecological and ecosystem awareness also factors in. They decidedly don’t want to get a polluting car, nor are they willing to commit just yet to the EVS.”
The fact that my children will reach driving age around the same time as the light rail reaches our neighbourhood does help make this car-free decision easier for our family, but I know we’re not the only ones.
Gold Coast Central Chamber of Commerce president Martin Hall, a member of The Institute of Transport and Logistics and transport industry professional, says he expects none of his four children, all under 14, will need a car.
“Public transport is the key to the future of the Gold Coast,” he says.
“Of course there is a lot of work ahead to make it a fully connected
network, we need east to west links just as much as north to south, but we’re on our way.
“Leading the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games 2018 urban transport uplift, one of the best outcomes we achieved was ensuring the frequency of buses to the point where a timetable was unnecessary, they were pretty well constant.
“Reliability and consistency of public transportation is what will make the next generation confident that they can go without a car … and fortunately we are getting there fast.”
Perhaps it’s no surprise that rideshare service Uber is on board with this car-less trend, evident with the
recent launch of its One Less Car social experiment.
Working with behavioural researchers as well as micro-mobility firms, Uber is offering 50 Australian drivers $1300 to give up their cars for a month and replace driving with ride-share trips, rental cars, e-bikes and scooters.
“There is going to be a gradual shift, we think, away from car ownership over the next 50 years but Uber’s the sort of place where we don’t love gradual shifts – we like step changes,” says Uber Australia general manager Dom Taylor.
“There is a mind-boggling problem that Australia faces and that is the 15 million cars that Aussies own that sit idle 95 per cent of the time that are causing holes in our cities and our wallets.”
Mr Taylor speaks the truth. My own car absolutely sits idle probably 98 per cent of the time and certainly causes a hole in my wallet – as well as some damage to a certain pillar in an underground carpark at Pacific Fair.
But perhaps that’s part of the reason my kids seem okay at the prospect of not owning their own car – they know that Mum’s is on offer.
And the best part of the bargain? I get a designated driver.
There’s nothing mean about that.