The open road: it’s part of the American dream. Or, at least, it used to be. While in the past, teenagers scrambled to the DMV on their 16th birthdays, eager to pass their driving exams, today, they’re more likely to meander there, or not go there at all. A new study finds that 16- to 34-year-olds without driver’s licenses rose to 26 percent in 2010 from 21 percent a decade earlier. At the same time, biking, walking, and other driving alternatives rose among young people in the past decade.
Tony Dutzik is a senior policy analyst at the Frontier Group and co-author of the study. Takeaway listener Emily is a 25-year-old who rarely drives, and didn’t get her license until she was 19. View Why are Young Americans Driving Less? in a larger map