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WSJ - America's Love Affair with Driving is Cooling
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01-02-2020, 04:02 AM | #24 |
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Wsj starts their Article with the phoenix light rail is the reason that Americans are driving less miles? You don't need to read the article anymore than to know it's fake news right there.
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01-02-2020, 06:26 AM | #25 |
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01-02-2020, 09:39 AM | #26 |
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I don't understand why many driving aficionados resist mass transit. It makes room on the road for the rest of us.
I enjoy driving but not in congested rush hour traffic. Many moons ago when I was young I lived in NYC. I sold my car before I moved in and didn't buy one until I had moved out. Sometimes my wife and I would grab a cab from our home in Greenwich Village to uptown and by the time we got to Herald Square (a distance of a couple of miles) we paid off the cab and jumped in the subway. Driving was simply too slow. Mass transit is great when it works for you. Even when it doesn't, it is socially useful and does help balance traffic demands. |
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01-02-2020, 09:43 AM | #27 | |
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01-02-2020, 10:13 AM | #28 |
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My personal, anecdotal theory is that millennials are hopeless smartphone-addicted weenies with 10-second attention spans. Unless you built a HUD to project their Instagram feed onto the windshield, they're not going to be interested in driving. Especially after having been told by all their teachers that driving a car is an evil rich white-person atrocity.
Now GET OFF MY LAWN!
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01-02-2020, 10:30 AM | #29 | |||
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I think we should not try to draw some sort of correlation between miles driven and new vehicle sales. For example: Telecommuting and gentrification impact both miles, new car sales, tax revenue. Historically longer loan terms are, IMO, the biggest reason behind reduced sales growth. It obviously takes longer to pay off these loans or at least reach the break-even point where the owner won't take a loss on private sale. Telecommuting, gentrification, FE standards and hybrid/EV tech have reduced fuel consumption and by extension fuel tax revenues. So changes in revenue are not necessarily indicative of a change in new vehicle purchase decisions.
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01-02-2020, 10:55 AM | #30 | |
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When did we become "all about me"? |
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01-02-2020, 10:56 AM | #31 |
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Lot of good points on both sides. I think there's a lot of truth to the economic arguments but also part of me feels there's a general waning interest in cars as a hobby/passion. In the past there were no cell phones, internet, etc. so automobiles were viewed as a means of freedom and self-expression. Nowadays technology and social media has taken over that role. People are moving back into urban centers so the costs and headaches associated with owning a car play a major role too.
I obviously love cars but I'd love to just take a bus/light rail to work on a daily basis. When I lived in Seattle there was excellent public transportation around the metropolis. Driving didn't save much time due to traffic. I miss having that option.
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01-02-2020, 12:39 PM | #32 |
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When I worked in Frankfurt, with easy access to the Autobahn, it still gave me great pleasure to look out the window of the high speed train to Cologne and see the fastest moving cars slowly disappear behind us.
I live in Austin but still work in Dallas. I drive up once a month or so, but would gladly take a high speed train. The environmental impact of such a short flight and the negligible time difference just don't make sense. As for passion, my five year old strapped himself into the front seat yesterday and furiously jumped up and down on the clutch pedal while randomly shifting gears. Take that, WSJ! |
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01-02-2020, 12:43 PM | #33 |
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The mass transit user isn't paying gas taxes or license fees or highway tolls or automobile sales taxes. In most states, those are the sources of highway construction and maintenance funds.
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01-02-2020, 02:18 PM | #35 |
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Please remember that you're literally on an auto enthusiasts forum so responses here are not representative of the masses.
We represent 1% or less of the actual car population, just keep that in mind. I think most people treat their cars as tools to get from A to B. |
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01-02-2020, 03:10 PM | #37 |
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No WSJ access. Is the data based on peoples commuting, errand, and/or leisure miles? Or does it take into account for commercial traffic also?
Without knowing I would call the story and data BS. Total miles driven in this country for all vehicles no way has decreased. Traffic is not improving anywhere because people are driving less. Sure many younger people are less dependent on cars and many within cities may not own cars. But all the miles added with cities and towns flooded by uber, lyft, door dash, etc certainly nearly offsets that some. The only way the story could possibly make sense is people have to drive less now a days because every town has everything, so people dont have to drive as far as they use to in order to get the same things. Any story like this that takes some data and then discusses a few factors is just part of an incomplete story, journalism is garbage that they will not connect and investigate all the factors involved because no one will allow them the time and resources to do so. But in todays world you can just throw some data into a story and the masses will believe it.
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01-03-2020, 08:26 AM | #39 | |
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My point is that in a "society" we take care of each other and use government to meet public needs. |
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01-03-2020, 09:23 AM | #40 | |
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01-03-2020, 09:38 AM | #41 |
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01-03-2020, 02:05 PM | #42 |
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We also live in a society where the truth can be whisked away when it's not convenient, simply by slapping the "conspiracy theory" label on it.
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01-03-2020, 02:44 PM | #43 |
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As a kid, the way we would interact with other kids was to get out of the house on the weekend and go to the local hangout. The kids in my town would make a circle from one end of town to the other end, round and round, all night. It was all about interacting with other kids without any adults around, it was about showing off your car, what you did to it over the last week and try to sneak in a burnout or two. It was face to face interactions, Mustang VS Camaro drag races, that kind of thing. It was all about the car, to be seen in a cool car.
There is no more endless circling in Jackson on a Saturday night. Technology has changed that. Now it's all online hangouts. So, yeah, as far as the younger generation goes, the car is no longer a means to go see friends, but is just a tool to go to point A from point B.
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01-06-2020, 08:41 PM | #44 |
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Here are my 2 cents why America's love affair with driving ended:
1. Environmental movement. Green house emission, pollutants etc. 2. People's love of virtual reality. Why do it for real when you can play on the Xbox 3. Domestic vehicle are no longer exciting. The exception being Corvette, Mustang etc., the rest are quite lackluster. Ford and GM are already stopping car production and concentrating on trucks. 4. Insurance cost 5. Price of new vehicle and steep depreciation. 6. Crumbling infrastructure. Personally, I lost a new Corvette C7 because of Michigan's bad road. 7. Infrastructure that can no longer support the amount of vehicles being produced hence the massive traffic jams. |
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