Forget the car: Young adults are opting to use their feet

The New York Post reports:

Call it the Back-Seat Rebellion. Helicoptered kids who spent their childhoods ferried from school to playdate to soccer are now young men and women voting with their feet . . . by using them.

They are so sick of cars, they can’t abandon them fast enough.

The proof is in the plummeting number of young people getting their licenses. According to a University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute study, in 1983, nearly half of 16-year-olds had a license. By 2014, just a quarter did. And even at age 19, the gap still yawned.

Of course, there are several reasons for the drivership decline, including the ability to summon an Uber or simply hang out electronically. Also, the advent of “graduated licenses” meant that in some states, 16- and 17-year-olds are no longer allowed to ferry a group of friends, or drive at night, so some of them threw in the towel.

But one other reason young people aren’t driving as much is that they’ve already been driven enough for a lifetime. What holds allure is not driving — experiencing the fun and freedom they missed out on as micromanaged kids who never got to walk to school or ride their bikes till the streetlights came on.

A trend?