Over the last four years, there has been an explosion of interest in the Millennial generation and its changing relationship to driving. Since the first media stories describing the decline in car use among young people appeared in 2010, there have been conferences, academic studies, frantic market research by automakers, and surveys of young people themselves, all aimed at getting to the bottom of two questions: Why are today’s young people driving less than those of previous generations? And will those changes last? The answers to those questions are critically important for shaping policy to serve the transportation needs of Millennials today and to make smart investments in transportation for the future. There remain many unanswered questions about why Millennials are driving less than previous generations of young people. But in recent years a few things have come into clearer focus: * The Millennials really are different–both from older generations alive today and from previous generations of young people; * Multiple external factors are pushing Millennials to drive less. Some of those factors are temporary, but many are likely to last; and * The dip in driving among young people that took place in the 2000s is unlikely to have reversed thus far in the new decade. The case for taking Millennnials’ changing transportation habits seriously–and for beginning to factor those changes into public policy–is stronger than it was four years ago. As the United States deals with a shrinking pool of transportation funding, the growing need for maintenance and repair of our existing systems, and rising demands for more transportation choices, it is critical that public leaders understand those changes and factor them into transportation investment and policy decisions. This paper–an update of the authors’ 2012 report on changing driving trends among Millennials, Transportation and the New Generation–summarizes the growing body of knowledge about the changes that have occurred in young Americans’ transportation attitudes and behaviours over the past decade. It is intended to help policy-makers and the public make better informed and more responsive transportation decisions. (Author/publisher)
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