Lots of Teens Are Still Shunning Cars
After a modest revival, the percentage of U.S. teenagers with driver’s licenses has fallen again. It may be another sign of peak auto.
Auto. With peaks.
Photographer: David McNew/Getty Images
The much-discussed collapse in teenage driving in the U.S. seems to have ended a few years ago. But the less-discussed recovery, which I wrote about last year, seems to be over, too. Newly released data from the Federal Highway Administration shows the percentage of American teenagers with licenses to have more or less plateaued at levels much lower than those of a few decades ago. In 1984, 47.8% of 16-year-olds in this country could legally drive. In 2018, only 25.6% could.
The simplest explanation for this trend, and especially the fact that it is more pronounced among 16-year-olds than 19-year-olds, is that it’s a lot harder for a 16-year-old to get a license and go for a drive than it used to be. Since the mid-1990s, states have imposed a panoply of new restrictions on when and with whom those under 18 can drive, under the (seemingly correct) assumption that this would reduce accidents and driving deaths. Many states have also cut back sharply on funding for driver’s education.