The man is wrong
I have a 19 year old son, So naturally my wife and I have a circle of friends who ave kids around the same age. Without exception, the number 1 priority of of his stream of friends (boys and girls) was to pass the driving test and get a car.
|
|
|
I sometimes do some work for a company based in central London. It is staffed by excruciatingly trendy young things. They are well paid and socially active young people. Very few of them have cars. Some have scooters and small motor bikes or pedal cycles but most rely on public transport. It would seem not to be a big thing in their lives to have daily access to four wheeled transport.
I had thought they might be an unusual group but maybe Suzuki has a point.
|
|
If you live and work in a big city centre, a car isn't much use. Anywhere else, it's as essential as it ever was - and if you need a car, your offspring will too.
|
We live on a train line, but with no decent buses, and the rural catchment area of my daughters' secondary school means that their friends are within a circle about 15 miles across. Without access to a car they'd find it hard to meet up socially, so while they are at home it's either Dad's taxi, or a car they drive themselves.
Interestingly a friend of mine did research for Rank Xerox many years ago to try to identify which people to recruit into sales roles. They found almost no indicators of future sales success, but there was a slight correlation between the age of passing the test and success - people passing their test at a young age were more likely to have the drive etc. to be good at sales.
|
I think London and other big cities have always had a different attitude to car ownership. The difference being that cities are growing and the rural population is shrinking.
|
|
We live in a small town and have two kids, 18 and 20, the elder couldn't wait to get her licence, the other is not interested at all!
|
|
|
Londoners have a uniquely indifferent attitude to the car. The problem is that many of the policy makers and the anti-car lobby incorrectly extrapolate that to the country as a whole.
If I lived in a congested, polluted metropolis where I had to pay to park on the streets, where public transport could get me from A to B conveniently, and where theft / vandalism is so commonplace it is all but tolerated, I dare say I wouldn't bother with a car either.
Edited by DP on 29/12/2008 at 16:30
|
|
My son lives and works in London as a freelance camera/sound man and has to carry all his gear round with him - hence he needs a car. I was surprised by the number of his friends, some of whom are on very good salaries, who don't own a car.
|
|
Sounds interesting HJ. Would it have been written in the flavour of what you have subsequently done online?
|
|
My first two daughters passed at 17 and seven months and 17 and six months respectively. No. 2 is a moderate petrol-head who wants to fly in the RN, so I'm not surprised that she was the one pestering me to get out for more pre-test practice.
|
|
|
|
:no_upscale():format(webp)/https://cdn.uk.prod.group-mobility-trader.com/images/cas/3bf38e83ba3d50824e42f7d17842cc54/c03e135b5186d11f1e728e07c20c6a0c.jpg)
:no_upscale():format(webp)/https://cdn.uk.prod.group-mobility-trader.com/images/cas/47d42cbd0d5c6fd92b00f72782d221eb/23469ad651c734ee36d0a36ed8a93161.jpg)
:no_upscale():format(webp)/https://cdn.uk.prod.group-mobility-trader.com/images/cas/3d216a67cdf74b8811f1b11bdadeabd8/dca16f510d7598978ac2eb9be8111a09.jpg)
:no_upscale():format(webp)/https://cdn.uk.prod.group-mobility-trader.com/images/cas/d78b7779c53572f9f99c90142b41e026/75e8fc12a67fb68698ce2d44cae70d96.jpg)
