Question

by Susan Milligan
1
American pop-culture history is filled with romantic references to cars. They’re celebrated in songs and movies, with young people eager to acquire the symbol of adulthood, freedom, and overall coolness. But for increasing numbers of teens and young adults, the automobile today has a different image: one shaped by the high cost of buying it, the hassle of learning to operate it, and the fact that it is just not that important to their social lives.

2
Is young America done with car culture? Some recent studies suggest that is the case. Teens and 20-somethings are delaying getting driver’s licenses, buying fewer cars, and covering fewer kilometers when they do drive. And the cool factor? It’s not what it used to be. The toy of choice is more likely to be the latest version of a smartphone.

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“There’s been this cultural shift,’’ said Tony Dutzik, analyst at the Boston-based Frontier Group. In an earlier generation, “car culture was a defining thing. Your social status as a young person was defined in part by the kind of car you had. Your level of freedom was defined by your ability to travel. A lot of that is less resonant for the current generation.” Only half of teenagers get a driver’s license before turning 18, according to the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, whereas closer to 70 percent did a few decades ago.

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Young adults are increasingly moving to urban areas, where it is easier to get around without a car, Dutzik said. “It’s more acceptable now, for economic, health or environmental reasons, for people to ride bikes, walk or use public transportation,’’ University of Michigan researcher Brandon Schoettle said.

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Colby Reese of Miami Beach, Florida, was 15 when he got his first car — “the first thing I wanted to spend money on.’’ He washed it every day, even though he wasn’t old enough to drive it. Now, the 36-year-old Reese is senior marketing director at DecoBike, a company that runs bicycle-share programs in Florida and New York. Such programs allow people to rent a bike at one location and drop it off somewhere else.

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In California, where numerous bike-share programs exist, people find that they don’t need cars anymore to stay in touch, said Dave Snyder, director of the California Bicycle Coalition. “People crave connection, and as the ability to connect with smartphones and the Internet and Twitter grows, people don’t need to get into their cars and go to the local hangout,’’ he said.

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That’s supported by a Gartner study. The technology research firm finds that 46 percent of people aged 18–24 would choose Internet access over having their own car.

22 percent of 20-somethings answered ‘never’ to the state of Michigan’s question: When will you get a driver’s license? Bike-Shares Take Off? Bike-share programs are in more than 500 cities in 49 countries, with a combined fleet of more than 500,000 bicycles. There are 79 bike-share programs in China, leading the world with 351,070 bicycles.

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Excerpt from "More Americans are Waiting to Drive" by Susan Milligan. In the public domain.

Read this sentence from paragraph 1.

They’re celebrated in songs and movies, with young people eager to acquire the symbol of adulthood, freedom, and overall coolness.
What does the author mean about a car and the symbol of adulthood?

A.
Teens now think of 20-something as the age for owning a car.

B.
Teens can become adults faster if they learn how to drive.

C.
In the past owning and driving a car equated with being an adult.

D.
People think that you are a responsible adult if you drive a car.

Answer 1

C. In the past owning and driving a car equated with being an adult.

Explanation: The sentence says cars were seen as a symbol of adulthood, freedom, and coolness, meaning owning a car signified being an adult.