Ean Tafoya is a lot like other members of Generation Y who regard owning a car as nothing more than a big pain.
“I just sold my car. I just wasn’t using it,” said Tafoya, a senior at Metropolitan State College of Denver. “I live next to City Park. I bike. I ride the bus to get where I need to go. And gas prices are just too high. I figured I didn’t need a car anymore.”
A report released Thursday by CoPIRG — the Colorado Public Interest Research Group Foundation — found Tafoya is not alone in his indifference toward cars and trucks. The report says that for the first time since World War II, Americans are driving less and have been doing so since the middle of the last decade, with vehicle miles traveled per capita down 6 percent.
The ones really shifting their driving habits are people ages 16 to 34. The average young person, the report said, drove 20 percent fewer miles in 2009 than the average young person in 2001.
They are using alternative transportation to get to work or a friend’s house, according to the report, “Transportation and the New Generation: Why Young People Are Driving Less and What It Means for Transportation Policy.”
Transportation dollars
For the first time in two generations, there has been a significant shift in how many miles people are driving each year, said Danny Katz, director of CoPIRG, an environmental advocacy group.
“Colorado needs to understand these trends when deciding how to focus our future transportation investments, especially when transportation dollars are so scarce,” Katz said.
Using data mostly from the Federal Highway Administration’s National Household Travel Survey, the report says the younger crowd took 24 percent more bike trips in 2009 than they took in 2001, while the number of passenger miles traveled by the same group on public transit increased by 40 percent.
A lot of factors play into the new trend, Katz said. Young people rely on technologies like Facebook and Skype to talk to friends and family.
Websites and smartphone apps also can easily pinpoint real-time transit data while car-and-bike-sharing services are becoming more common in cities, he said.
Technology vs. cars
Young graduates also aren’t as enamored with the automobile as were their parents and grandparents.
“More and more kids value technology more than cars,” Katz said. “A generation ago, people got jobs in hopes of getting a new car. These days, they’d prefer to get a new iPhone or any new technology.”
Concerns about the environment and high gas prices also play a role in curbing the car, Katz said, which suits his group just fine.
“We’re hoping more and more young people will turn away from driving and the roads,” he said.
The 18-24 age group also turned to mass transit more over the past three years in the Denver area, said Scott Reed, spokesman for the Regional Transportation District. RTD bus ridership went up 10 percent from 2008 to 2011, while light-rail ridership jumped just over 11 percent, Reed said.
Still, the number of teens getting a driver’s license in Colorado stayed at a steady pace from 2009 to 2010, according to the Colorado Department of Revenue. There were 55,531 teens who got their license in 2009, compared with 55,868 in 2010.
But more transit programs are needed, not less, said University of Colorado Denver student Sarah McGuire.
“I would rather have good public transportation options than the hassle and expense of driving a car,” McGuire said. “Our leaders should focus on building a 21st-century transportation network that provides lots of alternatives to driving.”
Monte Whaley: 720-929-0907 or mwhaley@denverpost.com
