Driving Has Lost its Cool for Young Americans

[kári]

I have a question for the bike commuters. I'm sorry if this sounds silly.

Do you change into your business attire when you get to work? Aren't you all sweated up on hot days? What do you do about your person and your bike when it heavily rains?

Both companies I've worked for have showers in the building. So yeah, people arrive, take a shower, and then switch into their work clothes.

rumborak

Whoa. Maybe I just haven't experienced enough of the working world but I have never heard of anything like that before. That's pretty cool!

It's pretty common here as well.

[snapple]

You can only bike somewhere where i live 2 1/2 months out of the year. Otherwise it's too cold/snowy. I wouldn't bike anywhere even if I could, because it's literally uphill both ways.

Plus, I fucking love driving.

[Chino]

I live in a small town...no happen to live in the outskirts farmland of it. It's a 10 minute drive into town, then 5-10 minutes to anywhere after that. My school is a 50 minute drive away (highway the whole time) and my work is 35 minutes away. I average around 20k miles on my car per year. Realistcly, thenonly thing I could take my bike to is a near by golf course. Has anyone tried riding a bike up and down old farm roads with a fully loaded golf bag on?

[GuineaPig]

Honestly, I'd be okay with a public transit if I lived in a city, although I'd still have a car for the other things, like visiting family, going out of town, etc. etc.

But in a society with proper public transit and infrastructure, a car wouldn't be needed for this either.  Trains, a vastly superior method of transport, would get you anywhere you need to go.

[JayOctavarium]

It's funny. I spent a chunk of my later teenage years living in a town with great public transit and what not... loved it. This was before I had my license...  and before I had much of anywhere important to be besides school... I was always walking / busing / riding my bike. Then I moved to a town (only a few towns away) that had really nothing. And I got a job a 20 minute walk away... Now I am living back in the town with the transit and having to drive 20-40 minutes to work (depending on traffic)... Believe me if my company had an account within a bus ride... I would so do it. But alas... nope.

[rumborak]

It's really a ratchet mechanism. The more mobile people became, the further out companies put their offices to save on rent. My previous employer did exactly that, moved from downtown Boston into one of those corporate work silos off a highway exit in Buttfuck, Massachusetts. Didn't take long before I quit.

rumborak

[Cool Chris]

It's really a ratchet mechanism. The more mobile people became, the further out companies put their offices to save on rent. My previous employer did exactly that, moved from downtown Boston into one of those corporate work silos off a highway exit in Buttfuck, Massachusetts. Didn't take long before I quit.

rumborak

Is 'Buttfuck' anywhere near residential areas? If it was, wouldn't that be better for the employees who either didn't want to live in downtown Boston or couldn't afford to? If was truly in a 'buttfuck' region out in the middle of nowhere and took any employee forever to get there, I understand your point.

[rumborak]

No, not really. "Buttfuck" was Burlington, MA, and none of my coworkers actually lived anywhere there. The company completely relied on people driving everywhere along the highway, from different cities. I actually brought this up when they moved, telling my boss that I don't have car and whether the company now just expected us to buy one, only for them to save a few bucks. Essentially, they rolled off their expenses onto the employees. Was met with shoulder-shrugging.

rumborak

[GuineaPig]

In a situation like this, having an effective transit system is good for both parties.  Commuter rail (and to a lesser extent, commuter buses) in the US run in an out-dated manner; from the suburbs, to the CBD.  This means that land prices and building sizes in the CBD go way up, and mid-sized and small businesses look elsewhere to lease.  However, in Europe commuter rail is typically through-run through city centers with full-day operation (see Germany's S-bahns and Paris' RER for example).  This allows businesses to locate along transit elsewhere than the CBD, which spreads out development (especially helps in Europe, where many cities have height restrictions in their down-town, and can't build massive complexes) while still providing excellent access for commuters without cars.

[Chino]

I had a thought while driving home from work today. I live in a big little town. There are roughly 15k people in my town, and there is not a single thing for anyone under the age of 21 to do... literally. The kids in my town dont need/want a car anymore. The problem is the combination of the lack of activities and the police. Smoking pot is a very popular activity in this town. The police know that there is nothing for kids to do, so when they see a car load of them driving around after 8 at night, they assume they have 'drugs' in the car. Another issue is that it is very hard for young kids in my town to find work. Even with a job, many of them can't afford a vehicle. Many just use a parent's car or truck when needed.

[carl320]

In a situation like this, having an effective transit system is good for both parties.  Commuter rail (and to a lesser extent, commuter buses) in the US run in an out-dated manner; from the suburbs, to the CBD.  This means that land prices and building sizes in the CBD go way up, and mid-sized and small businesses look elsewhere to lease.  However, in Europe commuter rail is typically through-run through city centers with full-day operation (see Germany's S-bahns and Paris' RER for example).  This allows businesses to locate along transit elsewhere than the CBD, which spreads out development (especially helps in Europe, where many cities have height restrictions in their down-town, and can't build massive complexes) while still providing excellent access for commuters without cars.

Unfortunately most US cities weren't developed that way, since the rise of (most) American cities coincided with the automobile age.  Most attempts at upgrading (or even creating) any commuter rail get met with backlash from NIMBYs.