Throughout the rich world, the young are falling out of love with cars
I&#x27;m an aging millennial, but on a purely personal level, when I lived in a city with good public transit, I was a lot happier, most of the time. I really like stepping off the train and the bus and being on my own two feet, the walking exercise, not being chained to this thing I have to worry about. I hate driving, I hate parking, I hate owning a car--the maintenance, the ongoing cost of fuel and insurance, all of it. I was happy to have it to leave the city, but overall, it was a last resort. I live somewhere that requires a car now, and it&#x27;s fine, traffic isn&#x27;t so bad, I like cranking my music and being able to haul shit around, but even then, I don&#x27;t get the emotional association of freedom that previous generations did. I don&#x27;t know what&#x27;s different, although I have some guesses. Money, I&#x27;m sure, but there&#x27;s something that&#x27;s nagging me about it. Maybe it&#x27;s the internet. Maybe it&#x27;s that communication technology makes the world feel closer and more immediate than it used to. I&#x27;d be curious to hear about how&#x2F;whether the experience of driving has changed over the decades, but freedom to my cohort means something else.<p>People get sanctimonious about not owning or using a car, and that&#x27;s annoying. I just wish there were more options. I don&#x27;t see us (in the US) removing car infrastructure. I could see additive changes, though, which include national public transit, with some political will and creative thinking, which means it&#x27;ll never happen.