Gen Y and cars

A rare bit of good news, environmentally speaking: so-called Gen Y-ers are buying fewer cars.

They’re likely to see autos as a source of pollution, not as a sex or status symbol.

Motorists aged 21 to 30 now account for 14% of miles driven, down from 21% in 1995.

There's a change in lifestyle, which is critical to changing how society works:

“It’s a matter of mind-set far more than affordability,” says William Draves, president of Learning Resources Network, an association that studies consumer trends and provides education and training services.

“This generation focuses its buying on computers, BlackBerrys, music and software and views commuting a few hours by car a huge productivity waste when they can work using PDAs while taking the bus and train,” says Draves.

Current electronic hardware carries its own environmental burden, of course, but we have to fix the big problems first, and getting less reliant on the private car is fixing the much bigger problem here.