A new study examines travel of teens and young adults in an era of advanced communications technologies. Written by UCLA’s own Evelyn Blumenberg, Brian Taylor,Michael Smart, Kelcie Ralph, Madeline Wander, and Stephen Brumbaugh, the study was funded by both the U.S. Federal Highway Administration and the University of California Transportation Center.
The researchers find that economic factors, first and foremost are behind the decline in solo driving among teens and young adults in recent years. Unemployment among teens and young adults is up dramatically in the Great Recession, and this has reduced access to vehicles, money to pay for driving, and the need to drive to jobs. Young people are still getting around, but more often by means other than driving. Interestingly, the researchers found that use of information and communications technologies was associated with slightly more travel, and not less. All of that talking, texting, and tweeting, in other words, is not substituting for travel.