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Charles's avatar

This appears to be half "kids these days" (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6795513/) and half an odd assortment of potentially concerning but maybe unrelated vignettes smashed together to suggest causality.

<<Until recently, getting a driver’s license was seen as a rite of passage for U.S. teenagers.>>

Well, from 1940 or so. About 3 generations.

<<...1977... having a car was a “virtual necessity” for anyone living in America.>>

Yes, but that works equally as a critique of US postwar urban planning.

<<death around every corner>>

I agree we overdo it, but survivor bias makes an ironic battle cry.

There are at least 6 interesting developments in here that MIGHT be related but would be far more convincing treated separately or in smaller groups. Stuck together like this, mostly what I hear is "I don't like it."

I've known to hang in dark pits off ropes and turn airplanes upside down. Not at the same time. Yet. And I drive everywhere, but I wouldn't pin any substantial critique in this article on *driving* being essential to life, freedom, or America. It's been a central James-Dean part of our culture for 3 generations. But I could take it or leave it. Maybe not you, and that's fine, but the country as a whole could -- it did. Now... the *Frontier* has been there since the beginning. And what else will replace it?

Also, get off my lawn? ;-)

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Mitch's avatar

For a deeper dive on this subject, read Matthew Crawford's "Why We Drive." One of the most important books I have read in years.

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