02-11-2015, 12:12 AM
All the points made above in reference to car dependency are great but we are not so much focusing on our generation but that of our children.
My son at the age of 17 worked his butt off (full time student/athlete and full time job) to buy his own new to him car before he could even drive it on his own. He is not the norm amongst his peers, most have been handed the keys to the 2nd car and or have been given a car of their own while a larger portion rely public transit. A lot of students now are helping to pay for post secondary schooling or are fully going it on their own and cannot afford a car, these people are the group to focus on and the ones we need to provide effective and reliable transit for. Going forward into adulthood if there is little need for a vehicle (for work, shopping and entertainment) they themselves will likely continue to use transit and in turn their family would grow up using transit helping to break the car dependency cycle.
That's not to say they would never need to use a car but with car sharing programs and car rental companies being more creative it provides a simple solution to long distance runs to the in-laws or vacations etc...
My son at the age of 17 worked his butt off (full time student/athlete and full time job) to buy his own new to him car before he could even drive it on his own. He is not the norm amongst his peers, most have been handed the keys to the 2nd car and or have been given a car of their own while a larger portion rely public transit. A lot of students now are helping to pay for post secondary schooling or are fully going it on their own and cannot afford a car, these people are the group to focus on and the ones we need to provide effective and reliable transit for. Going forward into adulthood if there is little need for a vehicle (for work, shopping and entertainment) they themselves will likely continue to use transit and in turn their family would grow up using transit helping to break the car dependency cycle.
That's not to say they would never need to use a car but with car sharing programs and car rental companies being more creative it provides a simple solution to long distance runs to the in-laws or vacations etc...