Going forward, the pressure for rail transportation and other public transportation means may well increase because of less and less people even having a driver's license. Tony Dutzik of the Frontier Group has conducted a public study entitled,
"Transportation and the New Generation" where he documents that 26% of 16 to 34 year olds don't even have a driver's license, up from 21% in 2001'.
Some of the facts documented in the study.
1) Miles per capita driven peaked in 2004' and have dropped 6% since then.
2) From 2001' to 2009', 16 to 34 year olds annual driving dropped 23% from 10,300 miles annually to 7,900 miles.
3) In 2009, 16 to 34-year-olds as a whole took 24 percent more bike trips than they took in 2001
4) In 2009, 16 to 34-year-olds walked to destinations 16 percent more frequently than did 16 to 34-year-olds living in 2001.
5) From 2001 to 2009, the number of passenger-miles traveled by 16 to 34-year-olds on public transit increased by 40 percent.
This also raises the question, if the 16 to 34 demographic is not only driving less with the trend suggesting to continue and if future 16 to 34 year olds at least maintain the trend of drivers license, not only should the auto makers be scared to death, one also questions how much oil in the future we will need? Not only will future cars get even better gas mileage but the number of people owning and driving cars in the US may continue to decline dropping even further the need for ever greater supplies of oil. This is another reason I think the Keystone pipeline is all about China and always was regardless of everything else but that's another thread.