Young people born roughly between 1980 and 2000 are doing plenty nowadays, but commuting by automobile appears to be low on their to-do list, according to a new report.
The report Tuesday from the consumer advocacy group Connecticut Public Interest Research Group (ConnPIRG) blames the decline in so-called “millennials” behind the wheel on a variety of factors, among them, increased gas prices, a weaker economy, and more of their Baby Boomer parents — born after WWII to 1963 — entering retirement.
The report’s findings have broad implications for a wide spectrum of industries, such as automakers, dealers, parking operators, insurers and motor-fuel vendors, to name a few.
“The driving boom is over,” said ConnPIRG Director Abe Scarr in a statement. “As more and more millennials become adults, and their tendency to drive less becomes the norm, the reduction in driving will be even larger.”
Scarr says Connecticut mirrors the national trend, in which Americans of all ages drove 31.3 billion miles in 2010 – the lowest since 2002.
Helping to flatten the miles driven were 16- to 34-year-old millennials who racked up 23 percent fewer miles on average in 2009 than in 2001.
Public policy is a main concern of the report, which cites grossly overestimated government forecasts regarding future vehicle miles traveled, questioning the justification behind spending on new or expanded roadways.
The report says American drivers will drive far fewer miles annually in the future than if Baby Boomer trends had continued, citing a decrease in the number of miles driven annually since 2007.
