Cycling in the 1940s/1950s

[Samuel D]

It probably varies by location. I live in a big city with good public transport, so no doubt people here view cars differently than they do in rural areas where cars remain a near-necessity for many people and yoofs feel trapped without one.

Nonetheless, from looking around, I’m certain fewer people today are getting driving licences the moment they’re eligible. Anyone got statistics?

[ChrisButch]

I'm not sure that young people are driving less than a decade or so ago. I went to university in the late 80s and it was rare then for students to own cars; now the car parks at those same halls of residence are jam packed.

Go back two decades earlier, and undergraduates had to seek permission - only granted with reluctance - to keep and use a car in my University city. You had to fit a special green light to identify yourself as a student driver.

[MikeF]

In terms of the 65 year time frame quoted in tho OP or double that since the invention of the motor car then a decade is a small period. It isn't the case that car use gradually increased over the 20th century and eventually reached its state today, but that before 1970 it was unusual and after that it was ubiquitous, and came to dominate the way we plan our lives and our cities.

Not true.https://www.ons.gov.uk/.../social-trends-40---transport-chapter.pdf
Increase in car use was constrained by the 1929 recession and WW2, but otherwise rose continuously.
Before 1970 car use wasn't so extensive, but not unusual.

Only in the same sense that today cycling to work is not unusual.

in 1965 car ownership was very much a minority activity. Most people lived their daily lives getting about on foot or using public transport. By 1975 the car had come to utterly dominate the way we moved about with most households owning a car. It is that cultural shift that I am referring to - the perception of cars changing from a luxury product to a basic necessity - so ingrained is this perception that even some posters to this forum see any attempt to restrict car use as an impossible imposition.

Yes car use has continued to grow - just as consumption of all resources has grown over that period but since 1975 that use has mainly been driven people travelling further rather than non car owners taking up driving. In fact the last decade or so has probably seen a slight reduction in drivers as young people are moving back into city centres and finding insurance prohibitively expensive.

I don't think the link I posted worked although it did download the document. This should work.

The graph on page 174 disagrees with your statement.
I passed my car driving test in 1961 and am aware of "life before motorways".

[MikeF]

It probably varies by location. I live in a big city with good public transport, so no doubt people here view cars differently than they do in rural areas where cars remain a near-necessity for many people and yoofs feel trapped without one.

Nonetheless, from looking around, I’m certain fewer people today are getting driving licences the moment they’re eligible. Anyone got statistics?

Plenty of statistics here, but not the one you want.

Edit If you dig deep enough and follow the links there is

.