Teenagers are driving less, The New York Times says. La Presse reports that public transit use in the Montreal region is rising considerably. And, let me tell you, after a day spent in the car, I’d think a long time before I moved any place where I was dependent on the automobile only.
Not only is the price of gas skyrocketing--$1.49 a litre yesterday morning or something like $6 US a US gallon—but driving from place to place is such a drag. Yesterday was the day to stock up on all the groceries that are heavy or bulky, there were a dozen books to borrow from the McGill Library, and I’d been promising Lee to get a flat of Quebec strawberries which are at their best right now. It was very hot, traffic was snarled because of road repairs everywhere: in short it was not my best day…
The summer before I turned 16 I got my first driver’s license: because of a quickly-closed loop hole in the regulations if you took a driver’s ed course, you could get your license immediately, which is exactly what I did. Lee didn’t ask me out even though we’d been friends for months until he had a car to take me some place. When we got married he assumed at first that we’d have two cars, as his parents did.
Our kids, however, have grown up in a different world. Lukas, at 28 still doesn’t have a license, and Elin didn’t get hers until she was 26 even though she plays a cello-sized instrument and has to schlep it around all the time. There are times when I think they are a lot smarter than we were.
But we learned so I guess there’s hope for everyone.
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