DETROIT — For generations, driver’s licenses have been tickets to freedom for America’s 16-year-olds, prompting many to line up at motor vehicle offices the day they were eligible to apply.
No longer. In the last decade, the proportion of 16-year-olds nationwide who hold driver’s licenses has dropped from nearly half to less than one-third, according to statistics from the Federal Highway Administration.
The article suggests cost is a big factor. In any case, people like me have the crazy idea that it'd be nice if more teens lived in a world where they had some amount of mobility which didn't depend on automobile ownership. Yes, crazy I know.