英语新闻:The golden age of motoring is over
2011-10-25
Liz Parle, 24, a Birmingham-born café owner, cannot drive. “I did (try to) learn, but I failed my test a few times,” Parle told the Guardian.
Then she moved to London, where running a car can be a nightmare, so now she cycles everywhere.
Parle is by no means atypical. According to the Guardian, in the UK, (the percentage) of 17- to 20-year-olds with driving licenses fell from 48 percent in the early 1990s to 35 percent last year.
Meanwhile, road traffic figures for cars and taxis, which have risen more or less every year since 1949, have continued to fall since 2007.
Motoring groups put it down to oil prices and the economy. Others (offer) a more fundamental explanation: the golden age of motoring is over.
“The way we run cars is changing fast,” Tim Pollard, associate (editor) at Car magazine, told the Telegraph, “Car manufacturers are worried that younger people in particular don’t aspire to own cars like we used to in the 70s, 80s, or even the 90s. Designers commonly say that teenagers today aspire to own the latest smart phone more than a car.”