A few decades ago, every teenager had the same dream: they couldn’t wait until they were old enough to start learning how to drive. The main ambition for everyone at that age was to pass their driving test and start zooming around on four wheels – but did you know that the youth of today are less enthusiastic about this?
It’s not so much that they’re too “lazy” to want to drive a car, but rather they’re looking at the alternatives instead. If you just have a look and observe for yourself, you’ll see a growing trend of younger people opting to ride motorbikes instead of learning how to drive a car. Why is this happening right now? It might seem a bit strange, but the more you dig into motorbike ownership, the more you understand where these young people are coming from.
Motorbikes Cost Way Less To Insure
Car insurance is, let’s be honest, borderline criminal. You will be paying thousands a year to insure a car – particularly when you’re a new driver. And if you want to buy a new car at any point, you’re going to pay through the nose for insurance, which discourages a lot of people from buying nice cars.
By contrast, if you look at Carole Nash bike insurance, you’ll see that new modern bike customers can pay as little as £257 for comprehensive cover. The difference in costs is absolutely absurd – and you’re looking at paying 20% less on average than you would if you bought a car.
Motorbikes Are Generally Cheaper To Run
The insurance costs are just one of many running costs that motorbikes tend to do better than cars. Looking at MOTs and regular maintenance, motorbikes end up being cheaper because they don’t have as many parts to service, and there’s also a greater availability of motorbike parts if things need to be fixed. Working on a motorbike is way easier than working on a car (you don’t need special lifts or expensive equipment), which also means that general servicing is cheaper.
What about fuel? Well, car drivers will point to EVs and hybrids as great ways to save money on fuel costs, which is a genuine argument in favour of cars because bikes don’t utilise that technology. The only thing about this is that younger people are way less likely to be able to afford an EV or hybrid vehicle. They’re mainly focusing on the used petrol car market, in which case motorbikes are way more fuel-efficient.
You can find some scooters that do over 100 mpg, while you’ll be lucky to get over 30 mpg in some used petrol vehicles. All in all, if you added up the costs of running a motorbike against the costs of running a car, the former will almost always be cheaper than the latter. As you can imagine, this makes them a way more attractive prospect for younger people who don’t have a lot of money.
Cities Are Becoming More Congested
The difference between young people of today and the young people of a few decades ago is that teenagers and twenty-somethings are growing up in much busier towns and cities. Before, you’d be so eager to learn how to drive because you wouldn’t have to constantly deal with traffic and congestion. Being able to drive your car to school or work made life drastically different. Now, it can genuinely be quicker to walk some places because of all the traffic, particularly if you live in a busy town or city area.
Consequently, younger people now see motorbikes or scooters as the ideal alternative. They still offer the convenience that a car brings in terms of mobility, but they’re even better at dealing with congestion. When you’re riding a motorbike, you can filter through traffic while everyone is at a standstill. It means a 30-minute journey across town for car drivers takes you 10 minutes, max.
As cities and towns continue to get more congested than ever, you can expect to see even more motorbike users popping up.
Parking Is A Huge Modern Problem
It’s fair to say that the average high street looks very different from what it did twenty years ago. You used to be able to drive through town and find loads of parking spaces with ease. On-street parking was available everywhere because there weren’t as many people as there are now. It goes back to the problem of congestion; you’ve got too many people living in cities or towns that can’t physically get any bigger.
This results in parking being so difficult for people to find, so you usually have to pay through the nose to park in a private car park – or deal with parking so far from your destination that you may as well have walked there to begin with.
Young people recognise this and realise that motorbikes don’t always have the same problem. You can park a motorbike almost anywhere because it’s so small and nimble. This means that finding parking won’t be an issue, which gets rid of one of the most stressful parts of driving.
The Rising Cost Of Living
You can connect a few of the previous points to this one, and the simple fact is that it costs more to live than it used to. Younger people may have to deal with rising tuition fees, extortionate rental rates, or ridiculous mortgage payments. Hell, most young people could only dream of saving enough money to afford a mortgage anyway!
The rising cost of living is perhaps the biggest factor in pushing people towards motorbikes. It’s no longer feasible for a lot of people to afford the running costs of a car alongside their additional lifestyle costs. Motorbikes help them save money while still allowing some independence.
You see, it kind of makes sense! You can absolutely understand why a lot of young people – especially those without families or who live in busy cities – want to ride a motorbike instead of learning how to drive. Will it always be a permanent solution, or are young people choosing to put off car driving until they need to? It could well be the latter, but it’s still interesting to see such a shift in perspectives.
