America's Changing Culture

    The article “The End of America’s Car Culture” by Alessandra Potenza is about how the dream of owning a car is becoming less popular with today’s youth. Less people are driving, buying fewer cars, and getting fewer licenses than before.

    For many people born between the years of 1946 and 1964, driving and owning a car was their dream. It started when Henry Ford began to mass-produce Model T cars. This made cars more affordable and more available for Americans. Then, U.S. culture began to revolve around cars. People went to drive-in movies, drive-in fast-food restaurants, and parked in large parking lots. Cars used to have a huge influence on Americans lives. Part of the American dream was owning a car.

    However, today most people don’t have the same dreams people had years ago. I think that this decrease in interest is due to a change in lifestyle in younger people. I think that the youth is becoming more sophisticated as time goes by. Today many kids don’t want to settle down in the suburbs like they did years ago, where their lives revolved around driving. Living in the suburbs is becoming less appealing to kids today. Cities are where people want to live. Growth in cities make cars less necessary than they were. Young adults who live in cities don’t really even need cars. Public transportation has adapted to make travel much more efficient for a city lifestyle. Also walking and biking is becoming more popular in cities. Some cities have even established bike sharing programs. Overall, owning a car is becoming less important today than it once was.

    I think that ownership of a car is less appealing to younger people because Americas culture is changing drastically. Today, there are less drive-thru’s and drive-in movies that made cars so appealing to those born only generation ago. Even people’s lifestyles have changed so much. I feel like young people are beginning to think that cars aren’t a rite of passage anymore. Many feel like they aren’t a “must have.” I know that the country is changing and I feel like we are leaving behind a lot of culture and history. The whole way America once lived is changing.