The youth on the move: French and Canadian young people's relationship with the car

摘要

While the overall number of holders of driving licences has continued to increase among OECD countries, there has been a rupture among young people since the 2000s. Youth aged 30 and under are less likely to take the driving test than their counterparts ten or twenty years earlier. Several explanatory hypotheses have been proposed. While some researchers put forward two economic factors (higher fuel prices and the effects of the economic crisis on purchasing power), others prefer cultural factors. The research sought to understand the reasons for a voluntary decrease in access to the driving license among young people in France and Canada, and what relationship the young people of today have with the car. The qualitative study was conducted among youth aged between 16 and 35 in Lyon (France) and Montreal (Canada). Change is observed through an investigation of social, spatial and economic factors as the drop in the obtention of the driving licence appear multifactorial. Indeed, if finance, gender, socialisation and relation to time appear as decisive factors they have not the same effect depending on the social status and economic resources.