With all due respect to Father Ripper, it turns out the answers can indeed be found in the MTV video games.
Automotive News reports that a new MTV survey of 3,600 millennials completely debunks the idea that Generation Y has given up driving. Rather than confirm the assertions that millennials prefer transit or bikes to cars, the study indicates they are actually driving more than their parents did.
MTV's "Millennials Have Drive" survey found that the "average number of miles driven by millennials is 934 miles a month compared with baby boomers’ 544 miles and Gen X’s 790 miles." Meaning millennials are driving nearly twice as far per month as their parents.
Do millennials, as we've been assured, prefer public transportation to driving their own vehicle? Not according to the survey results, which show that 80% of millennials drive as their primary form of transportation.
How about that canard you've heard so often in recent years, that millennials would rather have an iPhone than a car? The MTV study slices and dices that claim, as well. 2 out of 3 respondents said they would rather give up social media for a day than their car. Even more said they'd give up texting for a week, before giving up their car for the same length of time. If you've seen how many 11-year-old kids are disrupting movie theaters with their smartphone screens, you already know how absurd the "iPhone over car" line was to begin with - kids already have these phones before they get their drivers licenses.
What makes the MTV study far more accurate than previously-hyped surveys?
The sample size of 3,600 millennials, for one. Zipcar's oft-cited "We prefer iPhones to cars!" survey only polled 303 millennials. MTV's study is more credible, as a result. The APTA "Millennials and Mobility" study also surveyed far fewer millennials, and, interestingly, the Rockefeller Foundation won't even say how many millennials it surveyed - despite the media running wild promoting their anti-car "results."
Second, MTV's study is new, and was therefore not skewed by the economic downturn that crimped millennials' spending ability. The recession was used and abused by many a "War on Cars" champion to claim Americans of all ages were driving less, just as states making 16-year-olds wait longer to obtain licenses was twisted to say "kids are less interested in driving."
Now we know they are driving more than their parents. Bring me up, Carson!
Sounds like Viacom is trying to convince car manufacturers that their networks are still relevant for their advertising dollars.
ReplyDeleteOther than sample size...
-What was the sampling frame?
-How was the sampling performed?
-What mode was the data collection?
-How was the questionnaire validated or pretested?
-Is there a copy of the questionnaire?
-What was the response rate?
-What are the breakouts by other relevant demographics like education, location, gender, socioeconomic bracket?
I am not saying the survey isn't valid but there is more to life than sample size. Without the answers to these and other questions trumpeting this as a superior survey is purely speculative.
Also, as an aside... why does the definition of Millennial keep expanding and how many year will we call it 18-34? Seems it has been 18-34 the last 5 years. How many 34 year olds are in the same boat as 18 year olds? What was the breakout of ages in the survey?
Many excellent questions that could be asked about each of the surveys I linked to in this piece. The two points I mentioned, sample size and limiti
Delete...limiting the survey to millennials in the current economy - not using Great Recession-tainted data - are what give this survey more credibility than the ones it appears to contadict. I don't think anyone would call 300 people a good sample size for an issue of national importance like this.
DeleteMTV? LOL. Who gets their music from cable TV anymore? Let alone statistics on auto usage?
ReplyDeleteAlso, it looks like your buddy Pete Piringer has betrayed you.
6:15: Is MTV less credible than BuzzFeed? Keep in mind, they hired a professional firm to conduct the survey, not Johnny Knoxville.
Delete"But the full parking lots at Walt Whitman High School and Montgomery College might make you wonder why those claims don't match what's happening on the ground in Montgomery County."
ReplyDeleteLOL, like you have a choice of transportation modes in WW or MC? How about B-CC or AU? GWU? Georgetown?
6:57: The infamous Cars of GW photo gallery comes to mind.
DeleteHow many cars did they have on Cars of GW? Maybe less than 50? That means everyone drives? Ok.
ReplyDeleteThe what whats of what come to what?
ReplyDeleteGWU total enrollment - 25,000.
ReplyDelete50 cars would represent 2/10 of 1% of the student body. Less, if the photos were raken over the course of more than one school year.
Plus another 2,600 staff at the university, and another several thousand at the hospital, and 75,000 patients at the hospital and tens of thousands of visitors to both every year.
ReplyDeleteThose are all public parking spaces on the street, and there are no visible stickers on any of the cars indicating their connection to the university.
8:55: You're claiming there are no parking facilities besides street parking at GW?
Delete"MTV's study is more credible"
ReplyDeleteha. hahaha. Hundreds of studies show one thing, but freakin MTV has one survey showing something else so THAT'S reality, huh? I guarantee you if the opposite were true and I was pointing to 1 survey by MTV(!!) to counter a decade of evidence you'd rightfully call me an idiot. You're so desperate to support your inane opinions that you'll actually stoop this low, Dyer? Sad. It's fine if you enjoy driving long distances to get anywhere, but don't pretend that the rest of us do.
10:38: Good hyperbole, but not so good from a factual standpoint. The MTV survey has a more credible sample, and is more recent. I've compared it to the 2 major studies the media overinflated in recent years, and they are laughable in comparison.
Delete6:57 AM: Whoa, how did I miss your claim that there is no transit to Whitman or Montgomery College?!
ReplyDeleteThere is bus service directly to both campuses! And for public school, you either walk or qualify for MCPS bus service.
Why do you guys try to divert and dodge when the facts show the false claims of past, poorly-executed surveys?
@ 4:33 PM - Every single one of the cars featured on "GWU CARS" (a total of 33 images) is shown on the streets - none in private parking lots.
ReplyDelete@ 5:41 PM - WW and MC are both on bus routes. That doesn't mean that it's particularly convenient to get to or from either place without a car.
Dyer, so you think people like driving a thousand miles a month? That people actually choose to do that out desire? Because that's what you're effectively claiming, even though of course that makes no sense.
ReplyDeleteI wish I lived within walking distance to my work and so does basically everyone else on this planet; this is something every study on the subject has shown. Unfortunately, my job isn't within walking distance nor accessible via mass transit. That, OF COURSE, doesn't mean I (or effectively anyone) like wasting two hours a day in my car. Use common sense, Dyer.
7:21: I think you are talking about a different topic. Having said that, my own experience is that transit adds two hours per day to a commute, so it's hard to make the case for transit saving time. In fact, it is transit that wastes productive time for commuters each day, unless they live and work a few stops apart. And, as you pointed out, it's not realistic to believe everyone's job will be close to home. We could therefore use "common sense," and complete our unfinished highway system, as well as maintain and upgrade our existing roads.
DeleteAnd regarding school buses, they're only good for going from home to school and back, at specific times of the day. Not particularly useful for going to lunch, activities, or even to the public library straight from school.
ReplyDelete7:34: The survey was about how many miles millennials drive, and their passion for cars vs. iPhones and social media. If millennials were as "over" driving as we were previously told by the media, surely they would be glad to wait at the Ride On stop in front of Walt Whitman HS to start their long trip to the activities you mention.
DeleteYou could have 10,000 people respond to a crappy survey and it would still be a crappy survey with crappy data. I would take 300 people answering an otherwise well made, well administered survey. There are many sources of error beyond sampling error and these sources of error could be much higher than sampling error.
ReplyDeleteWe lack the knowledge that either of the surveys you cite are valid surveys. They both could be crap surveys. Pretending that one is better than the other based on sample size alone is silly and you are doing the exact same thing you accuse your detractors of doing.
"If millennials were as 'over' driving as we were previously told by the media, surely they would be glad to wait at the Ride On stop in front of Walt Whitman HS to start their long trip to the activities you mention."
ReplyDeleteThe Fallacy of Division occurs when one tries to claim that something that is true for the whole must also be true of all of its parts.
Also, I love the line that "the media told us that...". Typical tea party paranoid crapola.
ReplyDelete5:27: I've never been a member of the tea party. The media has promoted the phony talking point of young people having declining interest in cars - that's indisputable.
Delete"Whoa, how did I miss your claim that there is no transit to Whitman or Montgomery College?!
ReplyDeleteThere is bus service directly to both campuses! And for public school, you either walk or qualify for MCPS bus service."
This contradicts your views on the Wesbard plan because it's not served by transit, because it has bus service.
As part of said millennial group, I can say with high certainty that 99% of my peers do not consider the bus a transit option.
ReplyDelete"This contradicts your views on the Wes[t]bard plan because it's not served by transit, because it has bus service."
ReplyDeleteYep. LOL
So let's not harp on Dyer but simply ask for clarification if he will. Thanks.
Delete6:09/7:26: Wrong, it absolutely backs up my argument about transportation at Westbard. People are going to drive, not use buses. That's the point - the lots at Whitman and MC are jammed, despite direct Ride On/school bus access.
DeleteSo do you consider bus service as transit?
Delete4:01: Not sure what kind of bizarre argument you're trying to make. Buses are - duh! - transit. But they aren't subways, meaning you can't build Metro station density just because there's a bus stop out front.
DeleteNot everything is an argument and not everyone is arguing with you. Just trying to understand your rationales.
DeleteOk so you consider buses as transit but not enough transit to support further density?
Jordan, my rationales are the same as others have used for decades - buses are public transportation, but they are not classified the same as subways for TOD purposes and density. You wouldn't put a 20-story building in Damascus just because a Ride On bus goes past the site (although I wouldn't be surprised if the County Council and Planning Board would try...).
DeleteBad news for Viacom:
ReplyDeleteMillennials are ditching their TV sets even faster than their cars.
http://nypost.com/2015/02/16/millenials-ditching-their-tv-sets-at-a-record-rate/
With Apple getting into the car business, suddenly cars are going to be cool again.
ReplyDeleteAnd we'll be able to buy one right on Bethesda Row :)