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Millennials Love Zipcar Because They’ll Never Own a Car
Cars are just giant smartphone chargers
None of my friends have cars. In fact, many of them can’t even drive. This wasn’t surprising when I was a child, but now that I’m in my thirties and have friends who are managers and lawyers and have other adult jobs, you’d think more of them would have a car parked outside.
Some of this is location. If you live in a big city, like London or New York or Chicago, owning a car is less privilege and more liability. There is the cost of parking and the risk of car crime and when you do drive, there is the traffic. In cities, cars are inconveniences. When you move, you are limited to flats that have parking. Last year, a colleague gave me a lift home from work, and there went my evening. It wouldn’t just have been faster to take the tube, it would have been faster to walk. You don’t drive in London, you inch and you hoot.
For millennials living in big cities, this is another way to distinguish them from those in rural areas and the generation above: no car in the drive. Come to that, no drive. Renting or in a flat-share rather than owning. And probably watching films on a laptop rather than a TV. I sometimes wonder whether the success of Netflix is less about extra choice and more about the rise of a generation without a room big enough for a TV.
Many of my friends who don’t (and can’t) have cars are surprisingly well-off. They have the latest iPhone. And before the pandemic, their Uber bill was more than the monthly lease on a car. It’s not the cost of the car that stops them, it’s the cost of the lifestyle around it. I was struck by how common this is when reading an article in the Smart Set the other day by the essayist Elisa Gabbert who wrote about how she couldn’t buy a bigger mattress because the bedroom in the flat she rented was too small. “A king wouldn’t fit comfortably in our current bedroom and if we’re going to buy a bigger bed, we should first move to a bigger apartment.” But, although she earns “more than $75,000” a…
