Matt Prior

It's a popular refrain to suggest that young people are falling out of love with cars.

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As evidence, it's noted that throughout much of the developed world, the proportion of young people learning to drive is down over the past two decades. Well, the stats can say that, but I'm not buying what's inferred from them.

Granted, if much of your life is spent on a Lime bike, driving would interrupt your phone use, and if your home city introduces a congestion charge despite 74% of its residents thinking it would have a negative impact (slow hand clap, once again, for Oxfordshire County Council), I can see why you wouldn't bother with driving. But that isn't the same thing as falling out of love with cars; it's car use and car ownership becoming too expensive and difficult.

What happens if you remove the barriers to driving and car ownership? It seems to me that the appeal of driving and cars is as strong as ever.