Millennials Love Transit Most, Boomers Still Stuck on Cars

[I-10east]

There comes a point where suicide is a viable option.

Don't worry, the feeling is mutual. I guess I thought that you were better than you actually are... I say an opinion, 'you know who' jumps on me because I'm I-10east, all of 'you know who's' minions come to his defense like always...

[peestandingup]

It wasn't just transit that the Boomers helped destroy, as I'm sure you guys are aware. And just because a few here who are in that gen have their heads on straight doesn't mean the vast majority of your gen does (or did).

The total love affair with automobiles was under your watch, so was the complete abandoning of any & all urban areas, ushering in big box super centers (screw you, mom & pop), letting highways rip apart established urban fabric that actually had character & a history, etc. All of these things had tremendous negative consequences that we're just now starting to recover from. Boomers left & couldn't have cared less if you blew up these areas. Now they're bitching about all the money it takes to clean up the mess & trying to make up for the lost decades. Well, that'll happen won't it. Leave a cancerous mole on your body & then tell me how much more it costs to take care of it later on down the road.

You didn't have a choice? You actually did, but no one exercised it & was likely razzle dazzled by a lot of bullshit talk from all sides of the isle. A car doesn't define you (like they told you), a house in the burbs isn't a status symbol, wal-mart isn't your neighborhood buddy, huge lawns are stupid & wasteful, etc.

Like I said, most Boomers (not you guys) still hold onto these notions with an iron grip because acknowledging it would mean admitting they were wrong. And god forbid that happen. Hell, you can't go on a forum or city news site even today & read an article about transit, or bike lanes, or any other urban projects without hearing them still squawking about how we should just let it go, too much money, its a lost cause, etc.

This is total bullshit.  It was the "greatest generation" who embraced the automobile and fled the cities for suburbia after WWII.  The first boomers didn't turn 18 until 1964, and by then the decline of transit and the inner cities was already well on its way.

Yeah, and?? Post WWII adults may have started it, but its not like it happened all of a sudden. It didn't really start to ramp into high gear (then turn dire straights) until the 70s & 80s (peaking in the 90s) with all the above mentioned. Transport back in time & go to basically any urban area during those decades & watch them rot away. Hell, even NYC was a shithole then. Now imagine what it was like in normal urban areas across the country that weren't NYC. Gonna blame that one on their parents too? They were either retired by then, dying or already dead.

Let me ask you this. Did the Boomers do anything whatsoever during their reign to stop it or reverse these oncoming trends? Aside from a few instances in a handful of major cities (Lake mentioned a few)?? If the greatest gen started the courting, the Boomers crawled in bed with it, knocked it up & put a ring on it.

Screaming "well, they did it first, so meah!" doesn't exactly make for a good case. That's like saying my folks dabbled in marijuana, so that meant I had to be a full on crackhead. If the Boomers had any foresight, sense of community or caring whatsoever what the future might hold, then we wouldn't be nearly as in so deep with this stuff as we are now & sticking the newer adults with having to clean up the mess (and they are). Biggest "me first" generation the country's ever seen.

Again, I'm not talking directly to anyone on the forum so please don't take offense.

Absolutely wrong, do the math. Boomers were the result of a sudden post WWII influx of love starved adult males into the population. For the history challenged, the war ended in 1945, many were not back until 48' or later. So junior is born in 1948-49. He/She is 20 years old in 68/69 and responsible for the biggest social revolution/upheaval arguably in the history of man. The boomers invented the ecology movement, dabbled with electric cars, back to the earth movement, health foods, and using transit or car pooling (aka: 'hitching'). By the time 'we' (and I am one) had a BA, it was 1972/73, count 10 years for some serious seniority in society and you hit 82/83 and real change was on the boards. Add the 5-10 years required for these projects to get from drawing boards to streets and you are at 92/93. Our 'reign' is just now coming to an end... how do you like your infrastructure compared to 1968? YOUR WELCOME! No offense taken, but simply do the math, even the earliest of us Boomers effected massive change.

So wait. First you're claiming that the baby boom didn't happen until later (which is highly debatable) & thus weren't old enough to effect these things until much later (even though they were clearly adults & old enough to do what X & Y are doing now, even by your timeline). But then you were old enough to be responsible for the counter culture/hippie movement? Wow, that's some sweet mental gymnastics. Either you were or you werent, Ock.

Lol, you guys are too much. "We weren't old enough!" "People in their 20s/30s  aren't really adults & can't do anything yet to effect change, thus your timeline is wrong!" "The 90s/2000s turnaround? Yeah, totally us." I love it. And hey, no one's saying anyone here who falls in that gen wasn't on board with these things during the time you had, but the generation overall were pretty much not. Like I said, the turnaround within just the last 10-15 years in urbanism has been really REALLY significant. Places that were complete & total shitholes did a total 180 in that time, in big numbers all over the country. Boomers do that too? Right. Now if these things were happening in the 70s/80s then sure, that was totally Boomer time when you guys were buying houses, getting married, having kids & setting trends. But it didn't. In fact, it was the worst part of it. But oh, I forgot. Boomers weren't old enough then to do anything.

BTW, what was the outcome of that there social upheaval? Considering it fizzled out, hippies became yuppies & ultimately went the other way, I'd say not much. At the time I'm sure it felt like something real was happening, but my guess is many just used it as an excuse to do drugs, put off working & fuck anything with a pulse. Which I say more power to them. That's exactly what I'd do & wouldn't make no bones about it. But I certainly wouldn't think I was changing the world. Ultimately you're gonna lose in that situation & the go go machine will get its way eventually, just like with what happened with Occupy. You can't win & might as well join the party, which is exactly what happened.

[Ocklawaha]

Ignorance is bliss...

The baby boom did not start until the troops came home. OCCUPATION of Europe and Japan took quite a few years. The boom heated up between 45-50. I used 48 as an average, as the saying among the troops was 'The Golden Gate in 48'.
That puts 1969 before adulthood.  (you were not an adult until 21 then... of course we got that changed to). Add university time. Add some effective maturity and again you are at 1980. I'm in the transportation industry and as Ennis, Wiatt, or myself can tell you. NONE OF THOSE CHANGES were made by 25-30 year old government officials, consultants, engineers and planners... the guys at the top were all pushing 50-60 and they are the ones signing the checks today.

Your grasp of history seems rather poor. 

[peestandingup]

Your grasp of history seems rather poor. 

K, Ock. We'll all pretend adulthood then conveniently wasn't until somewhere in your 40s so it helps your case.

[finehoe]

The Millennial Generation (18- to 29-years old) will be a predominantly suburban generation, contends a new study by the Demand Institute based on a survey of 1,000 Millennial households. Significant majorities of the younger generation aspire to owning a single-family home and consider automobiles a necessity, while a 48% plurality expresses a preference to live in the "suburbs" over an urban or rural environment.

http://www.demandinstitute.org/sites/default/files/blog-uploads/millennials-and-their-homes-final.pdf

[Ocklawaha]

The mayors of Tampa, St. Petersburg, Clearwater and Lakeland...

More 'Millennials bringing you mass transit!'