Teen drivers running on empty
$4 gas is now taking the joy out of the ride
There was a time, not long ago, when 17-year-old Jennifer Ogle of Braintree drove her Mercury Mystique to her part-time job at a local
No more. With the price of a gallon of gasoline having crossed the $4 threshold, teens are deriving less joy from riding around in automobiles. Ogle now walks to work. Gill takes the bus to Shawsheen Valley Technical High School in Billerica and has virtually forsworn those daily sodas. "I only drive to work," he says. "I bought myself a drink twice last week, and I paid with quarters and nickels." Warren now asks his passengers for gas money. "Back when I first started driving," he says, "it wasn't a big deal."
That classic icon of American youth, the teenager in a car, is a bit tarnished these days. Like suburbanites facing long commutes and families contemplat ing vacations closer to home, teenagers are tweaking their driving and spending habits in response to the high cost of fuel. Some barely have had time to savor driving on their own before they had to contend with rapidly rising prices at the pump. That time of being a carefree new driver that Warren remembers with such nostalgia occurred less than a year ago, in August 2007, when regular gasoline, self-served, ran about $2.70 a gallon.
"Sometimes, if we're bored, we'd go around and drive," says Colleen Casey, 18, of Braintree. "There's none of that any more."
Anthony Pagucci, 18, of Ashland, eating burgers with his best friend at the Natick Collection's food court, is worried, too. "I'm paranoid about it. It cost me $5 to come here," Pagucci says. "I have to make gas part of my budget. That's how bad it is."
Indeed, when pollsters asked teens what three issues most concern them this election year, the price of gasoline topped the list, followed by global warming and then the war in Iraq, according to a survey conducted this spring by TRU, a youth-focused market research firm in Illinois.
"The driver's license is an important milestone for teens," says TRU's Rob Callender. "It symbolizes freedom, fun, coming of age. With gas prices being as high as they are they feel their freedom is being eroded simply because they can't take advantage of it."
Not surprisingly, teenagers who pay for gasoline themselves feel the pinch more than those whose parents pitch in. Gayleen Conover, 19, drives her parents' car while she's home in Brookline for the summer. "If I really need gas when I'm in the car, I buy it," she says. "I don't buy more than $20 worth of gas."
In Braintree, Michael Ryan, whose parents gave him their old minivan, cringes whenever he goes to the gas station and anticipates riding his bicycle more this summer. "I find myself not offering to give rides home any more," says Ryan, 17. "I'll try to get rides." Sometimes, he adds, he drives his parents' car and doesn't fill the tank. "It's terrible to say, but it's true."
Casey's parents, on the other hand, have been asking to use her car lately. "I have a little Altima," she says, "and they have SUVs."
David Abbott, 18, and his friends still carpool even though many of them have their own wheels now. Mike Witkowski, 17, of Billerica has changed how he drives, not how much he drives: "I can't romp on it like I used to. Go too fast. Instead of 45 I do 30." Last month he bought a 1995 Jeep Cherokee that gets 15 miles per gallon to replace a Chevy pickup truck that got 8 miles. He's having trouble finding a buyer for the truck.
Witkowski, Gill, and Warren, classmates in the auto shop at Shawsheen who all have afterschool jobs, have cut back on fixing up their cars. "Nothing to make it look nice," says Gill. "Just to make it work."
Gill likes his job repairing golf carts in North Reading too much to look for work closer to home. He likes the way his big car handles in winter too much to switch.
"I drive half an hour to work. I can't afford anything else," Gill says. "I feel bad. I took my girlfriend to dinner once. I feel terrible. I can't buy her flowers."
