Teens aren't getting their license. Long Island's roads, anxiety are to blame.

Gen Z pop star Olivia Rodrigo’s megahit "Driver’s License" may not have been the last word on her generation’s love-hate relationship with that laminated ID card. A privilege that had long been a rite of passage is declining in popularity for Long Island's newest drivers.

In a U-turn from past generations, local Gen Zers — those born between 1997 and 2012, and currently ages 14 to 29 — say they’re postponing road tests, available at age 16 and, if they eventually get a license, using it sparingly.

The anti-driving anecdotes told by Gen Zers are supported by national statistics. The number of American 16-year-olds with a driver’s license fell from roughly half in 1983 to 25% in 2022, according to the Federal Highway Administration's most recent data. On Long Island, about a third of 16- and 17-year-olds got their junior driver’s license, according to the latest New York State Department of Motor Vehicles data from May. DMV spokesman Walter McClure says the agency doesn't track year-over-year comparisons.  

Anxiety about navigating the Island’s busy and dangerous roads rates high among Gen Zers who opt to take bicycles, trains, Uber and even skateboards to school or work. They also say the high cost of car ownership and concerns for the environment drive them to it.

Busy roads

Gregory Mandel, 24, of North Massapequa, says he would only drive "out of absolute necessity, and it’s not something I would recommend to anybody on Long Island." Mandel’s fear of driving led him to commute by bicycle 500 miles a month — for a total of 4,000 miles — when he attended Farmingdale State College in 2024. Mandel continued bicycling on a 9-mile, 30-minute route when he transferred last fall to Hofstra University in Hempstead, where he studies physics. Although he found it necessary to drive after a bicycle accident with a speed bump, he still loads his bike in the car and cycles between classes.

On Long Island, about a third of 16- and 17-year-olds got their junior driver’s license, according to the DMV.

"The cars on the parkways and main roads are crazy," Mandel says. "A lot of people don’t understand that a car is a weapon."

Madz Weiss, 17, a junior at Islip High School, expresses "mixed feelings about driving on Long Island," citing the expense of car ownership, the environmental impact of carbon emissions and the poor driving of others. Madz hasn't yet taken driver’s education, but plans to eventually get a license after college because "it is something I have to do."

Anxiety and high costs 

"Everything about driving is a headache," says Tom Fanning, 24, of St. James, who calls car ownership a "sunk cost" and a "money pit." Fanning’s station car is a bicycle he rides from home to the local train station, boards with on a train to the Syosset Long Island Rail Road Station, then cycles the rest of the way to work as a paralegal at an East Norwich law firm.

The impact of the downward trend is being felt on Long Island at dealerships such as Euceda Cars in Copiague. Sales Manager Jiovani Rivera, 34, of Mineola, says during the past year, he’s seen a drop in "younger drivers inquiring about leases or financing for new or used cars." Rivera says two years ago he was fielding 15 to 25 inquiries per month from drivers under 30, based upon their driver license information, but currently receives one call per month. Rivera attributes the Gen Z drought to "extremely high" auto insurance premiums combined with low credit scores that drive up the cost of financing a vehicle.

Rivera says both factors were at work when a 19-year-old client tried insuring his first car, a Toyota Supra, under his own name. "We went with his mom’s insurance, and it dropped from $700 to $300," Rivera says.

Affordability is a big bump in the road to Gen Z car ownership, says Juan Carlos Conesa, co-chair of Stony Brook University’s economics department. Conesa says that many young adults seeking to buy a car are already saddled with a median debt of about $12,000 from a public college education, or about twice that if they attended a private institution.

"With a secondhand car, nothing too fancy, you are looking at spending basically at least $600 a month, including car payments, insurance, maintenance and gas," Conesa says. Compared with the average $400 monthly cost of an LIRR ticket, depending on where you live, taking the train is cheaper than commuting by car, Conesa says.

With a second-hand car, nothing too fancy, you are looking at spending basically at least $600 a month, including car payments, insurance, maintenance and gas.

— Juan Carlos Conesa, co-chair of Stony Brook University’s economics department

"It really does deter me," Ava Erdmann, 23, of Mount Sinai, says of the cost of owning a vehicle on Long Island. But anxiety about Long Island’s roads also has her resorting to $20 Uber rides or depending on her brother, Sean, 21, to drive her to work as an art instructor at Muse Paintbar  in Port Jefferson.

"Driver’s ed scared the hell out of me," says Erdmann, who earned her learner's permit at age 16, then put the road test on the back burner, first because of high school commitments, then COVID hit. Seven years later, Erdmann has yet to pass her road test, failing her most recent attempt in February because she says she wasn’t speeding up enough after turns.

Living car-free

Gen Zers looking to leave the car in the rearview mirror face challenges with a lack of well-paying entry-level jobs turning car ownership into a luxury, as well as their concerns about environmental sustainability, says Lawrence Levy, executive dean of the National Center for Suburban Studies at Hofstra.

"The suburbs were created with the car in mind, with communities spread out to the point where, if you don’t have a car, you’re going to do a lot of walking," Levy says. "With trains pretty much running only east to west and buses something that suburbanites have never fully embraced ... for better or worse, Long Island epitomizes car culture."

Environmental concerns are top of mind for Malak Makled, 21, of Long Island City, Queens, who says she earned her learner's permit as a college sophomore after pressure from Long Island friends and parents who say, "driving is a good skill to have." But Makled prefers to commute by LIRR three times a week to Stony Brook University, where she’s a political science and psychology major. "I find public transportation is more environmentally conscious," says Makled, who keeps track on an LIRR app of her carbon footprint and "how man pounds of CO2 you avoided" by taking the train.

I find public transportation is more environmentally conscious.

— Malak Makled, 21, of Long Island City, Queens, who commutes to Stony Brook University on the LIRR

Other Gen Zers get on board with even more affordable, environmentally friendly transportation.

"I’m seeing a lot more young people on skateboards than I used to," says Sylvia Silberger, 56, of Hempstead, who founded and chairs the nonprofit Long Island Transportation Alliance, which advocates for environmentally friendly transportation alternatives. "That’s kind of a cool way to get around," Silberger says.

Newsday's Arielle Martinez and Anastasia Valeeva contributed to this story.