Thursday, Jul. 03, 2008

Cost of gas affects teenagers' driving habits

Though Riley Young got his driver’s license in April, he finds himself walking to hang out with friends.

The Olathe Northwest High School senior bikes to work if possible. Driving a car that gets “12 miles to the gallon,” he can use any monetary break he can get as the one responsible for buying his own gasoline.

“This is not how I pictured it when I was little and everyone was driving around,” Young said. “Money-wise, I just can’t. It doesn’t work anymore.”

Young is attending driver’s education this summer to get a break on his car insurance costs — a break he hopes will help him better afford gasoline. This week the national average price of gasoline was at $4.09 a gallon, making prices 38 percent higher than a year ago, according to a survey from AAA.

With gasoline prices hitting record highs, Young’s story is a common one seen by driver’s education teacher Jason Brown. In the six years of teaching driver’s education, Brown always has asked how many students pay for their own gas. More students raised their hand than ever this year, he said.

“It could be a coincidence, but I think we have a lot more parents saying ‘you have to pay for your own gas,’” Brown said.

It’s changed the way he’s taught driver’s education. The Olathe school district’s driver’s education includes class lessons and six hours of driving experience. Brown said he doesn’t have students drive as far as he used to.

“We used to go to ... Louisburg or Paola,” Brown said. “Now we stop at Hillsdale so we don’t use as much gas.”

Jessica Carter, 14, said she took driver’s education this summer to prepare for getting her restricted license this fall.

But discussions in her family have led her to understand she will need to carpool with her older sister, who is in high school.

“My parents talk about it every singe day of the week,” Carter said. “I wanted to take the car. She doesn’t want to haul me around, and I don’t want to drive her. But we have to share.”

In the last year, Brown has begun teaching techniques students can use to get better gas mileage. He tells them to use cruise control when possible and not to surge the gas pedal.

“Really, it’s a part of the curriculum, but kids have asked more about it,” Brown said. “In the past when students told me they were looking for cars, they were looking for cars that looked cool. Now it’s a gas-mileage thing.”

Young said he thinks more about yellow lights instead of hitting the accelerator. He said he listens especially for the tips in class that might help him save money.

“I used to drive around but not so much anymore,” Young said. “With friends we’d say, ‘let’s go drive.’ Now it’s, ‘crap, we don’t have any money for gas.’”

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