In Germany, the car is still widely regarded as a symbol of freedom. A German car brand even advertises the joy of driving. But Johannes Kling, 21, didn’t have that. When driving, he felt as if “something was on his stomach”. That’s why he decided not to get a driver’s license – after ten hours of driving.
Johannes Kling studies educational science in Eichstätt and comes from Geretsried. As he says, it is a rather rural residential area. His friends and family all have driving licenses. So Johannes Kling will also start doing it towards the end of 2018. He’s really looking forward to the first driving lesson. In the next few driving lessons he noticed more and more that he was feeling uncomfortable at the wheel. “I am usually very hard to get upset,” says Johannes Kling, “but when I was driving I always had a bit of anxiety in my stomach, like when something is wrong, but you don’t know what.” The feeling doesn’t go away. Johannes Kling doesn’t have fun driving a car. At the beginning of 2019 he cancels his driving license. He has not taken any driving lessons since then. He doesn’t get another driver’s license either. “Ultimately, I probably failed because of my time, desire, and wellbeing,” he says. Johannes Kling is satisfied with his decision. But he fears that he could have greater disadvantages in his job because he doesn’t have a driver’s license. This is why his application for an internship is also at risk: The job advertisement states that the driver’s license is required. “If it just failed because of that, it would be very annoying,” he says. Still, he doesn’t want to move to a big city. That’s why he thinks that at some point he will have to get a driver’s license if he has major disadvantages without it. The driver’s license would definitely not have priority for him. The money is well invested elsewhere, he says and grins.
Johannes Kling is not alone in his attitude. “The car has lost some of its emotional significance in society,” says Matthias Gastel, transport politician for the Greens in the Bundestag. He has been dealing with the subject of young people’s mobility for years. The car is still important, but not as elementary as it used to be. This is also shown by the current figures from the Federal Motor Transport Authority: The proportion of 17 to 24-year-olds who have a driver’s license has decreased by more than ten percent compared to 2017 – to under 60 percent. Already at the beginning of 2020, before the pandemic. The trend is particularly strong in the big cities. But even in more rural areas, many young people do not (yet) want to get a driver’s license.
Like 17-year-old Clara Brombacher from Zorneding. She is a student and is committed to climate protection in her free time. She doesn’t like the car as a status symbol. The “piles of sheet metal weighing tons” are expensive, maintenance-intensive and inefficient because they are usually not fully occupied. Above all, cars damage the environment because they emit pollutants and greenhouse gases. They are also bothered by the fact that streets and parking lots take up so much space. She doesn’t want to contribute to that. That is why it quickly became clear to Clara Brombacher that she did not want to get a driver’s license. It is mobile anyway: There are several bus routes in Zorneding and there is usually a S-Bahn to Munich every 20 minutes. To get to the train station, she first has to walk across town, which is why she travels the shorter distances by bike. She also feels safer from the corona virus.
Johannes Kling also rides his bike a lot. He rarely sits in his parents’ car – “maybe once a month”. Because the S-Bahn line goes to the neighboring town. He cycles the route there. When he commutes home from the university in Eichstätt, he almost always takes public transport. With the mask requirement on buses and trains, he feels safe even in the pandemic.
The pandemic is also one reason why Bastian Wagner from Ebersberg does not yet have his driver’s license. The 21-year-old canceled it before the first lockdown and has not continued since then. Until now, the driver’s license has always failed due to his flexible working hours. Because Bastian Wagner works as an event technician and always until the technology really works. This can sometimes take until ten o’clock in the evening. As a result, he cannot always meet fixed appointments such as driving lessons or exam times. But he wants to get his driver’s license at some point. The pandemic ensures that he does not start again with the driver’s license to this day. Even when the driving schools were allowed to reopen. Because Bastian Wagner has asthma. This makes him more prone to a severe corona course. That is why Bastian Wagner is “too tricky to sit in a confined space with a driving instructor who is out and about with different people all day”. He is afraid of getting infected with Corona. Breathing is also more difficult with a mask. In addition, he would now have to register for theory lessons in advance. Hardly possible in his job. After his second corona vaccination, he would like to try it again in autumn. Then it’s quieter in his job.
However, it is unlikely that he will be able to start directly with the driver’s license, because the waiting lists in the driving schools are long. “Everything has become much more time-consuming,” explains driving instructor Mike Kliese from Ebersberg. “Due to Corona, we can only train a very small number of people in theory. That is why we are already giving out the dates for mid-January.” Due to the pandemic, there are also significantly fewer exam places. Mike Kliese assumes that driving license applicants now have to plan significantly more time: one to one and a half years instead of the previous four to six months. This can also be seen in the statistics of the Federal Motor Transport Authority. In the Corona year 2020, the age group of 17 to 24-year-olds acquired almost 20 percent fewer driving licenses than in the previous year.
“How the corona pandemic will affect the number of driving licenses in the long term is still difficult to assess,” says transport politician Matthias Gastel. Basically, the trend towards high school graduation and university studies in Germany continues. Many young people with a limited budget would rather finance their studies or their apartment than get their driver’s license early. He expects the numbers to remain at a relatively low level or to fall even further.