Josh Lewin is a few weeks shy of 18, but his milestone birthday will not be celebrated with a trip to VicRoads to try for his P-plates (the minimum age for a Provisional 1 licence in Victoria is 18, and 17 in New South Wales).
“As I grew up I got caught up in sport and schoolwork, and especially because I’m in year 12 now, I just get really busy, so school is my priority,” he says.
Attending boarding school in Geelong and having friends with licences has also made it more difficult to accumulate the hours needed to progress and reduced the incentive to learn.
Mum Narelle says the availability and relative low-cost of ride-share apps has made things easier and given her peace of mind.
“We live in the city, though he doesn’t catch a lot of public transport, he just jumps in an Uber to get back from boarding school,” she says.
“Sometimes I think he’s a little bit safer in an Uber than him driving or taking public transport home.”
Once a rite of passage – and marker of independence – Gen Z and Millennials are increasingly choosing to remain passengers for longer into adulthood.
For the past few decades, researchers have noticed that teens in the United States, Canada and Europe are waiting longer to get their licence.
In Australia, data also reflects this downward trend, although the shift is less pronounced – the percentage of those under 25 who hold some form of licence has remained relatively stable over the past few decades.
In 2005, almost 14 per cent of NSW youth under 25 held a P1 licence, compared to just over 10 per cent in 2024. Analysis of youth licensing in Victoria from the past decade reflects a similar trend. With the youngest Gen Z being 14 in 2026, a more profound shift will take time to show up in data.
Like Lewin, 17-year-old Diya Asthana is in no hurry to get her licence.
“By my 16th birthday, I had already finished the test [for a learner driver licence], you look forward to it as part of your birthday, it’s definitely a rite of passage” she says.
But in the time since, she’s found a demanding study schedule alongside a busy roster of extracurriculars and social events have made accumulating the 120 hours of experience required difficult.
While relying on public transport can be frustrating, living in inner Melbourne makes getting around convenient. Whether she shifts into gear after her year 12 exams to get her licence depends on where she goes to university and if she continues living at home.
While Asthana’s mum Molina says driving her daughter around for school commitments can be difficult, flexible work hours make things easier.
“I can imagine for parents who are working full-time, it would be more of a commitment”
But for safety reasons, Molina is intentional about picking Asthana up if she’s out late at school or a friend’s house.
Alexa Delbosc, an associate professor at the Institute of Transport Studies at Monash University, ties waning youth licensing rates into broader generational trends, with Gen Z and Millennials waiting longer to marry, have children and buy their first home.
When Delbosc started studying youth driving trends in the 2010s, big changes to licence requirements – mainly around hours required for learners under 25 – had recently come into effect. She thinks these stricter rules made learning to drive less appealing for teens, with many simply waiting until after 25.
Still, she points out most young people aren’t foregoing driving entirely – just delaying it.
And for a significant chunk – particularly those in rural and suburban areas, or school-leavers whose job requires a car – getting a licence remains a priority.
Social context matters too: A recent US study using nationally representative data from Gen Z and Millennials found household income and whether other household members had a licence to be important determining factors.
Indeed, Delbosc thinks the rising cost of car ownership – and fact that most people are starting post-graduate jobs later – may be at play too.
Noor Sheerazi has been an NRMA driver trainer for 14 years and says in that time the general age of most learner drivers she teaches has shifted from teens to early 20s, as she thinks young people want to focus on finishing school first.
Generally speaking, she finds driving anxiety to increase with age.
“I’ve noticed older learner drivers now are more concerned about safety [compared to younger learners], maybe because we’ve had more crashes on the road, and they listen to the news a lot,” she says.
Feelings of embarrassment are also common among older learners, says Sheerazi, particularly if they take a few tries to pass a test.
Growing up in Hong Kong, 36-year-old Ken Denis Smith never really considered learning to drive, given the city’s expansive public transport system.
When he moved to Wollongong for university in 2012, the thought still didn’t cross his mind.
It wasn’t until 2024, in his early 30s, that the inconvenience of not having a licence really started to grate.
“There were a couple of instances where I felt almost trapped in my personal life, like certain personal emergencies would happen,” he says, like when his dog needed to be taken to the vet.
“At the beginning, it was quite exciting but also scary. I think if I had done it when I was younger, I probably would’ve been a little bit more fearless.”
“I still get panicky, especially living in Sydney where the roads are narrower and the drivers admittedly are a bit more aggressive, it’s a little daunting.”
When Asthana eventually gets her licence, she’s looking forward to taking a road trip with friends. And, of course respecting a time-honoured tradition: the Maccas drive-thru.
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