getting around in the mid to late 60s

"By the mid '60s, US auto-makers realised that 45% of Americans were under the age of 25 - and that almost 20% of that were licensed drivers. The '50s 'baby-boomers' were beginning to dicate marketing policies" source NZ Classic Car

I was wondering if those who were around mid to late 60s could tell me how true that statement was and how important cars were from who drove and who didn't if possible. From those who drove what was your car{s} then and those who didn't what transport if any did you have? Any additional info would be much appreciated as I'm not sure what to ask I'm just trying to get a picture of how people got around in that time period so I can have a better understanding of one aspect of daily life

 

It was like now but without the road-rage.

The big change was the difference from us to our parents. My mother grew up in Southern California and when my parents dated they used to take “the red car” to get around. These were electric streetcars. They’re gone now and the freeway system (the movie China Town) was the only mode of transportation by the time I was old enough to drive.

My first car was a 53 Ford. It was old so me and a bunch of friends got some cans of spray-paint and totally made it into a hippy-car. Unfortunately no one took a picture.

The starter would rev-up every time I slamed the door. They don't make'em like that any more.

The ford soon died of natural causes and I got a VW van.

 

I learned to drive in 1961. I learned in a 1928 ford pickup truck in the neighbor farmer's field. To start the truck you'd step on the starter button on the floor... to get it to go you had to double clutch the mother.

My next cars were: a 1950 Ford Victoria with a flathead engine. I got so much rust in my eyes by holding parts for the guy working on it.

A 1950 Mercury, painted primer grey. Everytime I stopped at a light, I had to get out and jiggle the clutch linkage to get it back into 1st gear.

But my REAL 1st car was a silver, 1961 Thunderbird convertible. I bought it from my uncle Walt for $100. I blew the engine running it in Metuchen, NJ.

Then I got an old beat-up chevy and painted all kinds of psychedelic thingees on it... next came the VW microbus... ditto with paint.

Cars were Everything when I was coming up. We lived in the country and you didn't Go anywhere without one.

After the microbus blew up all over the highway, I hitched coast-to-coast for a couple years.

 

The United States of America - 2,615,123 sq mi
New Zealand - 103,736 sq mi

The question is a valid one, but there are a huge number of variables when you ask about time and space. Not everyone who lived during that time was living in a big city. There are people in most parts of this country who needed a car to get from one place to another (motorcycles and bicycles might have been possible options). Even though people talk about how Los Angeles is getting back to the public transportation spirit, there are still a number of areas (especially on canyon roads) that have zero bus routes.

In the 60s there was also one other obstacle that didn't exist as it does now. That is car insurance. Sure, most responsible people had it, but it wasn't usuriously expensive as it is today.

I learned how to drive in 1975 and my first car was a 1972 Vega Hatchback with three on the floor. The four cylinder engine had good gas mileage but was awful on oil. I had to add a quart every other fill up. Some even said that a sewing machine motor was more powerful.

The car I own NOW is a 1973 VW convertible Bug. Mileage is great, oil is better than the Vega and no one asks to borrow it. My kinda car

PS - I also don't have to get it smog inspected and the insurance is quite affordable!

 

A trip down memory lane. I did drive at 16, took my test in my sister's green nova with a black top....I forget what they called those black tops. Anyway, I didn't own a car until I was much older, and I think it was a '67 firebird. I remember my brother had yellow Corvair that I just loved. In 1965, or '67 my sister bought a Camero. It was the first year of the Camero and she got a lemon. Everything went wrong with that car. My boyfriend had an old nucklehead Harley, and we mostly got around on that, unless he borrowed his dad's big old Suburban. In the 70's I had a friend who drove an Austin Healy. It was such a cute little car and could really manuver in and out of traffic.

 

i'm sorry but this just made me laugh so hard. the way you've written this makes me feel like those of us who were around then are a few years shy of fred flintstone. :+)

being raised in nyc i got around the same way that everyone there does today..bus/subway mostly. i never took cabs as i couldn't afford them. once when i was late for a class at the art students league i took a cab and didn't the tip the guy. much as they would do today he made me jump from it while it was still moving cause he was so pissed off.

but i did spend every summer hitching around to get to where i wanted to go. i traveled all around new england, europe and the whole east coast by way of thumb. my brother had an old van that he bought from a rug company that we took around to concerts/festivals/dead shows that were out of new york from around 1969 on. we lost the brakes on the thing on our way down the rockies in colorado one time. if i hadn't have been so stoned i might have been even more terrified than i was. the fact that we had 50 lbs of pot in the back and weren't even slightly paranoid that we'd be stopped by the cops driving from colorado to new york, makes me wince now. you're only that young and that dumb once in life.

a lot of other friends had VW vans. they seemed to be fixable by almost everyone ( though NOT me) as most of my women friends who weren't that mechanically inclined seemed to be able to fix whatever went wrong on them. i still see some on the road once in a while and they make me long for those days again....

deezee

 

Well, in the 60's I was still a kid but we always had Volkswagens, ever since I was a baby. Mostly bugs but for a few years we camped in a popup camper, and one year we had a convertible Karman Ghia that we thought was so cool to ride in, but it was pretty small. In high school (70's) one best friend had an old Rambler, another had an old black VW bug. Those were my two favorites. VW's always had that really unique smell to them. I can still imagine it in my memory.

 

I learned to drive in a 63 checy bel air. But it was my dad's My first car was a 57 Ford Fairlane with hugh yellow and green flowers all over it.

Kathi