When I was 16, I couldn't wait to get a car.
Vacations and weekends would be even more limited.
I certainly get not owning a car, especially in a city. That's basically a decision about economics and hassle. But even the couple I know who live in SF without a car use rentals and Zipcar all the time (in addition to Uber/Lyft).
(And I'd hope employers would be understanding and supportive of an employee in that position. They're less likely to be as supportive of an employee who just doesn't want to do something even if it affects their ability to do their job.)
I wonder what US employers will do when the next generations of employees come in and their assumption starts failing hard.
ADDED: The reality is that there are lots of implicit assumptions in a professional job. Unless it's a job that involves significant/regular travel, they probably won't ask you if you're willing to step on a plane. They probably won't ask you if you're OK with attending meetings before 10am. Etc. If you have out-of-mainstream requirements it's probably mostly on you to raise them.
I've never really felt limited, though certainly there are places that would be expensive for me to get to thanks to the need of long taxi rides etc., but there are also far more places to go than I can get to see in a lifetime that are still easily accessible with public transport.
I something think maybe I should get a license so I could at least rent a car for certain places, but I've just never felt it's been important enough to get around to it.
Had I lived in the US, the situation certainly would be different - I have spent quite a lot of time in the Bay Area without a car pre-Uber/Lyft, and it certainly is possible but awkward even when you're there as a single person, and many other places I've visited in the US has been much worse.
But the thing is, I can totally see a lot of people there too adapting their life after what works with these services. A car is practical in some respects, but you have to deal with service and insurance and parking, and without it you can often spend a portion of that money living in a location where there's less need for a car to begin with, and a portion of it on taxis/Uber/Lyft. And then I can sit back and read or nap.
Of course it depends on the type of jobs you want etc.
I'm sure you're right. That's exactly what people do. There are certainly things I can't do that restrict where I can go. I'm not comfortable doing any sort of serious 4WD so there are just areas of parks and forests out west I just don't go to.
In the periods I haven't had a car, I visited some friends much less (friends that other forms of transport were much less convenient than a car). Without a car certain activities were not available either.
Likewise, after many overseas trips, I then hired a car, which made a massive difference to the holiday.
The only downside of not having a license is getting into bars. Bartenders don't like expired ids and I've been looking into getting a new one.
Or get your passport, but that's $160 with the book + card.
As far as carding goes, it depends on the establishment. Most bars I go to, don't card, but when they do it's a situation that can mess up your night.
But if I went all the way to the DMV for a state ID and there was no appointment required for a drive test I'd just get a license.
While I don't recommend skipping the driver's license despite these circumstances, I can understand that it's a legitimate option for a teenager that doesn't plan to drive.
The societal effect of something like this? Possibly awful. Many of today's social problems might stem from children being deprived of time being independent/autonomous. Society doesn't need free range chickens nearly as badly as it needs free range children.
Of course, parents could turn on the contact tracking in an iPhone.
And besides, driving their own car doesn't free them from that tracking: https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=572519...
I turned 16 about 20 years ago and had 0 interest in a driver's license. I lived in an extremely rural area. My parents (rightly) said that I'd need to get a job to pay for a car. I figured why bother since I'd be paying for a car to drive to the job where I'd make money to pay for the car.
Seemed like a complete waste of time and effort.
20 years later, I still have no plans to get a license but have changed my tune on work a bit.
It's a tradeoff, and obviously if you want to go places where there's no public transport options at all on a regular basis, it's probably a good idea to at least have a license, but for my part that's simply been enough of a reason to bother getting a license.
I actually have moral objections to both Lyft and Uber. Other than that I only take vacations in places where public transit is an option. For more rural vacations, I usually just ride my bike there. Plenty of fun places to bike to from where I live (Portland, OR).
Otherwise, yes, someone else does the driving. My partner and I go out of town by car once or twice a year and she drives.
By the way, this might not be true in the US, but in other places there's usually some sort of shared transit. Even if it's not a city bus or a ride-sharing network, there's usually some person with an unofficial "taxi" that drives others if you give them a call, or someone with a passenger van that makes a weekly trip to a city for a few regulars.
Old and poor people everywhere can't drive cars, so these solutions are widespread, you just need to ask around (calling the local shops usually does the trick).
What do kids who don't have any money do for a ride?
That was pre-Uber, but last time I took an Uber in that town, it was about $10 one way for "short" distances (e.g. 4 miles to go to a grocery store - things are spread out in TX).
The car never had a high maintenance downtime (and only one fender-bender in the 7 years of ownership), and I can't account for maintenance; think it'd be under $80/month.
So we have about $300/month for car ownership, or about 10-15 Uber roundtrips/month. I'd say, there's no clear-cut conclusion here.
Not take an Uber, but then cars cost money too, a lot of it.
Even if you do not drive regularly, insurance,registration and parking must be paid.