Many Florida teens put the brakes on getting drivers licenses

Yet he's not so out of step with his peers. For Hudson and a growing number of teenagers, obtaining a drivers license is more of a financial burden than a ticket to freedom. For Hudson, postponing his driving test was worth the wait.

Only now, as the 19-year-old prepares for college, does he think it's time for a drivers license.

Tevin Hudson was in no hurry to get behind the wheel of a car. In high school, he rode the bus and caught rides with friends or his mom.

"After high school, it's just a lot harder without one [a license]," said Hudson, sitting inside a driving-school office.

Three decades ago, nearly half of 16-year-olds had a drivers license, but by 2008 that number had dropped to fewer than a third, according to a 2011 University of Michigan report.

That mirrors Central Florida, where the number of licensed drivers ages 15 to 17 fell from 44,182 in 1995 to 38,749 in 2013, according to the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles.

That 12 percent drop emerged at a time when the overall population in Lake, Orange, Osceola and Seminole counties went up. Statewide, the number of teenage drivers fell by nearly 15 percent.

Experts point to an array reasons for the shift, from stagnant wages and the blunt economic realities of the Great Recession, to subtler advances in communication and a slow shift away from suburbia.

If the trend continues, the researchers at the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute concluded, it could have major impacts on "vehicle purchases, the safety of travel, and the environmental consequences of travel."

But high gas prices and a slow recovery are likely two key reasons more teens are holding off now.

That's what the Highway Loss Data Institute concluded after finding similar dropoffs in teen driving last year in looking at vehicle-insurance data. The institute, an industry-research group, found the number of drivers 14-19 declined 12 percent from 2006 to 2012, though that same population dropped only 3 percent in that time.

"It looks like teens just can't afford to drive," said HLDI Vice President Matt Moore said in announcing the results in October. "Paying for their own cars, gas and insurance is hard if they can't find a job."

Some see those same financial forces combining with other youth-culture shifts, including the arrival of new and compelling ways to spend their limited funds.

"Young folks would rather spend their money on an iPhone than a car," said professor Bruce Stephenson, director of the Planning in Civic Urbanism masters program at Rollins College. "It's a lot cheaper not to have a car."