The government just unveiled New Zealand's first national infrastructure plan, promising billions for roads and transport. But here's the number missing from that conversation: youth traffic and vehicle regulatory offences dropped to 189 cases in 2024 — the lowest figure in 32 years of records.

That's not a typo. In 1992, when this dataset begins, youth courts processed over 1,200 traffic offence cases annually. By 2024, that number had fallen by 84%. (Source: Ministry of Justice, youth-court-orders)

The drop isn't gradual — it's a collapse. In 2020, courts still handled 387 youth traffic cases. Four years later, it's been cut in half again. Something fundamental has changed about how young New Zealanders interact with vehicles and the law.

The most obvious explanation: fewer young people are driving. Getting a licence costs more, takes longer, and matters less than it did a generation ago. When you can Uber everywhere and your social life happens on a screen, the teenage rite of passage becomes optional.

But there's a darker reading of the same data. These aren't just licence violations — they're vehicle offences that end up in youth court. That includes dangerous driving, driving under the influence, and fleeing police. The fact that these numbers have cratered suggests young people aren't just driving less — they're present in traffic incidents at rates we've never seen before.

This matters for infrastructure planning. The government is spending billions on roads for a generation that increasingly doesn't use them the way planners assume. The 18-year-old of 2024 is statistically less likely to own a car, hold a licence, or commit a traffic offence than any previous cohort in the dataset.

Yet the infrastructure plan announced this week doubles down on roading. It's built on assumptions about car dependency that the youth court data quietly contradicts. By the time these roads are finished, the generation they're supposedly built for may have moved on entirely.

The contrast is stark: on the same day the government commits billions to vehicle infrastructure, the data shows young New Zealanders disengaging from car culture faster than anyone predicted. One of those trends will have to give.