Moving to a life with no car in a system of automobility? A practice-theory approach

Panel: 4. Transport and mobility: How to deliver energy efficiency

This is a peer-reviewed paper.

Authors:
Françoise Bartiaux, Univ. of Louvain-la-Neuve
, Belgium

Abstract

In European societies characterised by an already old ‘system of automobility’ (Urry, 2004), how can committed car drivers get out of this system? Which processes are involved? To which conditions is this change made possible? What is the importance of contextual factors, such as urban versus rural context, regional mobility policies and so on? And, last but not least, on a theoretical point of view, which relevance do the social theories of practice have for studying this phenomenon?

A small-scale qualitative and exploratory study aims at giving some answers to these questions. A dozen biographical and in-depth interviews have been realised in 2012 in Belgium with persons having driven a car for at least ten years and presenting themselves as having quit this habit and sold their car.

The first results indicate the importance of a good and efficient public-transportation system, the effectiveness of certain policy instruments and, in conjunction, the availability of at least one close relative (the spouse, a parent…) who has a car and helps the interviewee get rid of his/her car without being excluded from the system of automobility.