Driving and ‘Passengering’: Notes on the Ordinary Organization of Car Travel

Abstract

We spend ever‐increasing periods of our lives travelling in cars, yet quite what it is we do while travelling, aside from driving the vehicle itself, is largely overlooked. Drawing on analyses of video records of a series of quite ordinary episodes of car travel, in this paper we begin to document what happens during car journeys. The material concentrates on situations where people are travelling together in order to examine how social units such as families or relationships such as colleagues or friends are re‐assembled and re‐organised in the small‐scale spaces that are car interiors. Particular attention is paid to the forms of conversation occurring during car journeys and the manner in which they are complicated by seating and visibility arrangements. Finally, the paper touches upon the unusual form of hospitality which emerges in car‐sharing.

Keywords:

• driving
• passengers
• interaction
• car travel

Notes

1. Note though that we are not, on average, spending more time travelling per day than we did before. It is our mode of travel that is changing. We walk much less, we cycle less, we boat less, we bus less, we train less and travel by horse, almost not at all.

2. More details on ‘Habitable Cars: the organisation of collective private transport’ at http://web.ges.gla.ac.uk/∼elaurier/Habitable_Cars/